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Authentic fishing villages Amalfi or Pugia

Authentic fishing villages Amalfi or Pugia

Old Aug 31st, 2016, 10:49 AM
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Authentic fishing villages Amalfi or Pugia

It's been years since I visited the Amalfi Coast and I'm headed back there to take some pictures of Italian fishing boats and net fishing..

Can anyone recommend an active fishing village or just a picturesque town where fishing still happens in an active way?

I've heard Puglia is more 'legit' and less tourist-y...

Thoughts?

Thanks so much!
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 10:57 AM
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If you plan on driving, you might consider heading east from Rome and heading down the coast towards Puglia. Between Chieti and Vasto on Abruzzo's coastline, you will come across trabocchi, the fishing contraptions found in that area. Very photogenic!

http://www.lifeinabruzzo.com/trabocc...r-the-seasick/
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 11:26 AM
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If you mean net fishing visible from the shore, and fishing boats pulled up on the beach, and people mending their nets by the seaside, I think you'll only see that in historical re-enactments. It's hard enough to make a living from fishing using modern methods.

Nets are still commonly used, but with motorized winches, and too far out to see them, unless you go out in a boat yourself.

I think there are trabocchi (or trabucchi) everywhere on the Adriatic coast. I certainly see them in Le Marche, in seaside towns north of Ancona. It's more a hobby, just as you see people walking along the beach at low tide, gathering clams from the surf-washed sand to make the sauce for their lunch-time spaghetti.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 12:19 PM
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Monopoli has such a scene, as I have seen recent pictures of it.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 01:34 PM
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Where were those pictures?
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 01:55 PM
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Actually, I once saw a fisherman repairing his net in Senigallia, but I wouldn't advise anyone to go there in search of picturesque fishing scenes.

My husband and I spent a week in the mountains of Abruzzo about ten years ago. I had read that in the town of Scanno, people still wore the traditional costume. We went there and did see a fair number of women with long dresses and aprons and little caps, and a few men with short trousers, stockings, and black vests.

A little later, we were in a nearby town and someone there told us that the town of Scanno paid some old people, who had little money and lots of time, to wear the greatly simplified "traditional costume".

When we were in Sardegna, we saw a lot of women in traditional costume, but I had become cynical by then.

And once, in the winter, we happened to spend a Saturday night in a village in Alto Adige, and on Sunday morning, the church bells rang, and women, young and old, poured out of their houses all wearing long grey dresses with aprons, and their hair arranged in a braid encircling their heads. This I thought must be authentic, since there's no tourism there at that time of year. I was really curious to know if it was only on Sundays that they dressed like that.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 02:57 PM
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They were on a friend's phone from her visit in June. She stayed in an apartment in monopoli.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 03:43 PM
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Most of the locals have abandoned fishing for fish, and now concentrate on trawling for tourists. They're very good at it.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 04:37 PM
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In Sorrento, in Marina Grande, I took these two photos of the same guy mending his fishing nets. One was in 2010 and the other in 2014. I was surprised when I was editing my photos after the 2014 trip and recognized the same guy I had shot four years before, but it certainly looks like the same guy.

http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/163998853/large
http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/161274120

I saw lots of piles of fishing nets, and several boats that were clearly still used for fishing. I assume they were using the nets and that they weren't just piled up there for the tourists to look at.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 05:13 PM
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Procida relies on the fishing industry. It is not an island dressed up for tourists (who usually go to nearby Capri).

Marina Corricella has fishing nets and little colorful boats tied up, with grizzled fishermen and lots of cats. It is like something out of a child's picture book.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 08:55 PM
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I second procida - in june i saw many fishing boats, nets, fishermen and fishing.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 10:55 PM
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When we were in Puglia in 2014 we saw fishing boats and fishermen in Gallipoli. There was an interesting fish market there too.
We took a day trip from Lecce and just happened upon the docks as we found parking near there.

There was quite a bit of activity, a few fellows net mending on the dock and other men working on the boats. I did not see any other tourists.
I grew up in a fishing town with fishermen friends and family, have seen plenty of nets being mended, hung around on the docks etc as a kid, think I know real when I see it and this looked like the real deal.
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Old Aug 31st, 2016, 11:01 PM
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Just to clarify they were not hand casting these nets into the sea, they were huge nets like our fisherman use, definitely being winched in and out of the sea from the boat. There were piles of them on the dock either being mended or waiting for mending.
The boats were good sized also for going out distances, not enormous but not little open skiffs. And the boats were very weathered and well used looking.
Some guys were bringing fish off of some of them which was interesting.
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Old Sep 1st, 2016, 11:05 AM
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In almost any coastal town, you can see the boats offloading fish if you get to the port very early in the morning. We sometimes go to buy fish from the market on the pier. However, as I said before, anywhere I've been isn't what I would call picturesque.

The Adriatic is very badly over-fished at this point. At the moment, there's a block on fishing in the upper Adriatic until the end of September. The Lower Adriatic will have a block in a few weeks. What's blocked is basically trawling with nets. Sport fishing with rod and line is still permitted. Yesterday I bought some very nice swordfish steaks from a big fish taken with a line in the waters near Ancona.
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Old Sep 2nd, 2016, 09:35 AM
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The town of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast is famous for its anchovy fishing.
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