Sunday 3 August 2014

Altamura is not just…bread


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.

If you wish to view more pics, please click here

Buon appetito




No comments:

Post a Comment