Days 35–36: the Waldorf school La Stella in Ceglie Messapica

We leave the camper stop at Alberobello after another visit to the town in the morning (including a bike ride that has us sweating). The pool, inviting as it was, we never used. As the following days will show, this is for a good while the last night in paid accommodation.

A picnic near Locorotondo

We set off for a Waldorf school near Ceglie Messapica. On the way we stop for lunch at a picnic area near Locorotondo. The town looks lovely, but we have no time to see it. Since the children need a break we wind through the narrow lanes of the hinterland and find a wonderful picnic spot, where we spend the afternoon. We eat there and find the stones the trulli are built from, collecting a few small ones for a craft project later. Maddalena goes for a walk with the children and I have time for sport and an audiobook in the hammock — which I strung quickly between two trees, practising a new knot. It is very restful to spend time outdoors like this, with no programme to keep to.

The Waldorf school inside the trullo, at Ceglie Messapica

We drive through Locorotondo again, where I go into a bakery with Valentino. We are greeted with the warmth of old friends or relatives. There we buy the best taralli we have had so far. The way to the Waldorf school is long and runs through many narrow roads. Arriving, we park among the olive trees as agreed, and later meet the owner, Pamela, with whom we have a good talk. Together with her husband and the support of many fine people — above all the teachers and the parents — Pamela has created a school on Rudolf Steiner's principles, shaped down to the smallest detail with love and dedication. School has not started yet and this week there is laboratorio, the holiday programme. Lavinia will join in the next day. The night is quiet. We are alone on the grounds, and roads and railway lines are far away.

The next day we see the school properly, in daylight. It is a modern extension built onto an old trullo, with a garden beautifully fitted out with play equipment. We meet the teacher Paloma and go into the group room, where a few other children already are. The furnishings and the working materials remind us strongly of Fioretti. I go with Lavinia to the creative work while Maddalena is in the garden with Valentino. The programme is creative work, active play in the garden with the playhouse, a group game and a story, with which the children are supposed to settle again. Later a music therapist arrives and offers a wonderful exercise, which the children do not take to particularly well.

In the afternoon we cycle the Ciclovia dell'Acquedotto Pugliese in the Valle d'Itria. The route follows an old aqueduct and passes many beautiful trulli. In the evening we top up the fresh water tank without noticing that it is rainwater. The water smells of slurry, and now sadly so does the whole tank. We drain most of it and decide to drive to a camper shop the next day to buy a disinfectant. In the morning we say goodbye to the school and to all those fine people. We wish them success, strength, inspiration and passion in carrying this project on.