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Alborobello and our first day of riding.
But first a little bit about the town. Renowned for its large areas of retained Trulli, these are the conical roofed buildings of stone of which there are 1,000s in Puglia. We were fortunate in that our accomodation was in a trulli and it was was very comfortable. Inside they are lined with stone blocks and the external walls are in the form of arches. The story is that there was a tax levied by the King on all permanent buildings, so the locals built the trulli without mortar so that if there was rumours of a royal inspection, they could dismantle the building quickly, thus avoiding the tax. Not much has changed over the years, tax avoidance is a still a national obsession.
Anyway, back the the riding. After setting up the bikes and having the GPS explained, we set off for our first self guided ride, a 46km loop through the countryside. The riding was great, not too hot and the scenery very easy to ride through. In no time at all, Jean was Trulli-ed out having taken so many photos. Anyway with 15kms to go, we stopped for a coffee and so did the GPS. 15kms is not far normally, but in the Pulgian countryside with no operating maps, it has the potential to turn into something much more.
After a few tries with Google maps, we conceded defeat and rang for the team car. A little embarrassing but better than riding in circles in the dark. Still it was a good days riding and the start of many more to come.
We have two nights here and then it’s off to Monopoli.
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