My last 3 remaining WHSs in Italy were spread all over the country (Aquileia in the north-east, Barumini in Sardinia and Castel del Monte in the south) and were giving me headaches. After visiting Aquileia and upon finding out that it's only around 30 Euros each to fly from Venice Treviso to Cagliari in Sardinia and from Cagliari to Bari in the south on Ryanair, I just decided to finish them up once and for all (even though the 25 hour stay in Sardinia in winter didn't sound right). 

But this is about Castel del Monte outside Bari. 

Transportation: 

There is no bus whatsoever in winter from Andria (or Corato), the nearest train stations to the Castel.  But I did find after a painstaking online research that there was one bus (not on Sundays) leaving Bari at 14:10 for Spinazzola, stopping at the Castel at 15:05 on the way. (The webpage says the timetable is effective from September 2017 to June 2018 and last updated in November 2017.) 

I was supposed to have 40 min. in Bari (between my train arrival from Altamura and the bus departure to Castel) to buy the bus ticket and to find the bus .  But the train from Altamura arrived 30 min. late, so I had only 10 min. in Bari.  The center of Bari has 3 train stations operated by different train companies and several bus stops around them, so it was not an easy task, especially when pulling a wheeled luggage in the rain.  I certainly did not have time to find the bus ticket and hoped I could buy it on the bus, as you can do so on some buses but not on others in Italy.  So I "frantically focused" on finding the bus during the 10 min. and almost miraculously found it!

But when I said to the driver I wanted to go to Castel del Monte, he, who certainly didn't speak very good English, said, even though the bus was going by the Castel, it was not supposed to stop there. What!!!???  I had the screen capture of the bus timetable on my smart phone, which I showed him.  He couldn't believe what he saw and called his bus company, which apparently told him his bus was not supposed to stop there, contrary to what their webpage said. I begged him to drop me off there, and then he asked me for the ticket.  I said my train was late and didn't have time to buy the ticket, wherever it's sold (which kiosk???). This was the end of the story. This was the worst moment of my 20-day long trip, as the painstaking research was wasted, and now I had to take a taxi from Andria to Castel. 

I do think that if I had had the bus ticket to Spinazzola, the driver would have probably dropped me off near the Castel.  So after all I blame the late train on this incident, or I should blame myself for believing in Italian train. 

Within 30 min. I was on a train in the direction of Andria, but from Ruvo to Andria I had to take a substitute bus due to some repair work. What a pain!  And then from Andria to Castel, a taxi...  I really love and hate Italy! 

Castel del Monte: 

I was pleasantly surprised when the Castel came into my view from quite far away, as the taxi approached it. I had not realized that the Castel sat on top of a hill.

I arrived there about 16:30.  I was also impressed with the facade (or side view), which, perhaps due to its symmetry and color, immediately reminded me of Taj Mahal, an Islamic mosque.  Later I learned that the Castel also had had some Islamic influence architecturally.  After all this castle is not just another castle in Europe. It's quite unusual and imposing in an octagonal shape with an octagonal tower at each 8 corner.  I walked around inside of the Castel.  I thought this was definitely the worthy WHS as my last one in Italy (at least until a new one pops up). 

Accommodation: 

Because I was planning to take the same bus back to Bari in the next morning, I had made a reservation at a B&B called "Tenuta Tannoja" near the Castel, the only available accommodation I had found online.  It was about 3 km from the Castel if you take walking trails. But at about 17:30 it was dark and freezing cold outside, and I asked the staff at the Castel to call this B&B and ask if they could come to pick me up.  B&B did it for free, even though the road for car was about 10 km long. 

Food:

There was actually another major problem that night. The taxi driver told me as we were arriving at the Castel that there was no restaurant or store whatsoever in the vicinity of the Castel. (Why didn't he tell me earlier?) So I proceeded to buy whatever snacks I could find at a vending machine at the Castel, but when I found out from the staff that the B&B was in fact a farm that could prepare dinner for me for 25 Euros, it was the moment of the reversal of fortune for me on that day. 

When I was called in for dinner at the farm, I found a basket of bread, a plate of cold cuts, a pitcher of red wine and a large bottle of mineral water on the table and thought they were my dinner, about which I had no complaint. But then the old lady of the farm started bringing me one steaming dish after another, all in all 8 antipasto, most of which were tasty regional dishes I had never seen before.  The meal, infused by the red wine, was turning into a feast that momentarily reminded me of Fellini's "Satyricon."  For the main, she asked me if I wanted pasta or meat (primi or secondi) or both, and I said just pasta, as I was already pretty full by then. What she brought, pasta with turnip greens, was another regional specialty of Apulia.  It was followed by a dessert, which is too difficult to describe.  Without exaggeration, it was about the best Italian meal I've ever had, and I thanked the lady with "Fantastico!"