Driving from Sorrento to Caserta was tedious, tiring and, frankly, disgusting. Once away from the coast the road is a tour through one dirty, potholed town after another, seemingly in circles. Once out of the populated areas the roadside is bordered with residential trash a meter high stretching sometimes for a kilometer or more. It's as bad as Albania. Few foreign tourists venture into this part of Italy, but there are rewards for those who do, especially if you are tracking World Heritage Sites.
Royal Palace in Caserta
World Heritage Sites come in all shapes and sizes. The Royal Palace in Caserta, completed in 1780, is the largest building constructed in 18th Century Europe. It was built by the Bourbon kings of Naples to impress, and its 1200 rooms and "English Garden," modeled after the Palace at Versailles, did just that. It took us an hour just to walk from the palace to the Aeolus Fountain and back.
Castel del Monte
Castel del Monte was just one of dozens constructed by Frederick II near Bari in the 13th Century. No one is quite certain of its original purpose but it is a blend of northern European, Muslim and classical architectures with a precise mathematical precision (Fibonacci was a member of the court) and elegant symmetry. It reminded us of the Umayyad "desert castles" that we saw in Jordan.
Trulli Houses
The dry stone, conical roofed "trulli houses" of Alberobello, near the arch of Italy's boot, are something completely different. They first appeared around 1000 AD and were lived in as recently as the 1950s. Today Alberobello is a tourist town, and the "trulli" houses have plastered walls and are decorated for show. Pasquale invited us into the home where he grew up and showed us around. The central living room is flanked by a bed chamber, a tiny toilet area and a kitchen. A ladder goes to the attic above the living room where he said his grandmother slept with three of the grandkids. We aren't sure of the significance but several of the houses have geometric symbols painted on their roofs. There is even a small church made in the same style.
