A Caper in Salento

What is the ancient Briton doing up a tree in the south of Italy? Mosaic detail, Otranto Cathedral Otranto, now a backwater, was a major medieval port. Pilgrims walked the length of Europe to get there, catching boats onward to the Holy Land. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II pulled a sickie there on his way to the Sixth Crusade, getting himself excommunicated by the Pope for his apparent lack of fervour. Frederick, whose blood mixed Norman, Sicilian and German, inherited Otranto from Norman invaders who had taken it from the Byzantine Empire, who had conquered it from the Lombards, who took over from Rome, who won it from Greeks, who colonised the Messapians (whose word for water, odra , named the city). And refugees fled across the strait from Byzantine purges, bringing Eastern Orthodox iconographic painting with them. In short, Otranto was a hub for culture and art, a place of interaction for civilians and soldiers and religions. But - even allowing for the city's ri...

Let's start with: An anecdote Sunday morning, and a dozen mountain bikers roll onto the central Piazza , wrong way down a one-way street. The Polizia Locale , Italy's scruffiest cops down at the bottom of the food chain, waves at the offending cyclists and starts pointing vigorously..... I sidle over to see how this scene will play out. The group have stopped for coffee in the centre of town. There's a fashion for Sunday morning mountain bikers riding spotless B'Twin monsters, so their noisy appearance in the calm of a sleepy square raises no surprise. But will they get a bollocking for ignoring the one-way? My curiosity is raised - but there's no trouble this time. The policeman is directing them to a cycle rack across the road from the bar. The lycra lads (and they are all lads, no lasses) swamp the parking; they'll take more time to play Tetris with the exaggerated handlebars than they'll be needing to down their espressos. Bull's Head,...