As I write this on February 7th 2022, I can’t believe it is over a month since we spent our first Puglian Christmas. The picture above shows Alberobello on Christmas Day.
Rather than the subdued, pre-eating and drinking atmosphere in England, Christmas morning is bustling over there and all are out in the town. People come out to go to Mass, eat cakes and pastries and meet friends – or all three. We were pleased to see the ladies who ran the cafe we were in open up a bottle of Prosecco just before 1pm when they were due to close. All together a really enjoyable atmosphere.
Add to that the sun came out around lunchtime and were were treated to a glorious day. In fact the weather treated us well for the whole ten days we were there. This was the view from Trullo Genista on our return from Alberobello that morning. All makes for a very different and very enjoyable Christmas.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, for us it’s interesting to spend Christmas in a different country and secondly it makes for better reading than the ongoing building permit saga. If you have followed this blog you now likely have your head in your hands and are thinking you wish you hadn’t bothered.
The good news is that on 28th December I had a meeting in the planning department at the Comune with a lady called Chiara who not only gave me her contact details she said there was no need to make an appointment but to just drop in and ask for her any time I needed an update. The not so good news is that she checked progress and said that the permit was with the department in Taranto and would be with her and approved by 31st January. That, of course, was a week ago. You’ve guessed it. It didn’t happen.
Our friends at Puglia Pools are going back for a further update this week but my guess is the news will not have changed any. This is the way of the world there just now and so we must just get learn to live with it. The frustrating thing is that the other Comunes nearby, Locorotondo and Cisternino are pulling out all the stops to get things moving post-pandemic. The luck of the draw is that ours is Martina Franca who appear to be the most slow.
I think the really sad thing from our point of view is that another summer may go by without us being able to rent out the trullo and that’s what we really want to do. There’s still plenty to buy and to finish but with no guaranteed date, we can’t move to do anything. But there we are. Things could be far worse let’s be honest. Next update will be….who knows?…hopefully next week when we have an approved permit back from the planning department.