This morning while the boys shot hoops, I went to the market, the bakery (cream and chocolate filled croissants for Paul and I, donuts filled with Nutella and frutti di bosco for the kids). Mari and I also visited the outdoor market that comes to Alberobello every Thursday: stall after stall of clothes, Puma sneakers, linens, pillows, rugs, even bathrobes.

We drove to Masseria Brancati, an olive farm and oil producer ten minutes outside Ostuni. Pietro gave us a tour of the farm and the cellar where the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans and more modern producers with horses stored olives and pressed oil. It wasn’t until the 1950s when olive oil was produced in sterile truly modern facilities. The family who has owned the farm since the 1880s has preserved the environment for an authentic and educational experience versus turning it into a b&b, agritourismo or spa. We learned a lot about olive trees and production. For example, there are 55 million olive trees in the region of Puglia producing 15% of the worlds olive oil. One tree dated back 3,000+ years. They call it “The Grandfather.”

In Ostuni we had sandwiches and salads for lunch at La Gilda and then strolled around the all white city. Even the cats blended in with all the white. Everywhere we turned there was beautiful architecture and details.

We took a quick trip over to Spiaggia Pozzelle — a public beach with sand (versus rocks.) Even though we didn’t have our suits it was nice to just to put our feet in the water and climb on the lunar-esque rocks along the bay. We noticed this beach and others had fruit trucks at the entrance, unlike the ice cream trucks we see in the states.

Back in Alberobello we had dinner at Ristorante Il Pinnacolo. It came recommended to us, and the place was packed. The service was horrible and the food was OK. We started with scamorzina con pancetta al forno (balls of scamorza cheese wrapped in pancetta and baked in the oven into melty goodness.) Big D had orechette pasta with meat sauce, Paul has orechette with broccoli rabe, Miss M had margherita pizza (again) and my pizza had sausage, prosciutto cotto, mushrooms and arugula.

Tonight kicked off the four day 35th International Folklore Festival in Alberobello. We’ve seen little kids wearing trullo hats singing songs and reciting poems about the local history, a group of folk singers and dancers. Miss M and Paul are still watching the show in the city center while Big D and I called it a night.