Our Ferry safely arrived in Italy after a 16-1/2 hour sail from Patras. We quickly boarded our coach and headed towards Bari.
On the way, we stopped at the Il Frantolio de DÁmico Pietro Olive oil factory in Ostuni, ""the white city" where we learned the process for making a good olive oil - and how to taste and now the difference between the different types. This oil factory is 75% organic - and explained what that meant. They learned the difference between two different ways of processing the olives for oil - the old world style and automated. We all got to taste various types of oils - and learned the proper way to do it - something very similar to wine tasting. Needless to say - we now have 42 olive oil snobs.
From there, we made our way to Arberobello and the trulli buildings that covered countryside. These buildings were designed to come apart when the tax man came to say that they had no house as they had removed all the stones from the roofs. Each of the cone shaped roofs had symbols of either Religious, Magical or Primitive. The students had some time to walk around the old town to ask some of the locals about the houses and bring back their new found knowledge. The students found that it was somewhat difficult to communicate, but were able to act their way through getting some good information. Some interesting facts they came back with were: 1.) As many as 12 of the buildings made 1 home. 2.) it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 3.) The original builders of these buildings thought the stones fell out the sky and linked to their worship of the sun.
After our tour finish here - it was off to our Italian lesson in the park to learn so key phrases to help with communicating with our host families. Once we had "mastered" the basics, it was off to meet our home stay families.
No comments:
Post a Comment