Via Francigena nel Sud Day 24: Andria - Ruvo di Puglia

Road to from Rome Day 24: Andria - Ruvo di Puglia

This morning I didn't quite feel ready to leave the candy-coloured city of Andria. I wandered about the streets of the old town, sat in on part of a church service, and even got a haircut before leaving the town behind me. 

Once I was through the semi-industrial, garbage-strewn outskirts of the city, I was back in the now-familiar landscape of olive groves, with a vineyard here and there for variety. In this part of Puglia a lot of table grapes are grown: great big golden globes hung from the canopy-trained vines, now ripe and ready for harvesting. 

After walking through this peaceful if rather monotonous landscape for a couple of hours, I stopped for a break at a picnic table set up by the local committee of the Via Francigena, Comitato della Via Francigena del Sud Corato - Ruvo - Bitonto. 

A group of five women from Corato came by on their daily morning walk, and invited me to the country home of one of the group, Mimma, for a piece of cake! The house was just around the corner, right on the Via Francigena, so I stopped and sat in the garden with the ladies for a few minutes before proceeding on my way. 

It was not far from here to Corato, but shortly after leaving the ladies I was met by Benedetto, a member of the above-mentioned Comitato, who took me to see some of the sights in the area, including a giant olive tree believed to be at least 600 years old! It towered above the other olive trees around it, "only" a couple of hundred years old. 

Benedetto then accompanied me into the centre of the town of Corato, where Adele, president of the Comitato, was waiting for me at their headquarters. She stamped my pilgrim passport and we went for lunch together and explored the town of Corato.

Inhabited since neolithic times, Corato was a Roman centre on the Via Traiana in the Republican age; it still preserves traces of Norman fortifications. 12th century Arabian geograper El Edrisi describes Corato as "Beautiful, populated, noble and enchanting, abounding in fruit and provisions". 

The earthquake of 1627 damaged buildings in the historic city centre of Corato, but it was between 1918 and 1922 that the city suffered its greatest destruction, when underground water ate away at the foundations of the constructions in the historic town centre, dissolving rock and mortar so that homes, churches and noble palaces cracked, bent and collapsed. The sound of creaking and falling bits of plaster were often the only warnings the inhabitants had before they had to run off, with no time to save their belongings. More than three quarters of the historic city centre was damaged, and thousands of people were forced to live in tents set up by the Italian Red Cross. The space left empty by the collapsed buildings is now a city square where children play, decorated with wall paintings. 

In a more recent disaster, a head-on railway collision took place outside the town of Corato on 12 July 2016, resulting in 23 deaths and dozens of injuries.

This unlucky but beautiful town on the Via Francigena is home to the headquarters of the Comitato della Via Francigena del Sud - Corato - Andria - Ruvo - Bitonto, which has most generously offered to host and assist me on my walk through their territory, arranging for all my accommodations, giving me a lift for the last few kilometres into town when my plans turn out to be too ambitious for my legs, and putting me in touch with members who can show me around all the towns along the route! 

Pilgrims walking the Via Francigena Traiana in this part of Puglia can get in touch with the Comitato through their website or Facebook page to ask for information and assistance. More contact information appears in the plaque in the photo below! 

I set off from Corato towards Ruvo in the company of the Committee president, but it would have been easy to find my way out of town and onto the Via Francigena towards Ruvo di Puglia even if I had been walking alone, as the route has been thoroughly signposted. Coming out of a large town is often the most difficult time to find the right route, but here this was not the case. The signposts took us to a shorter, more direct route than the one taken by the GPS track I had downloaded from the Via Francigena website, which was nonetheless pleasant to walk along: a paved road, but with a soft shoulder to walk along, in the shade of the pine trees. 

As we approached the town of Ruvo di Puglia we were met by two members of the Committee who live there: Margherita walked the rest of the way with us, while Francesco carried our backpacks for us in his car, all the way to my cosy lodgings at B&B Albarosa on the outskirts of Ruvo. 

They even gave me a bottle of Malvasia from the winery we had walked past on the way, Minafra! I drank a large glass with my dinner and poured the rest into my water bottle - Tomorrow I will have wine with my picnic lunch! 😁🍷