Ostuni, the White Pearl

      Our ride from Armando's masseria would take us to the town of Ostuni.  We would stay here for two nights.  After checking in, I immediately e-mailed my pulmonologist, and decided not to ride the next day while waiting for her response.

The Miracle

       A town of about 35,000, though it seems like more, Ostuni sits on a set of hills overlooking the Adriatic Sea.  The area has been inhabited since the stone age and takes its name from the Greek " astu neon" - new town.  This history of the town is a hodgepodge of which city state was in charge at the time.
       Many, if not most of the buildings in Ostuni are painted white.  During the Black Plague, Ostuni had its share of death.  The people were whitewashing their homes with quick lime, a common practice in southern Italy.  They noticed that the plague started to disappear, and attributed this to the miracle of the white paint.  So, a tradition was started of whitewashing pretty much every structure.  The townsfolk were not far off in their thinking, however.  The quick lime pretty much killed any plague bacteria or virus.  However, the people did not know this for several hundred years!


       The following are views of Ostuni.  I like to go exploring on my own.

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St. Francis of Assisi

My group heads to dinner......more about that in the post "How We Eat".