Don in front of 2000 year old olive tree

A big surprise was our visit to Masseria Brancati, an olive farm that dates to pre-Roman times.  The spectacular trees are huge, hollowed out by bacteria (as are the oak trees in California), and still producing large quantities of excellent olives. 

pre-Roman olive tree--maybe 3000 years old

Some of the trees were planted by Greek farmers before the Roman era.  These could be as old as 3000 years.  They were planted randomly, while the Romans planted their trees in straight lines, so you can see which trees were planted by whom.  The Roman trees are 2000 years old.  They are gravely threatened by a new bacteria that has decimated olive orchards just south of Masseria Brancati.  It would be terrible to lose these ancient giants.

Beneath the modern olive press is the Roman mill.  It must have been pretty grim for man and beast.  Donkeys or cattle walked around and around in a small circle, pulling the huge grindstone until the olives had given up all their oil.  They reportedly knew to stop pulling when the pulling became easier because all the olives had been reduced to pulp.  The pulp was turned into oil for lamps. 

Roman olive grinding stone

The animals lived underground in a stable carved out of the limestone.  I hope they were able to go aboveground when the pressing season was over.  Otherwise, their lives would have been cruel and short.

ancient olive orchard

Even worse was the fate of the men who worked in the mill.  They spent all their time underground working the animals, dumping olives into the press, cleaning the channels that transferred the oil from the grinding area to stone vats, and pouring the finished oil into crockery for sale.  They had a limestone shelf about 10’ X 8’ where they slept, presumably with nothing like a blanket or pillow to provide any comfort.  These were probably slaves who lived short and brutish lives, overworked, underfed and cruelly treated.

Roman olive oil bins

The mill itself was ingenious, with vats and channels carved into the limestone and clay pipes for feeding olives into the underground mill.  Grindstones were huge and very heavy.  Later, giant screws of wood were used to press down smaller grindstones, presumably making it faster and easier to produce the oil.

Masseria Brancati makes 4 kinds of olive oil, ranging from extra virgin (the first crushing of the olives, immediately after they are harvested) to lemon-flavored.  According to our guide, there is no oil that is better than another.  It is all a matter of individual taste.

Our guide was the marketing director for the Masseria and was excellent.  She told us she had married young, had two sons, then divorced and moved to London with her little boys.  She worked as a global marketing director for American Express for 10 years until Brexit made her and her sons unwelcome in  Britain.  So, she came home, but is very anxious to emigrate to another European country or, better, the US or Canada, where she can work again in a global capacity.  She has found business in southern Italy slow to change and unenlightened in its practices.

 

Bari and Lecce, cities on the Aegean Coast

 

13th century church in Bari

In contrast to scruffy Naples, Bari is spotless.  Many of its Baroque buildings have been restored, though many more await someone’s enthusiasm and money.  We stayed in a wonderful B and B, Bari 102, in the heart of the university district, so there was lots going on, a myriad of restaurants, a pedestrian shopping street and students everywhere.  The historic center of Bari is a pleasant 10-minute walk away.  

ceiling of Basilica di San Nicola

Like most of this part of Italy, Bari goes back to Greek and Roman times.  During the Middle Ages, it became a major slave trading center, mostly for Slavic slaves sold into the Byzantine Empire and Muslim states.  It’s Basilica of St. Nicholas was established in the late 11^th century to hold the relics of Saint Nicholas, spirited away secretly to their new resting place from their earlier home in Byzantine lands. 

fresco from Basilica

The Basilica was built in Romanesque style, begun in 1087 and finally completed in 1197.  It is a place where Catholic and Orthodox churches come together to worship, so rather unusual.  It has a gorgeously painted ceiling along with beautiful capitals atop the columns and well-preserved frescoes.

The large Schwabian Castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times during its history as waves of conquerors came to sack Bari.  Finally, in the 17^th century, the daughter of the King of Naples restored the castle and made it her residence.  Right now, the  castle hosts a beautiful exhibition of ancient pottery found in Bari, from the plain ware that preceded the Greeks to the elaborately decorated Greek pots to Roman drinking vessels.

elephant on sarcophagus

Along what used to be the waterfront, families built tower houses, tall, skinny structures with watchtowers, in order to keep an eye out for a flotilla of invaders.  As elsewhere along this busy coast, the tower houses didn’t do much to protect the inhabitants from a determined aggressor.  It’s easy to picture family members standing in their tower, nervously searching the sea for threats and sounding the alarm when a ship was sighted.  It must have been a harrowing life. 

Schwabian castle

Bari vegetable market

There are lots of outdoor markets and shops in the historic center of Bari, so it is a fun place to wander.

South of Bari is the beautiful Baroque city of Lecce.  The entrance is the Punto di Napoli, an imposing gate leading to a large and busy city center, full of mostly crumbling, but still lovely, palaces, churches, convents and shops.  Just outside the Punto di Napoli is the university, with its rather                                                      decrepit buildings, so the center of the city is also a center of night life                                                      for all its young patrons.  

Porto di Napoli, Lecce

Baroque Basilica, Lecce

There is a fascinating Jewish museum, the Museo Ebraico, in the middle of the old city, probably right on top of the ruined synagogue in the former Jewish Quarter.  This Jewish Quarter was not a ghetto as people could move freely in and out of the Quarter.  That is rather unusual in medieval cities where Jews were often locked into their overcrowded quarters.  There was a Jewish community here in the late Middle Ages, but after World War II, no Jews remained and none have returned.  

Baroque palace needing repair

I had no idea that Jews rescued from the Nazi death camps had been housed in southern Italy after the Second World War, but we watched a very moving video about a displaced persons camp for Jews in the town of Santa Maria di Leuca, at the southern tip of Italy’s boot.  A rabbi in the camp urged the refugees to marry and have children, in order to start rebuilding the Jewish people after the ravages of the Nazis.  Three women born in the camp in Santa Maria di Leuca told their stories in the video, produced during a visit they made to the former displaced persons camp.  They carried photos of their mothers and themselves and talked about the incredible joy their mothers said they felt after giving birth to their first child.  The families later moved to Israel. 

renovated palace

Lecce has a beautiful Roman amphitheater, discovered when the city was trying to expand the main piazza.  There are music and theater performances there in the summer.  Our guide told us the locals bring their cushions and camp chairs and put them on the stone seats of the Roman era to enjoy a more comfortable experience. 

Lecce's Roman amphitheater