A Semester Abroad at 60: Tropea and Alberobello, Italy

READ PART ONE HERE: A Semester Abroad at 60

READ PART TWO HERE: A Semester Abroad at 60: The Amalfi Coast, Ravello & Catanzaro, Italy

On September 19^th, 2023, my partner Michael and I departed from Boston to Rome for a three-month trip to Europe. How did we get to this point in our lives where we could drop all responsibility and go? I call this our “semester abroad”. If the college kids do it, why can’t two adults in their early 60’s? We planned and embarked on an amazing journey to “jumpstart” our retirement that we will never forget. The countries we will travel in 80 days are Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, with a final stop in Switzerland to ski. In part 3 we will head toward beautiful Tropea and Alberobello for more sights and adventures in beautiful Italy.

We have been on the road in Italy in our rented Peugeot for a few weeks now. I look in the mirror and I am tanned and relaxed. I have a pasta belly, and I do worry that I am addicted to olive oil and bread but enjoying every moment! Tomorrow Michael and I will walk some of this off at our next stop in Tropea. I can’t wait!

Tropea

After a 1 ½ hours’ drive from Catanzaro we arrived in Tropea. It was well worth the drive through seaside towns, beautiful old buildings, olive groves, and some “sheep” traffic. Sheep traffic was seen when we were driving down a country road and came upon about 100 sheep walking down the road led by three dogs and a shepherd ringing a bell. The dogs kept the sheep in their own lane on the roadway. This was a beautiful sight!

Monastery of Santa Maria, Tropea Italy

Once we got to the seaside town of Tropea we found the Monastery of Santa Maria which was founded by Benedictine monks. The monastery is still an active place of worship and is perched atop a rocky cliff in Italy’s “Coast of the Gods”. We knew ahead of time you had to cover your knees and shoulders to get in, so we changed in the parking lot into pants and a shirt for Mike, and a skirt and light sweater for me. Signs were posted with X through tank tops and cleavage and bikinis to give us foreigners a clue prior to entering.

Our walk there involved walking up many steps of stones, through some gardens, and again up more steps. Once in the monastery the mood felt sacred. We said some prayers and lit some candles for loved ones. I found a beautiful window that looked out onto the ocean and wondered how many monks looked through this window over the centuries while praying. The views are amazing, and the sea so clear you can see right to the bottom from a great height. To the right of the monastery, you could see people jumping off rocks into the sea, and to the left more sandy beaches of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

We decided to go below after the monastery tour to a little park and a beach which had a small area for drinks and snacks. The swimming was awesome, the water was around 75 degrees, and the sand was soft with temps in the 80s.

After the beach we went to the main town of Tropea (no English speaking here) and few open restaurants. We found a little restaurant “Andrea Cirelli” near a pepper and onion stand and some storefront markets. This area is known for its peppers. It was quaint and beautiful. In Italy, most restaurants and shops close for Riposo which is similar to a Siesta in Spain. This is a traditional midday break. Unbeknown to us, in this part of Italy Riposa occurs around 3 pm and we had lunch at 2 30 pm. At the restaurant “Andrea Cricelli” we fumbled through Italian and order a small pizza with eggplant and peppers for 10 euro, and a carafe of local wine 7 euro. As is the custom we knew things would close but weren’t sure of the time, so we paid for our meal and slowly we noticed the waitstaff cleaning things up. We finished the wine slowly and they just let us stay at our outside table, along with another couple. At precisely three pm the waitress, cook, and busboy said “Chow” (Ciao) while waving at us as they locked up the kitchen area and left us sitting in the restaurant! The other couple’s laughter and ours with some words from them in Italian (which I pretended we understood) was a nice moment. We laughed and stayed a while longer and felt we had had a fun connection with the other patrons.

After lunch, the shops looked enticing. I need a white hat for our trip to Rome next week, so found one with a black ribbon that I liked. We enjoyed browsing through the shops and took some more photos but then wanted to get back to Catanzaro before dark mostly because the driving here is treacherous during the day and we can’t imagine driving here at night!

On October 4th the morning sun is up. On my morning walk along the seawall I notice many other walkers all speaking Italian and other languages. Today we are going to Alberobello which is about a 4 hour drive. This will be a little more to the Greek side of Italy and closer to the East Coast toward the Apulia region. The Apulia region of Puglia is known for its Trulli construction of white stone huts. We are staying in an individual white stone hut tonight which is a Trullo. We plan to be in Alberobello for two nights and I can’t wait to see what it is like!

Alberobello

We arrived in Alberobello to a beautiful sight of many white top huts in the distance called Trulli which is what many Trullo huts are called. When driving from afar it looked at first as though we saw mountains with snow in the distance, but as we got closer, the outline of the Trulli architecture became more apparent. These white Trulli structures are amazing and made of whitewashed walls and corbelled roofs, some with “pinnacoli” on the rooftops. They are beautiful and are seen everywhere in Puglia and were built between the 5^th and 8^th century. Some are in disrepair, but many are rebuilt into small homes, shops, or restaurants. The ride was picturesque along the landscape of farmland and olive groves. Scattered along the drive were some really nice homes leading us to believe the farming industry is doing well in this region of Italy.

As we got closer to Puglia we saw children in sport uniforms walking down near a school, and some with backpacks on. Church bells here ring every 15 minutes, and at night every hour, it sounds nice. It is peaceful as we arrive at our B & B. Mike really went “all out” and surprised me with this Trullo luxury suite. I literally cried with joy when I saw our suite! It is a mini castle-like hut made of stone and is tastefully decorated with flowers. Our host Anna tells us that the remodeled bathroom area is where kids used to sleep in the early centuries. Our Trullo was built in the year 1400. The surrounding gardens outside our hut have olive trees, a fountain, and beautiful flowers.

Our Trullo also came with a bottle of the local wine L’Imperatore Puglia IGT Cantina Pietro Tauro from Alberobello. The B&B manager Anna greeted us and gave us a little history and a walking tour into town. She recommended a few local restaurants and showed us a map of local sights. She also explained that the reason that check in is at 4 pm and no earlier is because we are near a local school and between 1pm and 3 30 pm you can’t get through the local street due to foot and car traffic. Other times of day it is very quiet.

Our first night I think I have gotten the best night sleep ever. I felt like a princess in a castle in this Trullo. Mike said it might have been due to the half carafe of red wine last night, but I disagree, the bed was so comfy and you can’t hear outside noise through these Trullo walls. Although church bells rang every hour in the night, I didn’t hear any until 8 am.

In the morning we had breakfast on the terrace with a view of the flowers, olive groves, and multiple Trulli in the background. Anna, our hostess, put out a breakfast spread of bread, ham, mozzarella, croissants, fruit, and juices yogurt. I had two of her cappuccinos which were delicious! The name of this place is called “Astria” in Alberobello. I would highly recommend this for a very unique experience of staying in a Trullo in this beautiful quaint town.

We plan today to explore some museums and churches. I want to learn more about the history here. As I look around every building here is almost white. The architecture is gorgeous. I think of my daughter Kelly who is an architect major and often and how much she would like this! Every time I see the mountains in the background I think of my other daughter Kristen who is a highline adventurer and how she would want to hike, climb or highline these mountains.

Mike and I walked a lot today around Alberobello and we visited a church and lit some candles. We do this often in Italy and notice that this church had LED lights instead of real candles. Outside the church, I picked up some souvenirs. A small Trullo relic and ornament for the Christmas tree, and some postcards. I want to send one of the Trulllo photos to Kelly since she told me it was national architect day and we missed it. (I later learned her postcard arrived a month later). As we meandered down a steep hill and into an old village we saw lots of shops and restaurants and hundreds of Trulli one on top of the next. A beautiful sight as you see the many small gray little roofs all coming to a point.

Since it was 90 degrees out, we took a break and watched a construction site before us where they were re-building a trullo building. From the photos at the site it looked like a big project. However, it looked like a slow process as we saw three men pounding stone with a brick hammer and chisel like tool with the purpose to flatten each side into a rectangle-like stone. It was 90 degrees out, and each stone probably took at least a half hour of strong labor. The men were very tan and obviously sweating. They only took an occasional break to sip water and speak a few words. After each chisel hammer, some stone would fall off the grey brick, leaving white stone underneath. It was exhausting to even watch, but a good break to sit under the shade for a bit watching them do their work.

To get back to our Trullo you enter through a very large and high metallic gate with an old metal key to get in the garden. This takes some muscle to open. Then we used another old-fashioned key to get into our Trullo. I feel like we are back in time in another century. I sat in the garden reading a little in the afternoon which was peaceful and I am really liking this “groove” of life in Italy. The walking is also good for us. Tomorrow awaits us as we will head toward the coast of the Aegean sea toward Brindisi.