Stone Treasures

Treasures of Stone is a journey to ancient territories, dotted with villages and towns where the local stone, now soft, now limestone, now porous, becomes a material with multiple uses, artfully worked and a witness to centuries of history. We will visit Polignano where the old town is perched on a rocky ridge overlooking the sea, we will then be in Monopolywith its fishing village of white cottages and a Bari, a town with an ancient core criss-crossed by narrow streets and lanes where imposing Romanesque buildings stand. We will stop at Alberobello, city of trulli, made with the dry construction technique and discover the Caves of Castellanawhere the limestone rock becomes sculpture moulded by the hands of a thousand-year-old nature. Our tour will continue among the architecture set in limestone landscapes in Matera, UNESCO site since 1993 and we will reach Ostuni, 'White City', which will dazzle us with the charm of its typical lime-covered stone houses. Locorotondo will welcome us with its famous and immaculate historic centre with its circular shape, where we will admire the chiancarelle (a special covering of limestone slabs) and Cisternino, a town in the heart of the Valle d'Itria, we will discover the cooking of meat on typical 'fornelli', or stone plates that enhance the flavour. We will finally arrive in Lecce where the Baroque explodes with the colour and vibrations of light typical of the Salento sandstone. Tesori di pietra is a tribute to the places that dot the Murgia dei Trulli, to the picturesque medieval towns with their winding alleys where time seems to stand still, to the romantic villages with their living stone houses where unspoilt nature blends with art and history. Amidst arches, flowered balconies, meandering alleyways and flights of steps, we will admire the immense expanses of wheat or the blue of the sea that provide a backdrop now to the bulk of a castle now to picturesque fishing quarters.