Altamura is
a very nice town located in an Apulian area named Murgia, on the top of a hill.
It is very
much close to Basilicata.
People from
Altamura are hard workers.
Tommaso Fiore was born in Altamura. He was a writer and an antifascist politician. In 1952, he wrote a book named un popolo di formiche (people like ants).
In his
book, Tommaso Fiore pointed out the strenght and obstinacy of people from
Murgia, who live in a difficult, if not hostile, environment.
Altamura
has known almost two decades (1980-2000) of full employment due to the distretto del salotto (the sofa
manifacturing district).
Nowdays,
Altamura is reinventing itself.
This is the
Italian capital of bread.
However, the entire set of bakery products here is
superb.
The story of a McDonald which shut down because of a local focacceria (pizzeria), represents a case
history of resistence to the homogenisation. The story inspired the docufiction
Focaccia
Blues.
While
walking along C.so Federico II, which
is the main street, I come accross few lads handling a steadycam.
The guy
with moustache is a local photographer who is testing this innovative steadycam.
It is
innovative because it is an automatic control steadycam.
The two
guys who invented it are two young engineers both from Apulia. They would like
to patent their creation (www.icecam.it)
The inner
city of Altamura is cluttered with claustri,
which are streets with dead-end.
If you go
to Altamura, I strongly recommend you to visit the National Museum of Altamura.
the museum hosts a permanent exhibition, rich of interesting artefacts.
Probably the most curious one which I have seen is a phallic idol of 3rd millenium BC.
I am starving now, so I am going to end up my journey here not before having eaten a tasty focaccia.
Buon
appetito
No comments:
Post a Comment