And now we are off through the park, looking for a picnic spot.  The roads are, once again, virtually empty, lined on either side with rock walls and olive groves.  And those weird little stone beehive structures.  Remember, this park is massive and not a single good map to be had, basically I think because it is so massive. There are different archeological digs and ruins around, but nothing that resembles hiking trails or picnic areas. We end up just choosing a point on the map that says it is the “National Park of Alta Murgia” but which ends up being a really narrow, sometimes rock wall lined, dirt road that leads to some agrotourism place or something.  Oops.  Reverse course! We’ll just stop at the end of the road in a little pull out, near where it intersects the main road, and picnic in the car.  Works for us – it is quiet, we are surrounded by farm fields with a nice breeze blowing.  Lovely.

While eating our picnic sandwiches, we did some research on sights around us, discovering a little forest grove and a path called the Dolina Tre Paduli – built in the 1600s for the Franciscan friars to get from their farmhouse to the monastery in the nearby town.  Ok. Game on.  Off we go through the olive grove lined road stretching out to the horizon. It is so hard to accurately describe the view, the vastness of it all. Along the way of course, more traffic challenges.   This time of the sheep kind!  Fortunately the sheepherder does an excellent job of getting everyone off the road safely and we continue on our journey to the Dolina.

Arriving at the forest, we stuff our car on the side of the road and commence our hike around what is definitely a non-native (as the info sign says “alien”) forest that they planted here in the 60’s.  Why? We’ve no clue – the sign didn’t give us that much info unfortunately.  Regardless though, it makes for a nice, shaded walk, along a rocky path with wooden fencing and rope handrail to use if necessary.  About 1km long, we enjoy the fresh air (really cool breeze) and those endless views across the fields and hills. So pretty – and quiet – out here.

In researching this hike, we had also found what was reportedly a ghost town.  Yes!  And it is right across the hillside from the path.  You can sort of see it when we round the bend of the forest.  You know we are exploring that. After our hike is complete, we head over there, slowly navigating up this 2 track road through the fields to Masseria Guarlamanna – an abandoned farmhouse and village from the early 1960s.  A little more modern than our normal ghost towns, but fascinating nonetheless.

There is a whole little village sitting out here, in the middle of the fields, totally abandoned. Maybe 10 or 15 houses plus the larger farmhouse – and what appears to be a church.  What gives with that?  It is nuts to imagine these structures just sitting here, unprotected, but that’s what happened.  We wandered all through the place – just marveling at the sights, the fields, the sounds. 

The farmhouse is the best – of course it has been tagged, and folks have either lived in here, or at least used it as a party house – but it is still so huge and picturesque out here in the middle of nowhere.  We can just imagine the lifestyle once upon a time.

As we are leaving, we actually spy what appears to be some older structures down the hill a bit. The field surrounding them is too overgrown to bushwhack through to explore, but the sight of the old roofs peeking up out of the grassy farmland makes for a captivating vision.

Done with our park explorations, we head back to the cottage, passing more and more open fields, olive groves, another apparently abandoned town (behind fencing) and Cinghiale warning signs! With deer signs!  Wonder what they do with the roadkill?  Hmmmm….. And as always, dealing with those Italian drivers!  Jeez.  They are always on your butt – no matter how open the road. Just pass us already, please.

After hanging out at the cottage for a bit, we decide to go back down to Bisceglie to walk the promenade in the other direction.  It is a beautiful day with a nice cool breeze, so why not?

Returning home, we have late afternoon snacks with the Provolone Dolce we bought at Lidl – that comes complete with its own terracotta bowl. Seriously.  Oh, it only cost 2 Euro 69.  Yeah.  Prices here.  Amazing.  And it is really good – all gooey and tasty with oregano sprinkled on top.   Great appetizer to go with our beer and wine in the great room.

Spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out – it started to rain, so inside for us tonight, with another Lidl meal, cordon bleu that was passable, but nothing to write home about.  We had some good spaghetti sauce to go on top, making everything more palatable.  We really don’t care – we would absolutely rather be here hanging out than trying to drive down the narrow winding road where the cottage is located at night!

One bonus of staying home is that we hear that damn Alarm bird again (which our Merlin app identified as a Eurasian Scops-Owl) around 9pm and try to scare it away.  It stops its annoying alarm chirp, so hopefully it will stay gone. And that’s about all the excitement we have as we ready ourselves for our quick drive to Lecce in the morning.