Yesterday night we arrived in Canosa di Puglia, had a quick dinner and an ice cream and went to bed. This morning, out of the hotel... surprise! There was the weekly street market, nobody had told us and our little Renault Twingo car was hopelessly blocked among panties and pijamas. The only thing we could do was to walk around Canosa and wait until 1 PM,, the market's closing time. So we went to the cathedral: it was built in the Middle Age, but then rebuilt in more recent times. Inside there are two beautiful pieces of Romanesque sculpture: a stone chair, held up by two two marble elephants, and a high lectern on four pillars, from where priests read the Scriptures.

After the cathedral, we visited the Lagrasta Ipogei (underground tombs cut in the rock, dating from the IV century BC) and the archaeological museum. This is small, but full of interesting things, from the Neolithic (stone axes, flints and arrowheads) to the Preroman and Roman times (lots of beautifully decorated pottery). Under the Romans, Canosa (Canusium in Latin) was an important trade centre, known for the spinning of red woollen cloths and the decorated pottery. Back to the hotel (and market) area we were finally able to release our Renault car and leave for Canne. This is an ancient village, well excavated, known because nearby Hannibal (not the Cannibal one) from Chartago defeated the Romans in 216 BC (the famous battle of Canne). By the village, there is now a very nice museum with objects found in the surrounding ancient settlements, dating from the Neolothic to the Medieval times. Among the findings, a very nice mother goddess statuette from the second half of the 5th millennium BC.Not far from the museum, hidden among olive trees (Apulia has a 23% share of the world's olive oil production) we found our first Apulian megaliths: the 3m tall standing stone of Canne. This is the northernmost megalith in the region.

Then we drove to Trani, to visit its Romanesque cathedral, situated in splendid position, a few metres from the sea. It is a linear, apparently simple-looking building, with breathtaking highrelieves on the façade.
Then we drove to one of the most beautiful dolmens of Apulia, the Chianca one. Its capstone is 2.4m by 3.8m and the passage is 7.5m long. Burnt human and animal bones were found during excavation; it is difficult to find such material in Apulian dolmens. Here you can find a panoramic view of the site.When we reached the dolmen, a little furry ball welcomed us. It was a white, sweet puppy. No mother around, so we guessed that it was abandoned by some bloody stupid humanoid. We had no food for him, but we cut a plastic bottle into a bowl and gave him all our water. It was so thirsty, that poor little thing. We were so sad to leave him alone at the dolmen, but we couldn't possibly take him with us. Now we have found two phone numbers of local animal associations, and tomorrow morning we'll ring up to them and ask to save the puppy.

Before reaching our next stop, Ruvo di Puglia, we visited another megalith deeply hidden in the trees: the Dolmen dei Paladini (Paladins). Its capstone measures 3m by 2.5m and weighs 8 tons. As for the Chianca dolmen, the chambers open to the East. Tomorrow we will head South: more discoveries are on our path, so keep visiting our pages!

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