Cisternino & Martina Franca, 5/12/16

Cisternino and Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy

May 12, 2016

Between Locorotondo and our next stop, Lecce, we visited Ostuni and Cilegie Messapica for meals. The ristoranti we sought were both closed.  We moved on and went to tiny Cisternino to have dinner in a maccelleria. A maccelleria is a butcher shop. The butcher helps you choose meat, then cooks it in a forno di legno—a wood fired oven—and serves it to you at a table.   

Customers consulting with the butcher 

It was a blustery night. We snaked through the narrow white marble Cisternino streets in search of two particular maccellerias. Both were closed. There were others that were open. One, through the door, looked warm and cozy. The people inside, adults and children, had smiles. We entered. The butcher stood with a smile. We spoke our usual opening phrase, "abbiamo studiato Italiano dal giugno scorso e parliamo un po' ma non molto", "we have studied Italian since last June and we speak a little, but not much".  That phrase has set the tone for many wonderful and not at all awkward exchanges. It makes clear we are not demanding they speak English and with their help and patience we will operate in Italian.  Mostly, they are pleased to be our teachers and help us improve.

Tagliatta di manzo

Wes ordered bombettes, a local specialty of one meat rolled around another meat and about the size of an egg. The variations of what gets rolled around what are huge. They can be very tasty and Wes's were. I ordered a tagliatta di manzo, which is a steak cooked on the grill, thinly sliced, topped with arugula, fresh shaved parmigiano and finished with a drizzle of local olive oil. 

Grilled bombettes and sausage

Verdure sott'olio

All olive oil here is local. There are far more olive trees than people. And there are cooperative olive presses where you take your olive harvest to be pressed into oil.  With our meat we asked for a plate of verdure sott'olio: vegetables preserved in olive oil. Parchment thin eggplant slices, baby artichokes and lampascioni, which are grape-sized bitter onions. We drank the local red wine, Primitivo. It is plentiful, inexpensive and goes well with everything in Puglia. 

Two other towns we enjoyed were Alberobello and Martina Franca.  Alberobello has a dense concentration of trulli which, as mentioned in an earlier post are the cone-shaped dwellings made of stones piled, without mortar. Much is made of seeing the trulli, as if they were a Holy Grail. I will simply say they are interesting in the way an adobe structure or a teepee  is.

Martina Franca 

Detail of Marina Franca balcony

Martina Franca was pure pleasure. At the passeggiata hour everyone is out taking a walk, getting fresh air, visiting with friends, taking caffè or an aperitivo. Martina Franca's streets and piazzas sprawl. One leads to another.  There are interesting details everywhere. 

We have enjoyed northern Puglia. Now, we are off, in the car, to Lecce, pronounced Lay-Chay. See you there.

Wes and Marlow

Cisternino and Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy

May 12, 2016