Via Francigena nel Sud Day 32: Brindisi - Torchiarolo

Road to from Rome Day 32: Brindisi - Torchiarolo

Today's group of walkers assembled at Porta Lecce and headed out of Brindisi through the suburbs and into the fields to the rapid pace of the tarantella playing on a small speaker attached to the backpack of Salvatore, from Formia, who has rejoined us for the final days of our walk. Once again we passed through fields of melons, stopping to slice and share one: we were told that nobody would mind, and in fact when a tractor came by with a bin full of melons, the driver stopped and invited us to help ourselves! 

Turn left here for Greece and Albania! 

Brindisi industrial zone on the horizon 

Olive groves

Artichoke fields

And more melons! 

Picnic under the olive trees

The melon fields turned into olive groves, but as we progressed on our way toward Torchiarolo the scene became a sad one as we came to olive groves that have sickened and died due to the spread of xylella, a bacterium carried by sap-eating insects which is killing the trees in the Salento peninsula. There is no known cure. 

This unhappy landscape accompanied us all the way to the archaeological site of Valesio,  where we took a break, proceeding on toward the village with a halt to visit the blacksmith's forge of the aptly named Alex Pellegrino, who gave us a demonstration of his art.

Valesio Roman baths

From here it was only a short walk in the rain to the village of Torchiarolo, with its colourful houses: a change from the white stone cities typical of Puglia!

A light rain was falling when we arrived, but it let up long enough for the festivities in the town square, where we were welcomed by the mayor, four young men in colourful historic costumes representing the four quarters of the town, and a choir of young women singing traditional songs to the accompaniment of guitar and hand drum. From the square, we all proceeded on to the town's former kindergarten, now converted into a pilgrim hostel, where five of us are accommodated for the night! We have comfortable bedrooms and child-sized bathroom fixtures.

Puccia is a sort of scone with olives, onion and tomato in it