Puglia Socks Down 2

Across The Boot

A friend of Michael's had suggested we head for the Adriatic coast, roughly east across the boot, so after a leisurely coffee and brekky we headed off.

Our rusk-ic spread

We squeezed through narrow village streets, on our way across a skinny part of the country.

Small coffee house somewhere, full of locals.

90c for a coffee, 80c for a croissant. Yep, these places still exist way out here.

There was even some forest

The Apennines, from the ground up.

Benvenuti a Benevento!

We stopped at a town Michael knew, Benevento, which means, "good wind."

That was before our garlic lunch.

According to mythology, Benevento was founded by the Greek hero Diomedes, after his exploits in the Trojan War. The town has some incredible ancient architectural masterpieces.

It also has a bishop

We parked up, and went a-wanderin.'

The Arch of Trajan, constructed in 114, is one of the best preserved Roman structures in the whole region. It was named after the famous Roman Emperor of the same name, who built major roads and other infrastructure in the area during his reign.

Ancient art

The town was as dead as a floornail, which is way deader than a doornail, which gets to at least move every now and then.

But we found a place to have a delicious lunch anyway.

It's so good to have so many vegetarian options again, after the extremely slim pickings of Central Asia.

The higher hills.

We went to an amazing Roman amphitheatre, which was inaugurated sometime early in the 2nd Century AD.

There were lots of bits and pieces lying about. Ancient carved and inscribed stones are a lire-a-dozen around these parts.

With his money? What, the money he either pillaged from the local peasants, or stole from the treasuries of other kingdoms? Interesting way to look at it.

I guess nothing much has changed, when I think about it.

Whadda you think about all that, Mazza?

To The Coast

After our delicious lunch, we eventually headed on, in the blistering summer heat, diagonally down towards the east coast.

Very Oz-looking

Even got bushfires

Ancient olive grove

We bypassed towns like these

Stone fruits

Ancient trulli, traditional conical buildings. We'll see lots more of those later on.

Monopoli

Eventually we reached our destination, Monopoli, which Michael's friend had suggested we visit.

We arrived somewhere west of the centre of town, and found a small guesthouse, but they didn't have any rooms. The area was, well, sorta nothing special, just oldish residential apartments, although it wasn't too far from the beach.

But then we headed further in, towards the centre of town, parked up, and went a-strollin.' Suddenly it was magnificent.

Like most Italian towns and cities, Monopoli has a hugely long and varied history - of prosperity, siege, takeover, and decline.

Even though it was settled way back in 500BC, the area became prominent in the early 100's, when Emperor Trajan developed major roads there, including the Via Traiana, one of the most important roads of the Roman Empire. The road connected Rome with the port of Brindisi, and the Adriatic Coast, which allowed relatively quick onward travel to the eastern Empire, and was shorter than the earlier version, the Via Appia, or Appian Way.

Monopoli was ruled by various groups including the Byzantines, the Normans, and even the Hohenstaufen, a kingdom originating from the Schwabian part of southwestern Germany. At the height of its splendour, the city was a point of departure for naval expeditions during the Crusades.

In the late 1400s it came under Venetian rule, and flourished. But it kept getting attacked by Muslims, so major fortifications were built along its sea walls. The Spanish also kept attacking it, and it eventually fell.

These days the only Spanish there are tourists, and, I've gotta say, they're not the only ones. There's tourists there of all colours and flavours, but they're mainly Italian.

Our first glimpses of the Storico Centro, the historical centre of the town.

We found somewhere to sit and drink Apero Spritz, the best pre-dinner drink known to womankind, and to mankind too, and ordered a dish with stunningly good cheeses and salady thingies.

But way too many meats for my liking.

The summer hordes were out'n'about

Eventually we thought we'd better organise somewhere to stay, as it was nearly dark, so we found a place online, and had to wait forever for the woman to turn up to let us in.

It was fab though.

Our little spot for a few nights. Lucky aren't we. Michael generously put in the lion's share of the funds for it, because Michael's just a sweet generous guy isn't he, as you would well know by now if you've been reading previous tales of my vagabonding.

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9

Go to Part 3