After breakfast, we drove to a lavaria in Ostuni. They did our laundry, wash, dry, and fold, for E10. It was a deal! We went sightseeing in Ostuni while our laundry was being done. We went to the old, historic part of the city, and headed uphill to see the Cathedral of Ostuni, with its beautiful hand painted ceiling. We walked about the white washed houses on the hill and enjoyed their beautiful views of the Adriatic Sea, just 8 miles away.
While picking up our laundry, we had a text from Cosimo, inviting us to visit his family’s Masseria Foragno. It was an interesting drive, just a few minutes away, but we passed masseria after masseria, each interesting and most quite old. His family’s Masseria Foragno was built in the 1300’s as a monastery and fell into ruin over the centuries. Cosimo’s Dad is an architect and purchased Foragno to renovate. He added a four story tower and the masseria is used today as office space for his architectural practice, a home, and for conferences and college classes. It is quite a place!
In the afternoon we took a short drive to Cisternina, to walk about the old white city on the hill. We visited Chiesa di San Nicola di Patara, being readied for a wedding. We sat in the park across the street to drink in the big view of the Itria Valley, with a memorial statue to the hundreds of young men from Cisternina that lost their lives in WWI and WWII. It was a humbling site.
