Michelle's Travel Adventures

Thursday, May 22/2025

We’re packing up the car and leaving Lecce this morning.  We have a week-long stay booked in a trullo house in Ceglie Messapica (pronounced Cheh-lyeh Mess-ah-pee-ka) in the heart of the Valle d’Itria.  WhereTF is Ceglie Messapica you might be asking.  So many many people (even Italians!) would say “Where?!” after I told them where we booked.

Here’s a little overview of Ceglie Messapica (CM from here on out): 

CM is a charming hilltop town (I LOVE an Italian hilltop town! Hilltop towns and seaside towns are my 2 favourite kinds of towns).  It’s pretty centrally located in the Valle d’Itria area of Puglia.  It’s a small town (population around 20,000) and has a beautiful historic center and lots of narrow, winding alleys and white washed stone buildings.  It’s quieter and definitely feels more authentic than some of the more popular nearby towns.  But what really sealed the deal for me to book here is that CM is famous for having the strongest culinary reputation in the region.  If you want to have good, authentic, local food, you’ll find it here!

We had to be out of our B&B by 10 am, and the drive to CM is just over an hour, and check in to our trullo isn’t until 3pm, so we thought we’d drive to CM and check out the town.  We arrived around half past 11 and parked outside the historic centre (only locals can drive in the historic centre) and started to explore by foot.

We easily found the main square Piazza Plebiscito, which is a beautiful open space framed by historical buildings and the clock tower.  We happened to be there during the Giro d’Italia – a 3 week Grand Tour cycling race, the CM to Matera leg was on May 14th but there were still lots of banners up and cyclists around.  

We stopped to have a coffee and then a stroll around the town, popping into some stores and doing some window shopping.

For lunch we decided to treat ourselves to the michelin star restaurant Cibus. I mean we are in Puglia’s foodie town!  

We started with an amuse bouche of chilled tomato soup topped with a crunchy bread crumb

Ok so I have to tell you about our funniest restaurant/lost in translation moment.  When our server came to our table to take our order, we had a few questions about some of the dishes.  Our server could speak a little bit of English and our Italian is limited to basic greetings.  One of the questions Makena had was in regards to the pasta dish with the ragu sauce.  Our server, in very heavily accented English, said “the ragu…is-ah horse-ah but not-ah horse-ah”.  So we were like…well he said “not-ah horse-ah” so that must mean not horse meat….right?! 

So Makena ordered the ragu (which was very good).  Macy and I ordered the eggplant parmesan lasagna which was out of this world incredible! Stephen ordered the black pig. And for dessert we ordered a Puglian specialty – fig gelato and Cegliese biscuits.  

Circling back to the ragu sauce.  After our meal was served and as we were eating and enjoying our dishes.  We hear a different server at the table beside us explain, in much better English, that the ragu is cooked with a roast of horse, but then the roast is removed from the sauce.  So the ragu was definitely “horse-ah”.  And now our family joke is “horse-ah or not-ah horse-ah?!” lol

After lunch we hopped in the car and went to the local grocery store.  And if you know me, you KNOW I LOVE going to grocery stores in different countries! And this grocery store was excellent!  Lot’s of great local produce, a massive selection of dairy products.  

Once we were loaded up with our groceries it was time to head to the trullo for check in.  The property is absolutely beautiful!  It is definitely in the countryside, and  the front yard is full of olive and cherry trees.  The backyard has a beautiful pool area and an outdoor kitchen area where we plan on doing lots of grilling.

We unpacked and settled in as quickly as humanly possible because it was a beautiful sunny day and we all wanted to get in the pool and enjoy the back yard!

It’s our first home cooked dinner since we’ve been away so we’re excited to get cooking tonight.  We got some big honking steaks to grill at our trullo tonight, fresh basil and tomatoes to make a salad, some potatoes and of course some Italian wine!!

Friday May 23

The alarm clock was set this morning because beautification starts early since we have to be on the road bright and early today.  Why?  What’s the panic?   Well, we’re heading to Alberobello!!!!  And everything I’ve read says you need to arrive before the bus tours arrive and that after 9 am it becomes inundated with tourists.

Alberobello is a small, enchanting town in the heart of the Valle d’Itria and famous for its fairytale-like trulli village which is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

I kept seeing/hearing trullo and trulli and had no idea which was the correct way to say it, and then someone explained it to me:

Trullo = singular 

Trulli = plural

A trullo is a whitewashed stone structure with a conical roof and became prominent in Puglia in the 15th – 19th centuries. They were originally (and cleverly) built without mortar so they could be quickly dismantled to avoid paying property taxes!  When the tax collector arrived all they saw was a pile of rocks. No house = no taxes!

You’ll see lots of trullo structures dotting the landscape in Puglia, especially in the Valle d’Itria area, but Alberobello is the only village with hundreds of trullos.  

We arrived just after 9 and the buses were already rolling in at the same time as we were. We felt a little panicked about getting into the Rione Monti neighborhood to get some good photos before the crowds descended. 

But once we arrived in the Rione Monti, we needed to stop and take a breath.  Pictures are all well and good, but that’s not why we travel.  It’s easy to get swept up in the need to capture that perfect instagram worthy photo.  But being present, and truly appreciating the moment and the specialness of what you’re experiencing.  That’s the reason.  I have to remind myself of that.  It’s the moment.  Be in the moment.

And the moment was MAGICAL!  Seriously, it really does feel like you are walking around in a fairytale village.  If we had seen a talking donkey, we probably wouldn’t have been surprised!   Each narrow street with beautiful crawling vines and pots of colourful flowers, it was breathtaking.  

Some of the highlights not to be missed are:

Trullo Sovrano – The only two storey trullo in town.

Chiesa di Sant’Antonio – A rare church built entirely in trullo style.

Trullo Siamese – A unique build that consists of 2 trulli built side by side but under one same roof.

I regretted not booking a walking tour to get more local stories and history. I feel like there would have been a lot of interesting history and facts to learn about Abereobello from a local guide.

The uncomfortable truth about tourism is that most of the trulli here are no longer lived in by locals. They’ve been converted into shops, cafes, restaurants and B&Bs.  That’s the good and the bad of tourism, it creates jobs and businesses but it can also destroy the authentic way of life.

For lunch we grabbed some delicious focaccias at La Lira Focaccera

After our lunch we decided we were ready to move on and headed to Locorotundo.  An adorable hilltop town that we absolutely fell in love with and became obsessed with saying…”Locoooooooorrrrooootundoooooooo”

We strolled around the historic centre and found a farmers market, I absolutely love looking at all the fresh produce! I want to buy all the yummy veggies!

The historic centre is beautiful too. Lots of churches, with shall we say… a flare for drama.

After we explored the city centre we walked along the city walls to look at the views. I cannot get enough of the beautiful landscape!

We decided to stop for some spritzes at a bar along the outer wall which overlooks the valley below.  It was so beautiful, I loved it here!!

But we had to move along because our dinner plans start early tonight.  We have a private cooking lesson booked through Terra Chevive with a local chef at his family trullo.  

The trullo where the classes take place is in the same rural area not too far from where we are staying (but closer to Martina Franca).  The drive here takes you up a quiet, narrow lane that winds up along the hilltop until you finally reach chef Davide’s family estate.  Chef Davide and his assistant were ready to greet us as soon as we pulled into the driveway.  The property is enchanting with olive groves, vineyards and gardens and overlooks more of the valley below which has even more olive groves and vineyards.  It is rustic, and beautiful, and feels like the most authentic Italian experience we’ve ever been a part of.

Chef Davide had our cooking stations set up in the courtyard as we arrived. And we began the evening with Davide telling us about his family estate as he poured us a glass of wine and we walked through the olive groves where he makes his own olive oil that we will be using in our cooking lesson tonight.

Our lesson began with bread making. Chef Davide had the dough already prepared and we were learning about the different shaping techniques.  We each got a turn to hand shape our bread and then got to place it on the oven peel and take it into the 100 year old trullo that houses their wood-burning oven where we gently placed each loaf into the fired up oven.

While our breads baked we went inside the main trullo to begin our pasta making lesson.  We each made our pasta dough from scratch.  Which we discovered is easier said than done, but we persisted, and we all finally got our doughs to the right consistency to make pasta.  

We learned how to make so many different pasta shapes including the most beloved in Puglia – orecchiette.

Once our pasta making was complete we started on the real fun part – eating!

Our first course was the breads that were cooked in the wood oven, house made burrata, and local cucumbers and carrots.  I really love the Puglian tradition of sliced cucumbers and carrots as an appetizer on the table!

Next up is the orecchiette that we made that was served with a delicious tomato sauce that Chef Davide created.

And we finished up the culinary experience with a tiramisu for dessert!

It was an incredible day, and definitely one of our all time favourite travel days ever.  We’re headed to bed with full bellies and happy hearts and lots of incredible memories.