History & Culinary Class Trip to Northern Puglia - Part 1

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This weekend we went as a class about 3 hours north to explore more of Puglia. It was both a culinary and history field trip, therefore we made a lot of stops on the way at churches and ate at some good restaurants. I would like to share some of the things I learned on this trip and wanted to do so through the order of our travels and photos! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Our First Stop:
Castel del Monte 

Castel del Monte is a castle overlooking the city of Andria from about 4,000 kilometers. This castle was built by Frederick II, who inherited the land from his mother, the Queen of Sicily. She was originally from Germany and her husband was the King of Sicily. When she was pregnant, she was traveling to Sicily from Germany, but along the way, she gave birth in the region of Marche. Federick II became King of Sicily at the age of 4 when he lost both of his parents. Because he was so young, he was mentored by the Pope, but in the end, the Pope wanted to kill him to become King. Federick II ran away from it all for about two years. He eventually built about 200 castles in Europe and he has a very specific design. He built his castles with round windows, square towers, and were very similar in what they were built out of. The Castel del Monte was built in the shape of an octagon, with 8 sides, because it was looked at as eternal life, or that your life on Earth was connected to the afterlife. There were 8 rooms in each counter of the octagon on each floor. It is still a mystery as to why the castle was built and what it was used for, but it is absolutely beautiful. 

 Overlooking Andria 
 The inside courtyard 
This orange colored material was on all of the walls, but after the abandonment of the castle, people stole a lot of it. Now, it is protected by the government, but earlier in history, it was not. 

Cantina Bocca di Lupo - Tomaresca 

Winery Tomaresca is located in the Castel del Monte area and is actually where Logan and I will be doing our "externships" in about two weeks. The Tomaresca family has been producing wines for 26 generations, but at their current vineyards, about 20 years. The grapes they use to produce their wines is only grapes found on their vineyards. They have two vineyards, the one we went to and one closer to Brindisi. The vineyard we went to is located in the middle of Puglia where it is more during the day and cooler at night. This affects the sugar concentrations in the grapes, producing a different wine than their other vineyard. The vineyard near Brindisi is located right on the sea, therefore it has a different terroir and climate. The vineyard by the sea has a clay soil that needs little irrigation because it is a very compact soil. That means the soil will take in the water it needs and not much more. The vineyard we went to has a very sandy soil, which is very loose. It needs good irrigation so that it does not take it a ton of water.
 Their vineyard is about 320 acres in size, with no more than 6,000 kg of grapes per hectare. 

 This is their aging room and each barrel is only used 3 times before they sell them because they believe that is when they have gotten the best and most use out of them. 
We also had a delicious lunch prepared by the winery that really represented Pugliese cuisine - lots of veggies. There was a focaccia made with burnt wheat and fresh tomatoes that were out of this world.

Trani 

Trani was a very special place for me. My grandmother passed away a few years ago from brain cancer at the age of 66. She was my absolute best friend who was always doing something with my sister and me. She went to church every Sunday and was a part of the service. I went to church with her for a couple years and I went through my confirmation at her church. I was lucky enough for her to see me get confirmed as it was after her diagnosis. She was a strong and special woman, someone I truly wish to be half as amazing as.
Well in this city, we went to a cathedral that was breathtaking. On this trip, we went to a lot of churches, but this one was special. As we walked up to it, all I could think of was her.
 When we went inside, I was overtaken by something that I believe was her presence. Her an I always talked about my dreams of culinary school and opening a bakery and she would have loved to see me travel in Italy.



 What made this even better was when we left, a ladybug landed on Liv and Logan, the first I had seen her in Italy. Ladybugs were Grammy's favorite thing and I was overtaken with emotion. Grammy was there with me at that moment and it was the highlight of the entire trip. 

Bari's Historical Town 

We walked around the historical part of the city of Bari and saw a few different churches. There were services going on it each, therefore we did not go in, but here are some beautiful pictures. 
 When you see arches like this, it means it is from the Roman times. 
 A lot of these churches were built just for a stopping place to pray and were very simple in design to not take away from your thoughts. The door of this cathedral, including the design around it, was added later. 

Ristorante Cortigiano 

For dinner, we went to a local restaurant in Bari. Overall, the meal was good, but here is what I would have done differently:
I really enjoyed the appetizers. Here are a few pictures, but some of them I could not get pictures. 
Not pictured: fresh mozzarella that was delicious
There was also a quiche with squash that I enjoyed because it was very flavorful but still tasted like eggs. It also had a wet center, instead of a dry one like a lot of quiches usually are. 
This was a cured meat was pretty good. 
These were a type of breaded veal on a stick that was then fried. I was not expecting this, but it was very good. The sauce had a good flavor, but it was extremely spicy. 
This was a fun mushroom dish with a rice noodle, fried wrapped around it. There was a parmesan puree of sorts that added a fattiness to the dish. 
They had a raw bar with a ton of different fish out where the guests could see. 
This wine was an excellent drinking wine that was not tannic but had a strong flavor. It would pair well with a lean meat. 

For our entree, we had orecchiette with a meat sauce and veal. The flavor of the sauce was different, but I was not a huge fan of it. 

I have decided to split this post into two, so read the next post for more about our trip! 

With love, 
Baylee 

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