I spent some time working remotely in Italy and the first place I stayed in was Altamura, a small town in the Puglia region, right in the heel of Italy’s boot. I had seen some photos on Google and decided it was worth a visit. So I booked a small apartment and took the train from the city of Bari. Bari Centrale is a bit of an odd station, because there are several train companies operating from different stations that are close, but not the same. The regional train to Altamura left from Bari Centrale FAL, which is around the corner from the bigger central station. The journey took about 1,5 hours and went smoothly, through a dry landscape filled with olive trees, brown fields and the occasional building. The old, small constructions were built in a roundish shape with grey stones and a dome roof, the old trulli.
From the train station I had a 30 minute walk ahead of me and I started pulling my suitcase over the pavement. A few minutes into my walk an older man asked me for a lighter. I told him I didn’t have one. He looked at me, then my suitcase, and at me again. He asked where I was going. I took out my phone to check the address, then he offered me a lift. He could only speak Italian so I tried my best to say a few words in Italian here and there. The man didn’t seem to mind too much that I misunderstood him at times and that my replies were very short or merely a smile. He calmly put the address in his phone, which navigated us to my accommodation. Well… close enough anyway. He pointed me in the right direction, said goodbye with kisses on the cheek, a remark like “it’s how we do things in Italy”, wished me a nice holiday and drove off again.
I was mostly working in Altamura, but it was nice to stroll through the streets a bit and I even got to visit the museum of the Altamura man. The remains of the Altamura man are buried in a closed cave in the Alta Murgia nature area. A friendly woman greeted me at the small museum and put on a 3D film which she provided the narrative to. The film showed cave explorers squeezing their bodies through tiny holes, to the remains of animals and ultimately the Altamura man. The man has basically merged with the cave and it looks like he is lying in a batch of rock solid popcorn. It’s one of the oldest men found in Europe! This Neanderthal lived between 130,000 and 172,000 years ago! The film was really cool to watch. Upstairs the museum had a few things, like a copy of the cave and information about it and the nature area. Unfortunately most of the information was only in Italian. But the museum was worth it, just to learn about the Altamura man through the film.
Altamura itself is pretty small, with an old town you can see in a couple of hours. And then you’ve probably covered all the streets. One main street goes right through the middle from the Porta Bari and passes the cathedral, which stands at a nice square. The street is quiet until the evening time, when everyone comes out to enjoy the cooler air, browse in the shops or have a drink. But it’s really the surrounding streets that are worth seeing. I found a typical Puglian town, much like a smaller version of Bari, but without the crowds. The few tourists I saw were speaking Italian! I didn’t hear any other languages. Locals were sitting in front of their houses, enjoying family time. Kids were playing in the small streets. I explored the little maze and found many claustri, small dead ends with a little square.
The yellow and orange pastels of the bricks made a nice background for a few colorful plants. I found very small alleys and slightly wider streets. Although they were streets, they were paved with big tiles and I was surprised to find a few parked cars. I just stood looking around, wondering how on earth you could get a car here. At another point I found an arch. It looked like I had ended up in a claustro, but the low arch was actually a passage to another street. And that’s Altamura, a seemingly sleepy town with a few nice surprises. If its beauty wasn’t enough, the bread certainly was. Altamura focaccia is famous, so for lunch I walked into a bakery, pointed at the breads saying “senza formaggio” and walked out with the most delicious thick focaccia with fresh tomatoes.
I had a quiet stay in Altamura and I wouldn’t have stayed 3 days if I wasn’t working. But I’m glad I put a place slightly off the tourist trail on my itinerary. It was refreshing to see a quieter side of Italy in the peak tourist season.
