APULIA, TRUE STORY
I suppose you got interested in this article as you might be either interested or outraged with the title. And believe me, I’m really begging you not to go to Apuli because… it’s such a wonderland.
One of the reasons is that it’s undeveloped popularity among tourists. I’m fully aware that what I’m writing here might cause some negative outcome – logically, travelling to another country makes as tourists too. I’ve had the chance to live in Florence for half a year and I understood that the vast majority of tourists is irksome and destroys all of the magic of the most amazing places.
Apulia is completely different, though. It’s original and untouched by tourists. This is a kind of place where you can experience the one and only Italian “la dolce vita”. What intrigued me the most was the huge hospitality of locals. All of them that I’ve met were so kind and helpful. I believe they are worth describing.
One evening, we’ve experience two amazing things that make a smile appear on my face even now. Those are one of those “magical” moments that bring me back to life after sad reality attacks.
ONE WATERMELON, PLEASE
We were walking through Torre Lapillo. Considering the fact how cheap Italian wine is and that we were on our company retreat, we began to feel the slow exhaustion of organism. As a result, my biggest dream then was to eat some wonderful, juicy fruit that would bring neccesary vitamins to my body.
I might say that my whim became true – suddenly, out of nowhere, an old man appeared and he was standing next to the car that was filled with fresh watermelons and melons.
For a moment I even started to think that I’m witnessing some kind out creepy fata morgana and I rushed to check if my own mind doesn’t trick me. It turned out that both, man and his truck, were completely real.
I asked him for a watermelon. Then he asked if I would like to eat it now or to have it „to go”. Well, I was really thirsty so I took the first option. And that’s were magic begins.
This nice old man brought us a table, cut the watermelon, brought us two cut melons and came back with plates and chairs. And suddenly, after only a few minutes we were sitting in the middle of a street in this outstanding “mini-restaurant”.
We started joking that the only things that is missing is wine. And as befits for a typical italian man, he caught the word and after a few second a bottle of red wine and two cups appeared on our table. Well, in addiction to two local kinds of cheese, homemade cake and fresh fishes that we could take home.
Would it be too much if I said that we met a real angel? How often do you get to see pure and unspoiled, natural hospitality? To be honest, I witnessed it for the first time in my life.
Meanwhile, our hosts became very talkative and started to sum up his whole life. After he showed us pictures of his daughters and decided to call of them. Without even noticing, he gave me the cellphone … I had no idea what to say really! I described our nice meeting and I guess that during this half an hour, we became the part of family.
The old man asked us to add his daughter on Whatsapp, send the picture we took together and in case we needed an overnight stay in Turin – just text her.
I thought that our daily luck was over. To be honest – it was just a beginning. Ow, and I forgot to tell you that it all happened when we were heading to pizzeria!
So, we ate our delicious pizza, drunk one Aperol and the evening came – it got really cold, as it was the end of September. We were 30 minute’s walk from home and we really wanted to be there already.
MYSTERIOUS CONCERT
Suddenly, we heard some awesome, outstanding rock music. Was that even possible that there was some awesome party in such a small and unpopular city? The music came from the beach, nearby our flat.
We stopped underneath olive trees and started to wonder if we should come in or not. Well, the gates were open and we were too curious. After reaching the end of the alley we saw a beautiful, breathtaking villa and garden. What’s more… there was some private concert played for an Italian family.
We’ve stopped for a while just to listen but got noticed by the members of this huge family. They realised that it was the music that brought us here and after a few minutes of gaping they started to invite us in. Well, we really didn’t know what to do and they must have seen it. So they begun to call us in even more. We had no other option than to come in and join them.
At first they were observing us curiously but after a few minutes they got used to us. After some time, one of the family members started to talk to us and explained that this is Favio’s birthday party and this is his favourite band playing. To add the fuel to the fire, we were offered some cold beer. Feeling quite strange we wanted to say no, but after a second or two, we were handed two bottles of Peroni.
If we wanted some more – just ask. They are planning to celebrate for a couple of days so they have a lot of it.
Just image, how can I sum up all of this? What do you think? Air your opinion below my friends ☺
And take a look why it’s worth to visit Florence if you still haven’t read it.