Today we are staying at the same hotel. Our itinerary is having us explore the area around Otranto. We started by riding along the Idro River. Only in Southern California or southern Italy would this be called a river. It’s really a dry wash or an “arroyo” if you hail from my part of the country.
As we rode along, our first stop was a crypt of some Byzantine monks. During the iconoclastic era, when some leaders of the Byzantine Empire, perhaps influenced by Islam, decided that icons and other images in churches had to be destroyed, some of those who felt strongly religious images were worthy of use in worship, even veneration, sought refuge in southern Italy.
Our guide materials next suggested that we stop at the Constantine Foundation. Apparently this place is devoted to preserving ancient weaving techniques and the biodynamic agriculture ideas of Rudolf Steiner. We did not such much evidence of either. We did find this circle of stones. I wanted to think that it was performing human sacrifices or something, but it’s probably just the outlines of a cistern.
Along the way we saw some prehistoric stones. We do not know much at all about the people who lived in this part of Italy before the Greek established colonies here several centuries before Christ. We’re these cultic items or maybe just places to post messages? Nobody knows.
We then came to some “dolmen.” Again, nobody is sure what these stone structures were used for. Were they just burial places? Or were things sacrificed on them?
After this we stopped in a village to get some food for lunch. Our guide materials suggested a bakery. It was pretty decent and quite cheap.
We sat for a while at a nearby square.
And then we were on our bikes again, riding through the narrow streets.
By this point, John had figured out that his front gears really did not work at all. We could see at least part of the reason why - the cable had come unconnected - but we did not have the tools to fix it. After riding around Otranto a couple times, we finally found the only bike shop. The mechanic there was great and did his best to repair it.
But he was not complimentary at all about the bike, using a rather vulgar Italian term that indicates fecal material to describe the rental bike. Strangely, that made us feel good and we decided we would send off a couple texts and emails complaining about the bike and see what response we received.
In the evening, we did some more exploration of Otranto. We found a Franciscan church dedicated to Saint Anthony and it had the inevitable grotto.
We went to the nearby headland at sunset.
Finally, after it grew dark, we came back to the hotel.
Good night!
