5.8.94 Cozze
Bloody flies – the heat driving them – like us – mad. Mid to high 30s, humid, sun like a knife. Down here, staying in a house in Mola di Bari – street rather noisy, very hot in the afternoon. Cozze by the sea wonderful (we swam for about 30’ today – very salty), but the beach a poor thing. Mostly tufa stone (?) - some cut out in parallelepipeds – leaving curious and sharp shapes. Litter and worse everywhere – the Italians being distinctly ungreen.
Flew down here from Garda/Verona. £400 – but the older I get, the more I feel money is to be spent. From Verona to Rome, Fiumicino – first time there. Cool but quite small and lacking in character. Then down to Bari. The drive from the airport through the dry land, full of blocks of flats, building sites, rubble. A poor land. A sense of desperation in the air of being a long way form the rich north. Interesting the dialect here: very sing-song, with vowels sliding strangely, but overall quite musical.
The day’s plan here rather contrary to mine: start and finish late. The first day here we were whisked off at 10pm to Polignano, a nearby village – beautiful old town, full of brilliant whitewashed houses – rather like the souk and old town of Essouira. Fine views to the sea, no beach but sheer drops.
I have been rising early-ish at 6am to work in the few cool hours. Outlining the Internet book – aided by the many Internet books I have read recently (around 25). With portable and modem here – recently took out subscription to MC-Link, the first Internet service in Italy. Via host, and no SLIP. Still, I have been able to telnet to CIX – but only at 2400 baud – because also using Italpac X.25 network that only runs at 2400. Otherwise it’s a direct line to Rome – but pricey. Give that the line seems good (3400 characters per second achieved) I’ll probably lash out on a 28.8K modem when V.34 is approved (I almost wrote homologated…). With the possibility of a regular Internet column for Computer Weekly I could be spending more time online.
Yesterday we went in the evening to the family orchard. As well as figs (which grow in abundance here – black and green – dio sia lodato), pears (tiny, delicious) almonds (rather green), lemons, prickly pears (I think: called fichi d’India here) there were some amazing gelsi (mulberries). A super-sweet, super-juicy blackberry, we picked them straight from the tree – and were covered in a blood-red juice. In fact we wore old clothes specifically because of this: the dye is pretty strong. Wonderful eating fruits straight from the tree.
Pizza in the evening with an extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) around the table. Very intensely familial here – almost too much. Amusingly, one of the aunts wanted to reassured that everything here – the food, the fruit, the vegetables – was the best.
Today working, then into Bari to replace a part of the car we were using (a Citroën – diesel – so no acceleration with very heavy steering, and the weirdest array of controls imaginable). Then a snooze (very necessary), to here for a huge swim – very cool, but not cold, very refreshing. You realise in this heat what an achievement it is even thinking…
To Monopoli (yup, it exists). A beautiful whitewashed courtyard of a monastery – arriving for the last 10’ of a jazz concert. Stunningly simple facade of the church – reminds me of Mexico. Palm tree majestic in the middle.
8.8.94 Conversano
Hot, fresh panzarotti, then spongato – a cappuccino and gelato. Lovely stone city, fine old cathedral and castello. White polished stone. Streets full of young people, the elderly sitting on their chairs. Cool tonight – only 28°C earlier, now 25°C… The Romanesque duomo reminds me of Pavia: three sections connected simply but effectively.
9.8.94 Cozze
A day of sitting around, swimming (slightly: in the evening as the sun turns into a vermilion globe – otherwise light here is like a knife – to be avoided even by mad dogs and Englishmen). The beach here reaches to rocks at the water’s edge – then plunges almost instantly to about two metres depth. Taking long swims quite far out in the clear, clean water. Very salty – and very tiring, but great for the body in general.
Food: today we tried ricci – sea urchins. These black, spiny things are cracked open and you eat the orange paste inside. Which I did – a bit odd. But nothing so odd as the feeling I had when I saw that not only were the spines still moving on the other ones on my plate to be eaten, but the one whose being I had just scraped out was also still jigging about the plate. I felt like I had just de-cerebrated a live monkey. I couldn’t eat any more: wimpish and hypocritical perhaps, but at least it made me more aware of what veggies must feel when confronted by meat…
Back to Monopoli – figuratively speaking: a lovely warren of streets, with a church on every corner. I had not realised the waves of occupation were so thick and enduring: Norman, Swabians(?), Aragonese, French et al. A fascinating place it seems, Puglia, worth returning.
Conversano even prettier – fine castello, cattedrale - lively evening scene. And the panzarotti – which we eat this evening – to say nothing of the spectacular spongato – fine name. Another family do tonight – all the aunts, uncles and cousins here. A little trying – I just feign ignorance.
10.8.94 Castellana Grotte
Le Grotte – suddenly cold. First hall – like a Hyatt atrium… Artificial it looks, so strange are the forms – the dripping stalactites on the walls of this huge cave – lit from above. Shafts of light in a biblical fashion. People disappear into a hole in the rock face like something out of Tolkien. Behind us, forms scramble down the steps like extras in an adventure film…
Through to another huge hall – imagine being the first person to see this… Vast, with a stony fringe along the top. Seeing the file of people dwarfed by the stones – like the damned going down to hell. Stalactites hang above us like rows of Damocletian swords. Some walls looks like cathedral facades, others teem with writhing organic forms. This journey – walking ever deeper into the earth – has a wonderfully symbolic feel to it. A long, long passage – that perhaps goes on forever.
The forms always different, but always related – fractals. To the final hall – more water dropping here – surprisingly absent otherwise. La Grotta Bianca – beautiful creamy white, strange, spongy forms. Two huge columns – cathedral-like. Surprisingly unclaustrophobic even though we are thousands of metres from the entrance. Quite well done – not too obtrusive the lighting on the path. Amazing such a long, linear path exists – and with no stream running through it.
11.8.94 Bari airport
Up horrendously early (not in se – but given the rhythm here, where lunch is eaten at 3pm, and dinner at 9pm) to here. Yesterday into Bari – carefully removing all wallets, bags, rings, jewellery etc. Apparently Bari is worse than Mexico, New Delhi, Jakarta etc put together.
Interesting conversation about those who thieve here. About markets where children are sold: for working on the farms. Of ten in a room, of kids with only one pair of trousers, kids leaving schools at some early age to tend sheep. Unemployment in Puglia is around 50% - and worse among the young. The only industry here is steel… I must confess I’d not realised that things were so medieval – the divide between northern Italy and here is truly immense.
Old port of Bari – rather like Palermo I remember. Fine lungomare with ornate triple-lamp lights. Ancient walls mostly intact. To San Nicola – fine, simple Romanesque church with internal buttresses across the nave. Very high, even at the crossing of nave and aisles. Outside a police car – to protect any foolhardy Barinese tourists. Then to cattedrale – also Romanesque, very plain. Interesting pulpit: one panel half-finished à la Michelangelo, the others never started – who knows what happened when and why?
Then for a walk in the “new” gridded city – still a few cops around just in case. Resisted temptation to buy more books. Learnt today that Bari was hottest major city in Italy: 37°C. Yow.
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