PTM // Grotte di Castellana & Polignano, Italy!
This morning I woke up early and headed down to Bari Central Station so that I could catch the train to Grotte di Castellana, I had planned on trying to make the 11:00 Long Tour (in English) of the Caves of Castellana but when I arrived at the train station I realized that the next train wasn’t departing until 10:53AM. Unfortunately I missed the 11:00 Long tour but I had a back up plan! The back up plan was to take the 1:00PM Short tour of the caves if I ended up missing the long tour.
To make a long story short I arrived at Grotte di Castellana around noon time and as I walked off of the train I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. There were no signs, just a field with some dead grass, some trees and a few cars placed here and there.
I decided to try to walk through what I thought looked like a desolate car park and after asking a random man who passed me where the Grotte di Castellana was, he pointed me in the right direction.
Once I arrived at the Grotte I purchased my 1:00PM ticket for the Short tour of the caves and pretty much laid out on a bench in the sun for a little less than an hour. Once 1PM hit, I got in a line which included maybe 6 or 7 people and myself. I was surprised that it was empty, but then again it was a Monday afternoon at 1PM.
We met our guide Christina who walked us down into the first cave and informed us that we were allowed to take photos and videos in this part of the cave only.
There were no photos or video allowed during the rest of the tour of the caves due to “copyright infringement”. I was pretty disappointed because I love to show my website viewers the in’s and out’s of everywhere that I visit on this trip. Unfortunately this time I couldn’t even sneak any photos or videos because they had a guide at the front speaking about the caves, and then another guide joined us at the back of the group.
I do have quite a few amazing photos of the first cave though here’s some more…
After the 45 minute walk through the caves we arrived back at the end and took an elevator back up to the exit. Overall I would say the trip to the caves was worth it’s 10 Euro admission price. It’s definitely a really cool thing to see if you’re in the Puglia region, or anywhere near Bari, Italy. It’s only an hour train ride from Bari, and I’d recommend you take the Long Tour instead of the Short tour I took if possible. Supposedly the long tour takes you to a cave called the White Cave which is supposed to be amazing. Unfortunately for me the train times screwed me up. Maybe next time!
Once I arrived back at Marina’s house I jumped in the shower and relaxed for a while before dinner. Marina’s mother cooked us pasta with REAL Ragu sauce and I’ll explain to you why I say “REAL” in this side note below.
Side note: Last night I was telling Marina about our version of “Italian” food back home. More like American-Italian food I guess. I was explaining to her that when we make pasta back home we buy pre made sauce from the store (ex. Prego, Ragu, etc). She couldn’t believe that we bought pre made sauce. Here in Italy, most if not all people make their tomato sauce from scratch if they are going to cook pasta. Marina also couldn’t believe that there was a brand called “Ragu” but yet it came in a traditional version that was just plain sauce with nothing else in it. Here, the word Ragu means “Tomato and meat sauce” and she found it so funny that there was a sauce called Ragu and it didn’t even have meat in it! I think it’s almost offensive to the Italians to hear these sort of things. She also couldn’t believe that there was a sauce called “Prego” either. She said why is the sauce called Prego? The meaning of Prego has absolutely nothing to do with tomato sauce at all! We had quite a few laughs about it.
Back to dinner, it was unbelievable as most Italian food has been so far here in Italy. Marina has showed me all sorts of new ways to cook pasta and I cannot wait to get home and try some of the recipe’s that she’s given me. Her mother served us up a traditional type of pasta that is used here in Bari which is called “Orecchiette”, and it was covered with Ragu sauce, the REAL Ragu sauce! The sauce was made with tomatoes, meat, mushrooms, and onions. Along with dinner we had some really strong red wine, and a glass of Limoncello (a traditional after dinner alcohol made with real lemons).
After dinner Marina took me to a city which is south of Bari called Polignano. She had been wanting to take me there for a few days now, but each night we were either busy doing something else, or too tired to make the trek. Tonight we made it down to Polignano and I was so happy that we did.
Once we arrived in Polignano it was sort of an issue to try to find parking but after a few minutes we ended up getting a really nice spot right near the entrance of the feast that was going on! I had never been to an Italian feast before, but I had heard of them in the past. They are basically just big celebrations in the streets full of people, lights, food, street vendors, alcohol and entertainment. Sweet! Here’s a photo as we walked through the entrance of the feast!
As we walked down the main street into Polignano, the edges of the road were crammed with street vendors that were selling the same old stuff, (fake purses, sunglasses, toys, wallets, wrist watches, and more). It’s pretty interesting to see, but at the same time after you walk a mile and see the same stuff being sold over and over it gets sort of boring. We split off down another road that led us to the Old Town of Polignano and I was amazed to see how clean the old town actually was. It was built with all white stone and it was just absolutely beautiful!
After walking through the Old Town of Polignano we arrived at the cliff side views of the sea. They were amazing. There were a few different view points that we visited. Here’s a few photos of the views from the cliffs.
Tonight is the last night that I’ll spend at Marina’s comfortable home in Bari. I’m excited to go to Croatia, yet sad that I have to leave already. It’s been a great 4 nights here in Bari and I hope to be back to visit again soon. I have to say that the Puglia region of Italy is one of my favorite parts of Italy so far. It’s so beautiful here, and the views of the sea on the coasts of some of many cities that lie along the Adriatic are simply unbelievable. Bari, and the Puglia region is somewhere that I would love to come back to. Thank you Marina!
