In Altamura: odds and ends

May 27, 2019

Volare, take two

You may have succeeded in getting the Volare ear worm out of your brain by now, so let’s implant it again. My friend Frank passed on this other rendition, which is too good to pass up: Bobby Rydell (née Robert Louis Ridarelli, so it’s in his blood), on the Dick Clark show, 1960; complete with pompadour and teen idols.

Fly Like the Wind

We discovered that through an unfortunate oversight we omitted the Video from our loop ride from Lecce a few days ago. You’re probably feeling a bit video-deprived since there was none yesterday, so here’s your fix for the day. Better late than never.

Hotel San Nicola

We’re staying in Altamura at an actual hotel for one of the few times on this tour. It’s in the heart of the old city, just a block from San Nicola Church. It’s a lovely old place with huge rooms and sky high ceilings. It’s a fine place to hunker down and rest up on a wet and windy day.

We spent part of our leisure time here hatching a new plan for the coming week. For several reasons, we are dropping the idea of biking from here to the Amalfi coast. Instead we’re going to drop back down to the coast at Trani tomorrow and continue to along the sea to Manfredonia and then around the Gargano peninsula. It looks like a more interesting and attractive ride than we were planning, and probably easier to manage in the uneven weather forecasted for the coming week. At the end, we’ll catch a train from Foggia to the west coast for the final leg of the tour.

I don’t know that we’ve ever eaten in a place with such a high ceiling - I can’t quite get it all into the frame. Great breakfast though, one of the best of the tour, with rain on the ceiling forty feet above as background music.

After a full, active morning it’s nice to have a chance to catch up on some sleep.

Today’s ride

It wasn’t a total rest day. As wet and windy as conditions were, we couldn’t pass up the chance to have our bikes in for a consultation at the local bike shop. Amazingly enough, this really was an excellent shop with an attentive, adept mechanic. He certainly seems to know his stuff, because both of our bikes work great now. And, after hearing a bit about the adventure we’re about, he charged us a service fee that’s hard to argue with - zero.

It was dry after we came out from the shop. We briefly considered going for a short ride into the countryside, but after Rachael was nearly blown off her bike by a wind gust we dropped that idea and just headed back (and uphill!) to our hotel on our now blessedly quiet bicycles, arriving just after the rains returned.

A man who knows his stuff, with a REAL bike stand.

Hmm. Bike our into the country on a cold, wet and windy day, or just head back to the room? A tough choice.

In Altamura

After our vigorous workout, we retired to the room for a well earned rest while waiting for a break in the weather. When it came, we stepped out for a walk through the old city. Altamura (population 70,000) is good sized, but the historical city is as usual quite small.

The town has pre-Roman origins, and originally was protected by massive megalithic walls. The city fell into a long period of decline but was rejuvenated by Frederick II os Schwabia, who remade and repopulated it, and renamed it Altamura for its high walls. He also ordered the construction of the cathedral, one of the finest in Puglia.

Most of what there is to see lies along the Corso Federico II de Svevia, the straight road through the old town that begins at the Bari Gate on the north and the former Matera Gate to the south. The old city is not quite pedestrianized, but car traffic is very limited and minimally intrusive. It is a very pleasant place to wander, with an uncrowded but vibrant feeling.

It’s all attractive, but by far the most noteworthy stop is the cathedral. It’s quite large, and feels huge in its confined space surrounded by other nearby tall structures. You can’t quite get far enough back in any direction to get a really good picture of it. Especially impressive is the wonderfully detailed and towering facade, and the colorful arched interior that had me wondering if the structure somehow had Arabic origins.

It’s interesting to note that the cathedral’s facade is ‘new’, from the fourteenth century, and that it is on the opposite face from the original facade which apparently was badly damaged by an earthquake in the 1300’s. Also, we’re seeing it at a privileged time - the cathedral was recently restored, with the work completed about a decade ago.

The south wall of San Nicola, the Greek church

The painted wooden ceiling, San Nicola church

The towering facade of the cathedral. This and all remaining photos from this section are of the cathedral.

Restaurante Piccati

We ended the day at what feels tonight like one of our favorite restaurants of the tour. Restaurante Piccati is a small place, and once again we find ourselves to be the only guests. Beautiful space, and an excellent meal that featured the best appetizer plate of the tour - we could have just had a second round of that and been happy with the meal, but the mains were excellent too. A great ending to a much appreciated rest day.

A detail from the ceiling of Restaurante Peccati.

Unusual to feature a mundane slice of bread here, but this isn’t just any old bread. This is the famous Altamura bread, made from a recipe that hasn’t changed since the Middle Ages - the Roman poet Horace describes it as the best bread in the world. It’s the first bread to recieve a PDO (protected designation of origin) status.

We enjoyed the short, fifty yard walk back to our room, admiring a last look up the Corso to the cathedral.

Ride stats today: 3 miles, 200’: for the tour: 1,836 miles, 116,900’

Today's ride: 3 miles (5 km)
Total: 1,832 miles (2,948 km)

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David MathersThanks Rachael for the song ‘ride like the wind’from your video. Today we had to ride into 30-45 km winds and your song was a great help! I am finally free of Amore!
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4 years ago

Rachael AndersonSorry about the headwinds but glad I could help.
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4 years ago