The last two places we visited were white, the white town of Monte Sant’Angelo and the Citta Bianca, Ostuni, in Apuglia.
Mont Sant’Angelo is on the Gargano Peninsular on the Adriatic coast and has attracted pilgrims since the 10th century. It has many churches ( of course) but the main one, the Basilica of San Michele, is carved into the rock walls and occupies the centre of the rocky hill. I didn’t take any photos but did find the crypt , which houses the original entry point and stairs of the pilgrims, the current church, which is basically a cave, and the accompanying museum, very interesting and quite beautiful. However, that fascination did not extend to other ten or so churches, so we satisfied ourselves with a visit to the nearby beach towns and many walks round the labyrinthine old town of Mont Sant’Angelo.
The drive there from Abruzzo was stunning, with distant mountains and a descent into far more lush and green fields. It seemed like we passed through the food bowl of Italy .
We had a great little unit in Monte Sant’Angelo, that our friend Salvatore recommended. It was the first one that had a well functioning kitchen, a very comfortable bed, a great shower , a washing machine AND a washing line, so we enjoyed some domestic down time there. I did mean to get Jock to take a picture of me at the classic Italian washing line, which is attached to the wall outside a window or, as in our case, a balcony. Ours had a view of the far off ocean and the extraordinary stone terraces that have been carved into the very steep hillsides.
We drove to the nearby coast, round hairpin bend after hairpin bend and finally arrived at the Adriatic Sea which was very blue and calm. I put my toes in and very much regretted that I had left my swimmers in the suitcase, as it was warm enough for a dip. We had to content ourselves with a long walk on the pebbly beach and some fresh seafood for lunch. We went to two towns there, one being Manfredonia, a very congested but pretty seaside hub. Can’t imagine how it copes in the season as it was already bumper to bumper traffic with no parking.
After Mont Sant’Angelo we headed further south to Ostuni which is a long way south, in Apuglia.
Here we have been very entertained by our Airbnb host, Silvano, who speaks no English, but who is irrepressible and sociable in the extreme. So he just uses the translator on his smartphone when he has to, but otherwise communicates in slow, single Italian words (which we have some chance of understanding) and brilliant sign language and sound effects. Imagine, horse , for instance in sign language and sound effects; easy.
Silvano runs a couple of hectares of olive trees which are made into olive oil, and on the property is an ancient trullo. These are traditional stone structures that have a conical roof, used on agricultural properties for living in and/or for storage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trullo
We spent a very pleasant few hours with Silvano on his property and he also took us on a short tour, to his favourite spot on the coast, where he dives, and to a great lookout point in Ostuni. He was incredibly generous with his time and energy, but I must say, he has a great deal of energy. Is it all that coffee they drink or just the nature of these wiry, fit folk?
We also met with Emilio who came to our place with his brother Salva some years ago. He took us to the best place in Ostuni to drink granita coffee with panna ( which we had not heard of and may not have tried if we had). But we were so glad we did. It’s a delicious iced coffee with a topping of cream, very different to an iced coffee in Australia. Emilio told us a lot about the history of Ostuni and also introduced us to a number of cafe owners (as did Silvano) so we have not been short of places to drop into to have a coffee and say hi.
Amazingly, we had another very social day today when we headed to a well known seafood restaurant in the seaside town of Santa Sabina, near Ostuni. Turns out that the couple on the table next to us were Australians, who live nearby. They are only the second Australian couple we have met here. So we had a long talk and exchanged addresses with talk of house swaps etc………………….
The restaurant was right on the ocean and the food was excellent. It was packed with Italians out for their traditional Sunday family lunch.
Ostuni itself is another walled city on a hill (are you noticing the theme here) and is painted white. So its quite dramatic against the blue sky and distant ocean.
Our little unit , which is very close to the historic centre, has a conical roof on two levels inside, which are an echo of the trullo, and has a small roof terrace. We sat up there last night and with the white walls and flat external roofs , the surrounding area looked sort of middle eastern or African, but the call to prayer was church bells.
It’s been a different Italy on this Adriatic coast. It is certainly the olive growing capital of the country and the rich red soil is evident everywhere. We’ve enjoyed being near the ocean again. But we do find the litter everywhere, including on the beaches, distressing and inexplicable, given the immense pride that people seem to have in their history and culture. Just don’t get why it excludes so much of their public environment.
Tomorrow we are off to the cave dwellings town of Matera. Ciao.
Ostuni in the background.