Venturing into Southern Italy – A Short TR
Oct 17th, 2012, 02:03 PM
#21
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What a great report! And Antichi Sapori.....I am almost swooning thinking of that restaurant!
My partner is a huge music lover and because we missed the Mondugno statue on our first trip to Polignano, we drove back there on our next Puglian trip just so he could spend some quality time with Domenico! (And so I could have some more gelato!)
Apparently Mondugno is persona non grata in Polignano because he never returned home after he achieved fame and fortune. (I cannot belive that I actually know this juicy tidbit!!)
My partner is a huge music lover and because we missed the Mondugno statue on our first trip to Polignano, we drove back there on our next Puglian trip just so he could spend some quality time with Domenico! (And so I could have some more gelato!)
Apparently Mondugno is persona non grata in Polignano because he never returned home after he achieved fame and fortune. (I cannot belive that I actually know this juicy tidbit!!)
Oct 18th, 2012, 10:08 AM
#22
hi yetravel,
thanks for sharing your foodie discoveries with us!
DD just had loads of fun trying to translate the recipe on the Antichi Sapori website - something about little ears and big arses! [actually we think it means "dried" but that doesn't sound as good].
thanks for sharing your foodie discoveries with us!
DD just had loads of fun trying to translate the recipe on the Antichi Sapori website - something about little ears and big arses! [actually we think it means "dried" but that doesn't sound as good].
Oct 18th, 2012, 11:42 AM
#23
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Ann: Do you mean "grano arso?" The story goes that the very poor in Puglia and Basilicata were reduced to eating the remnants of wheat that remained on the ground after the fields had been burned. They would make their flour from this, and from the flour, make pasta.
Today pasta made from grano arso is actually MORE expensive than regular pasta. I bought some at Antichi Sapori, and just picked up another bag on my most recent trip.
More practice for you and your DD!!
http://www.sumapastaoro.it/pasta-di-grano-arso.html
http://www.saporideisassi.it/pasta-s...rano-arso.html
Today pasta made from grano arso is actually MORE expensive than regular pasta. I bought some at Antichi Sapori, and just picked up another bag on my most recent trip.
More practice for you and your DD!!
http://www.sumapastaoro.it/pasta-di-grano-arso.html
http://www.saporideisassi.it/pasta-s...rano-arso.html
Oct 25th, 2012, 03:11 PM
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Spelling Yestravel for description of the following two days...Gottravel
The next day, we explored the area immediately south of Mola di Bari - trulli country. We drove to the hilltop village of Locorotondo and parked, after some deliberation over the meaning of a parking sign, at the bottom of the old part of this beautiful white village and strolled up hill to the historic center. The old village of Locorotondo seems to be constructed as a spiral out from the cathedral. The streets were both dazzling and confusing. By sheer good luck, we were able to observe a wedding in progress at the cathedral from the piazza outside. The bride and groom were showered with confetti and balloons were released to float away into the speckless sky.
Rita had provided a truly massive breakfast - fruit and three kinds of pastry. We didn't feel like lunch until mid-afternoon. We drove to the nearby sea-front town of Selvatore. It was incredible how devoid of people it was! We walked along the waterfront from one end to the other and saw only a few people in cafes; the streets were empty, more so than usual for siesta time. This was a seasonal village - and summer was over. We eventually opted for a seafront restaurant (I didn't note down the name) with a spectacular sea view. We entered tentatively, initially debating whether it was even open, but were waved in to a table overlooking the harbor. There was only one other couple there, finishing up their lunch. We had a small lunch - grilled octopus and spaghetti vongole and a half liter of white wine. Everything was simple and good.
After lunch, we decided to go to the trulli heartland - Alberobello. Trulli are circular conical homes built of flat stones. Historically, they were built without mortar, the idea being to be able to disassemble them as quickly as possible whenever the tax man came around. Trulli construction seems to be largely confined to a relatively small area of Puglia around Alberobello. Alberobello itself is trull central. Unfortunately, it knows it is trull central and has metamorphesized into a tourist town, not unlike a cross between Disneyland (Trulliland?) and a French boutique tourist village like Carcassonne. Many of the trulli have been converted into souvenir stands selling trulli-related paraphernalia, We made our way around the village a bit - it was crowded - fingered some trulli tea towels - and retreated to our car. We drove around in the nearby country a bit to catch trulli in their natural habitat. We then started heading back to Rita's via an inland road that took us through Putignano, Castellena (horrible rush hour traffic!) and Conversano on the way to Rutigliano, near the underpass where we'd initially met Rita to follow her to the Masseria Serra Dell'Isola.
Our previous excursion from Rita's had involved us taking a route towards Mola di Bari and then traveling south along the coast to Polignano a Mare. We'd merely retraced our route on returning. Returning to Rita's from the inland side proved a bit more problematic. The route numbers - missing in many cases - did not agree with those on our iPad. We made a series of wrong turns of the "this looks like it" variety on miniature narrow roads and were unable to find Rita's. To make matters worse, we didn't have Rita's phone number, nor could we look it up on our iPad as we lacked wifi. By now, it was starting to get dark. We decided to drive towards Mola di Bari and recreate our route from there. Due to the high church tower, Mola di Bari was unmistakable and we made it there easily. However, we seemed unable to find the road we had taken the previous day. In our meanderings, we eventually encountered someone and asked if he knew where Rita's masseria was. He basically turned us around and sent us two kilometers down the road and it appeared, as if by magic, on our left. We must have circled several times as we'd gone on the small country roads!
Undeterred, we went out that evening for dinner in Polignano a Mare. Rita had recommended two restaurants, both of which served seafood. I parked on the main square outside the charming old town, paid for enough parking to last us until the next morning, and we started strolling along the sea-side road. We found one of the recommended restaurants, Donna Gina, just past the bridge spanning the tiny inlet by the old town. We managed to acquire an outside table overlooking the inlet and its miniature fifty-food wide beach. Polignano old town was opposite - a flood lit cliff of stone topped with another cliff of white buildings. What a view! The food was out of this world. We shared an octopus salad antipasto and risotto frutti di mare and a bottle of chardonnay. Fantastic! After a walk through the old-town section of Polignano a Mare, we drove back to Rita's with minimal difficulties.
The next day brought another large breakfast. By now we had the sense not to eat everything presented to us, difficult though that may be. We leisurely drove towards Ostuni along the coast - getting lost in various small towns along the way - before heading inland. Ostuni was a beautiful white village. Perhaps I was getting jaded after so many white villages…another day, another white-washed Southern Italian village. By now all photos had begun to look the same: Narrow alleys framed by tall walls that were while when shadowed and brilliant when in the sun; in the center, a jagged narrow wedge of impeccably blue sky. Ostuni had spectacular views out over the flat land to the coast. It also had elaborate carved baroque sandstone door frames unique to the town. We wandered a while and then sought out the Osteria del Tempo Perso, a restaurant recommended for local specialties, for lunch. We made reservations for when the osteria opened at 12:00. We arrived about ten minutes early and they showed us to a table in the back "grotto" part of the restaurant, an expanded cave. We were to discover than Puglian specialties are a lot easier to comprehend when you have three plates instead of twelve or fifteen. We started with deep-fried yucca ((zucchini) fritters stuffed with ricotta and mint. Sublime! Next we had shrimp with lemon and olive oil and an old Puglian "poor food" specialty, fava puree topped with sautéed chicory. Both were excellent.
That evening, we returned to the beautiful seaside town of Polignano a Mare. We walked the white-washed streets for an hour. Then we stopped for a late dinner at Ristorante Neuro on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, as much for the ambiance of the piazza as for food. We had a grilled octopus (again!) and a good pizza. However, after our superb lunch, however, even these delights seemed pedestrian.
The next day, we explored the area immediately south of Mola di Bari - trulli country. We drove to the hilltop village of Locorotondo and parked, after some deliberation over the meaning of a parking sign, at the bottom of the old part of this beautiful white village and strolled up hill to the historic center. The old village of Locorotondo seems to be constructed as a spiral out from the cathedral. The streets were both dazzling and confusing. By sheer good luck, we were able to observe a wedding in progress at the cathedral from the piazza outside. The bride and groom were showered with confetti and balloons were released to float away into the speckless sky.
Rita had provided a truly massive breakfast - fruit and three kinds of pastry. We didn't feel like lunch until mid-afternoon. We drove to the nearby sea-front town of Selvatore. It was incredible how devoid of people it was! We walked along the waterfront from one end to the other and saw only a few people in cafes; the streets were empty, more so than usual for siesta time. This was a seasonal village - and summer was over. We eventually opted for a seafront restaurant (I didn't note down the name) with a spectacular sea view. We entered tentatively, initially debating whether it was even open, but were waved in to a table overlooking the harbor. There was only one other couple there, finishing up their lunch. We had a small lunch - grilled octopus and spaghetti vongole and a half liter of white wine. Everything was simple and good.
After lunch, we decided to go to the trulli heartland - Alberobello. Trulli are circular conical homes built of flat stones. Historically, they were built without mortar, the idea being to be able to disassemble them as quickly as possible whenever the tax man came around. Trulli construction seems to be largely confined to a relatively small area of Puglia around Alberobello. Alberobello itself is trull central. Unfortunately, it knows it is trull central and has metamorphesized into a tourist town, not unlike a cross between Disneyland (Trulliland?) and a French boutique tourist village like Carcassonne. Many of the trulli have been converted into souvenir stands selling trulli-related paraphernalia, We made our way around the village a bit - it was crowded - fingered some trulli tea towels - and retreated to our car. We drove around in the nearby country a bit to catch trulli in their natural habitat. We then started heading back to Rita's via an inland road that took us through Putignano, Castellena (horrible rush hour traffic!) and Conversano on the way to Rutigliano, near the underpass where we'd initially met Rita to follow her to the Masseria Serra Dell'Isola.
Our previous excursion from Rita's had involved us taking a route towards Mola di Bari and then traveling south along the coast to Polignano a Mare. We'd merely retraced our route on returning. Returning to Rita's from the inland side proved a bit more problematic. The route numbers - missing in many cases - did not agree with those on our iPad. We made a series of wrong turns of the "this looks like it" variety on miniature narrow roads and were unable to find Rita's. To make matters worse, we didn't have Rita's phone number, nor could we look it up on our iPad as we lacked wifi. By now, it was starting to get dark. We decided to drive towards Mola di Bari and recreate our route from there. Due to the high church tower, Mola di Bari was unmistakable and we made it there easily. However, we seemed unable to find the road we had taken the previous day. In our meanderings, we eventually encountered someone and asked if he knew where Rita's masseria was. He basically turned us around and sent us two kilometers down the road and it appeared, as if by magic, on our left. We must have circled several times as we'd gone on the small country roads!
Undeterred, we went out that evening for dinner in Polignano a Mare. Rita had recommended two restaurants, both of which served seafood. I parked on the main square outside the charming old town, paid for enough parking to last us until the next morning, and we started strolling along the sea-side road. We found one of the recommended restaurants, Donna Gina, just past the bridge spanning the tiny inlet by the old town. We managed to acquire an outside table overlooking the inlet and its miniature fifty-food wide beach. Polignano old town was opposite - a flood lit cliff of stone topped with another cliff of white buildings. What a view! The food was out of this world. We shared an octopus salad antipasto and risotto frutti di mare and a bottle of chardonnay. Fantastic! After a walk through the old-town section of Polignano a Mare, we drove back to Rita's with minimal difficulties.
The next day brought another large breakfast. By now we had the sense not to eat everything presented to us, difficult though that may be. We leisurely drove towards Ostuni along the coast - getting lost in various small towns along the way - before heading inland. Ostuni was a beautiful white village. Perhaps I was getting jaded after so many white villages…another day, another white-washed Southern Italian village. By now all photos had begun to look the same: Narrow alleys framed by tall walls that were while when shadowed and brilliant when in the sun; in the center, a jagged narrow wedge of impeccably blue sky. Ostuni had spectacular views out over the flat land to the coast. It also had elaborate carved baroque sandstone door frames unique to the town. We wandered a while and then sought out the Osteria del Tempo Perso, a restaurant recommended for local specialties, for lunch. We made reservations for when the osteria opened at 12:00. We arrived about ten minutes early and they showed us to a table in the back "grotto" part of the restaurant, an expanded cave. We were to discover than Puglian specialties are a lot easier to comprehend when you have three plates instead of twelve or fifteen. We started with deep-fried yucca ((zucchini) fritters stuffed with ricotta and mint. Sublime! Next we had shrimp with lemon and olive oil and an old Puglian "poor food" specialty, fava puree topped with sautéed chicory. Both were excellent.
That evening, we returned to the beautiful seaside town of Polignano a Mare. We walked the white-washed streets for an hour. Then we stopped for a late dinner at Ristorante Neuro on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, as much for the ambiance of the piazza as for food. We had a grilled octopus (again!) and a good pizza. However, after our superb lunch, however, even these delights seemed pedestrian.
Oct 27th, 2012, 12:15 PM
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<b>Matera</b>
We're moving on to Matera which fascinated us and was one of the highlights of the trip. Before driving to Matera we spent 5 days in the Salento (Lecce area) in Galatina and we can provide a write up of that area if there is any interest.
we liked Matera from the moment of our arrival. Our road into town had taken past the Monastero di Sant'Agostino and we pulled over to catch the unanticipated, but stunning view from the Monastero. The developed portion of the old cave city - the Sasso Barisano section - and the duomo were directly in front of out us, framed by the road into and out of town. We found our hotel, the Residence San Giorgio, without difficulty - when we'd stopped in the lower part of Sasso Barisano to get our bearings, the hotel reception was right there! The San Giorgio is a "dispersed hotel." The office was on the street, but the rooms were scattered in several nearby buildings. We parked on the square - actually a wide spot in the road - in front of the San Giorgio and hauled our luggage up and down slick steps for about a hundred meters to our room. And our room was a cave, admittedly a high-end cave, but a cave nonetheless. We dropped our stuff off and began our explorations of the town.
Our dinner that night was at Cantina Bruno, up the steps from where we were staying. We were the only guests. It was a perfect evening and we opted for an outside table with a view of a cliff face of sassi & build-ons to sassi across what had once been a ravine. We had a delicious plate of mixed antipasti, then ravioli stuffed with walnuts and spaghetti with sausage, mushrooms and chick peas. We accompanied it with the fabulous house primitivo. Everything was superb. (About $30 euros.)
We toured Matera the next day with a Nadia, a lifelong resident of the town and recommended on this board. She gave a history of the city and the caves, some of which had been inhabited for 8,000 years and had only been vacated in the 1960s, when the local authorities constructed modern housing in the upper "new" city. As we toured, the salient fact that stuck with me was that, archaeologically, speaking, Matera was inverted. Usually, when archaeologists escalate a site, the most artifacts are at the top. In Matera, because people added on to their caves by digging them out further, the oldest items were at the top, the newest at the bottom. It was a fascinating tour that ended with Nadia revealing the secret of getting around the city: walk on the outside road and avoid the ups and downs of the interior. Based on Nadia's recommendation, we had lunch at the Rosa di Venti, in the "new" city. We shared gnocchi en walnut sauce, a puree of fava beans and chick peas and half a liter of red wine. All very tasty. (About 20 euros.) Then we had the superb "gelato artiganale" at Vizi Degli Angeli nearby. Apparently there is a theory among gelato lovers that gelato that is covered is better than that which is uncovered and viewable. This gelato was both covered and the very best we had on our trip.
Dinner that evening was Le Botteghe, based on recommendations from multiple sources. We had a six-course (but not overwhelming) house antipasti, all served separately (per my notes, these included fresh ricotta, two types of bread balls, grilled melanzana with tomato sauce meat balls, and something like a cross between a frittata and a flat bread. We abandoned our usual pasta follow-up for a three hundred grams (a little over half a pound) of succulent grass-fed steak grilled to perfection (i.e., very rare) with a delicious contorno of julienned zucchini on the side. We accompanied everything with a bottle of the house Aglianico del Vulture, a red wine from the basilicata area. The dolce - dessert - was panna cotta, which we shared. This was a memorable meal, particularly when the bill arrived and was substantially larger than we'd anticipated…as we were puzzling it out, our server arrived with a new bill. We'd been charged for an entire kilogram of steak by accident! The (adjusted) cost of our meal was about 50 euros. We followed it with a lengthy walk.
Until now, we'd spent our days wandering the inverted (and vertical) town. This morning we sought out the town's two museums. The first was MUSMA (Museo della Scultura Contemporanea Matera), a contemporary sculpture museum. It was housed, appropriately enough, in a cave complex. For its size this was the best sculpture museum I've been to. It filled ten small rooms carved out of the soft local rock. In addition to the sculptures, there was a temporary show of photographs in honor of the 100th birthday of modernist composer John Cage (spelled "Caage" in Italian). From this superb museum, we wound our way to the Palazzo Lanfranchi in the new town, where the Museum of Modern Art houses the Centro Carlo Levi. Carlo Levi was aMilanese writer and painter whip had been exiled in 1936 to Basilicata (nearby Aliano) for his opposition to the Fascist government of Mussolini. (Mussolini seems to have been something of a light weigh in the dictator category; other European dictatorships of that era preferred decidedly more permanent forms of societal removal for political opponents.) Levi later documented the horrendous poverty of Basilicata in his book "Christ Stopped at Eboli." He also returned to Matera to paint an enormous mural of the impoverished peasants he had known during his brief (1 year) exile. The mural is enormous, perhaps thirty meters long. On the opposite wall are photographs of various peasants that he had taken in the 1930s. Portions of the photographs are reproduced in the mural. In addition, the museum has several galleries of Levi's other paintings, including some excellent portraits.
Lunch that day comprised stopping at various bakeries and snacking. Our favorite was the Casa de Pave (spelling? - my notes are hard to read) off the Piazza V. Vennetto on the upper level. Dinner - after much more walking around town - was at I Due Sassi. We had great antipasti della casa: eggplant wrapped around tuna. (Fabulous!), four different cheeses, three different types of salami, two types of ham, mushrooms, grilled onions, bruscetta with tomatoes. (Oddly, in a break w/ southern Italian tradition, there were no peppers nor olives.) Our shared prime was cavalatelli ( sp? - a type of pasta) with mushrooms and sausage; it differed from previous versions we'd had by being in a tomato sauce. Secondi - the previous night's meat-fest seemed to have inspired us - was a kind of mixed grill - sausage, veal and beef. The wine was Martino Alianco del Vulture - by then we'd learned that, when ordering red wine in Basilicata, anything with "del Vulture" appended to the name tended to be very, very good. Our dolce was tiramasu, the best we'd had in the south of Italy.
On our walk back to our room, we took the external road that circumnavigated the old sassi part of Matera. Across an immense ravine, some old sassi were internally-lit; the effect in was beautiful and spectral. The night weather was cool - actually cool - for the first time this trip.
We're moving on to Matera which fascinated us and was one of the highlights of the trip. Before driving to Matera we spent 5 days in the Salento (Lecce area) in Galatina and we can provide a write up of that area if there is any interest.
we liked Matera from the moment of our arrival. Our road into town had taken past the Monastero di Sant'Agostino and we pulled over to catch the unanticipated, but stunning view from the Monastero. The developed portion of the old cave city - the Sasso Barisano section - and the duomo were directly in front of out us, framed by the road into and out of town. We found our hotel, the Residence San Giorgio, without difficulty - when we'd stopped in the lower part of Sasso Barisano to get our bearings, the hotel reception was right there! The San Giorgio is a "dispersed hotel." The office was on the street, but the rooms were scattered in several nearby buildings. We parked on the square - actually a wide spot in the road - in front of the San Giorgio and hauled our luggage up and down slick steps for about a hundred meters to our room. And our room was a cave, admittedly a high-end cave, but a cave nonetheless. We dropped our stuff off and began our explorations of the town.
Our dinner that night was at Cantina Bruno, up the steps from where we were staying. We were the only guests. It was a perfect evening and we opted for an outside table with a view of a cliff face of sassi & build-ons to sassi across what had once been a ravine. We had a delicious plate of mixed antipasti, then ravioli stuffed with walnuts and spaghetti with sausage, mushrooms and chick peas. We accompanied it with the fabulous house primitivo. Everything was superb. (About $30 euros.)
We toured Matera the next day with a Nadia, a lifelong resident of the town and recommended on this board. She gave a history of the city and the caves, some of which had been inhabited for 8,000 years and had only been vacated in the 1960s, when the local authorities constructed modern housing in the upper "new" city. As we toured, the salient fact that stuck with me was that, archaeologically, speaking, Matera was inverted. Usually, when archaeologists escalate a site, the most artifacts are at the top. In Matera, because people added on to their caves by digging them out further, the oldest items were at the top, the newest at the bottom. It was a fascinating tour that ended with Nadia revealing the secret of getting around the city: walk on the outside road and avoid the ups and downs of the interior. Based on Nadia's recommendation, we had lunch at the Rosa di Venti, in the "new" city. We shared gnocchi en walnut sauce, a puree of fava beans and chick peas and half a liter of red wine. All very tasty. (About 20 euros.) Then we had the superb "gelato artiganale" at Vizi Degli Angeli nearby. Apparently there is a theory among gelato lovers that gelato that is covered is better than that which is uncovered and viewable. This gelato was both covered and the very best we had on our trip.
Dinner that evening was Le Botteghe, based on recommendations from multiple sources. We had a six-course (but not overwhelming) house antipasti, all served separately (per my notes, these included fresh ricotta, two types of bread balls, grilled melanzana with tomato sauce meat balls, and something like a cross between a frittata and a flat bread. We abandoned our usual pasta follow-up for a three hundred grams (a little over half a pound) of succulent grass-fed steak grilled to perfection (i.e., very rare) with a delicious contorno of julienned zucchini on the side. We accompanied everything with a bottle of the house Aglianico del Vulture, a red wine from the basilicata area. The dolce - dessert - was panna cotta, which we shared. This was a memorable meal, particularly when the bill arrived and was substantially larger than we'd anticipated…as we were puzzling it out, our server arrived with a new bill. We'd been charged for an entire kilogram of steak by accident! The (adjusted) cost of our meal was about 50 euros. We followed it with a lengthy walk.
Until now, we'd spent our days wandering the inverted (and vertical) town. This morning we sought out the town's two museums. The first was MUSMA (Museo della Scultura Contemporanea Matera), a contemporary sculpture museum. It was housed, appropriately enough, in a cave complex. For its size this was the best sculpture museum I've been to. It filled ten small rooms carved out of the soft local rock. In addition to the sculptures, there was a temporary show of photographs in honor of the 100th birthday of modernist composer John Cage (spelled "Caage" in Italian). From this superb museum, we wound our way to the Palazzo Lanfranchi in the new town, where the Museum of Modern Art houses the Centro Carlo Levi. Carlo Levi was aMilanese writer and painter whip had been exiled in 1936 to Basilicata (nearby Aliano) for his opposition to the Fascist government of Mussolini. (Mussolini seems to have been something of a light weigh in the dictator category; other European dictatorships of that era preferred decidedly more permanent forms of societal removal for political opponents.) Levi later documented the horrendous poverty of Basilicata in his book "Christ Stopped at Eboli." He also returned to Matera to paint an enormous mural of the impoverished peasants he had known during his brief (1 year) exile. The mural is enormous, perhaps thirty meters long. On the opposite wall are photographs of various peasants that he had taken in the 1930s. Portions of the photographs are reproduced in the mural. In addition, the museum has several galleries of Levi's other paintings, including some excellent portraits.
Lunch that day comprised stopping at various bakeries and snacking. Our favorite was the Casa de Pave (spelling? - my notes are hard to read) off the Piazza V. Vennetto on the upper level. Dinner - after much more walking around town - was at I Due Sassi. We had great antipasti della casa: eggplant wrapped around tuna. (Fabulous!), four different cheeses, three different types of salami, two types of ham, mushrooms, grilled onions, bruscetta with tomatoes. (Oddly, in a break w/ southern Italian tradition, there were no peppers nor olives.) Our shared prime was cavalatelli ( sp? - a type of pasta) with mushrooms and sausage; it differed from previous versions we'd had by being in a tomato sauce. Secondi - the previous night's meat-fest seemed to have inspired us - was a kind of mixed grill - sausage, veal and beef. The wine was Martino Alianco del Vulture - by then we'd learned that, when ordering red wine in Basilicata, anything with "del Vulture" appended to the name tended to be very, very good. Our dolce was tiramasu, the best we'd had in the south of Italy.
On our walk back to our room, we took the external road that circumnavigated the old sassi part of Matera. Across an immense ravine, some old sassi were internally-lit; the effect in was beautiful and spectral. The night weather was cool - actually cool - for the first time this trip.
Feb 8th, 2014, 01:40 PM
#31
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What a great trip! I am in the mist of planning my trip to Puglia and would love your input. Your travel log has inspired me to stay in Naples for at least 4 nights at the Palazzo de Cumani.
We are flying in and out of Rome and renting our car at the airport there. We have three weeks to explore. I was wondering what you thought about this plan;
Day one long drive but head south to and stay at the Villa Casa D'Angelo for 2-3 nights and mimick your intinerary to the Gargano Penisula for a day trip, make sure to make a reservation for dinner at Antichi Sapori and any other suggestions you have for this region before heading further south.
Im considering 3 nights in Trani and day tripping from there before heading for a spot in the Valle D' Itria region still uncertain where to base here, Rita's sounds nice but not far enough south in your opinion correct?
Next stop for us would be somewhere near or in Leece for 4-5 days to explore the southern most tip of the heel before making our way up north, it sounds like Matera is worth a nigth or two as well before maybe stopping as you did on the AMalfi coast. We stayed in Ravello many yrs ago and fell in love with it so maybe a redo if not Capri (but thinking car would need to be returned first if we head to stay on the island of Capri). Then head to Naples could return the car here spent our last 4 nights before getting a car service back to the airport in Rome.
Would love to hear your ideal intinerary now that you have visited the region. From reading your blog its sounds like you and your husband enjoy the same type of lodging, exploring, and love for good food, architecture and local cultural, and like to shoot a bit from the hip and off the beaten path!
thanks
tish
We are flying in and out of Rome and renting our car at the airport there. We have three weeks to explore. I was wondering what you thought about this plan;
Day one long drive but head south to and stay at the Villa Casa D'Angelo for 2-3 nights and mimick your intinerary to the Gargano Penisula for a day trip, make sure to make a reservation for dinner at Antichi Sapori and any other suggestions you have for this region before heading further south.
Im considering 3 nights in Trani and day tripping from there before heading for a spot in the Valle D' Itria region still uncertain where to base here, Rita's sounds nice but not far enough south in your opinion correct?
Next stop for us would be somewhere near or in Leece for 4-5 days to explore the southern most tip of the heel before making our way up north, it sounds like Matera is worth a nigth or two as well before maybe stopping as you did on the AMalfi coast. We stayed in Ravello many yrs ago and fell in love with it so maybe a redo if not Capri (but thinking car would need to be returned first if we head to stay on the island of Capri). Then head to Naples could return the car here spent our last 4 nights before getting a car service back to the airport in Rome.
Would love to hear your ideal intinerary now that you have visited the region. From reading your blog its sounds like you and your husband enjoy the same type of lodging, exploring, and love for good food, architecture and local cultural, and like to shoot a bit from the hip and off the beaten path!
thanks
tish
Feb 8th, 2014, 03:41 PM
#32
Original Poster
Hi! Yes, Rita's was an inconvenient, but nice place mainly due to Rita. So I agree to base elsewhere.
For the Lecce area we were pleased with the apt we stayed in at Galatina. It was about a 20-30 minute easy ride to Lecce. It was also a nice base for our day trips to the South.
Don't miss Matera...fabulous. I would try to book Nadia as a guide. She was great.
If you haven't already read eskcrunchy's TR do . The have tons of great info.
For the Lecce area we were pleased with the apt we stayed in at Galatina. It was about a 20-30 minute easy ride to Lecce. It was also a nice base for our day trips to the South.
Don't miss Matera...fabulous. I would try to book Nadia as a guide. She was great.
If you haven't already read eskcrunchy's TR do . The have tons of great info.
Feb 9th, 2014, 03:22 AM
#33
You might like http://www.masseriaprovenzani.com/ good access to Lecce and Brindisi
Feb 9th, 2014, 06:07 AM
#34
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Wonderful report, Yes and Got!
A kind woman from Sicily warned us to share a cassata between us---one encased in chocolate and my teeth would have simply fallen out!
FYI, this month's "Smithsonian" has interesting article about the excavations in Matera.
A kind woman from Sicily warned us to share a cassata between us---one encased in chocolate and my teeth would have simply fallen out!
FYI, this month's "Smithsonian" has interesting article about the excavations in Matera.
Feb 16th, 2014, 06:35 AM
#36
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yestravel I have some more questions about my ever changing Itinerary.
My husband is now not wanting to base in Naples for a few nights so my latest plan is
Rome to Benevento ( souteast of Rome in the hills of Campagnia) for our first night before heading for Puglia to break up that long drive.
3 nights at the Masseria Luma di Luna near Montegrosso,Villa Casa DAngelo sadly is not longer running as a B&B just a slow food restaurant now. I would like a day for Trani and one for the Gargano Penisula. Do you think this is feesable if we only stayed 2 nights here or would you recommend the 3rd night since we do have 3 wks and prefer slow travel!
3-4 nights at Masseria LaRascina outside of Ostuni as a base to explore Valle D'Itria. Do you think this area warrants a 4th night for an extra day of day tripping from here?
4-5 nights at Palazzo Persone a boutique B&B in Lecce as our base to explore the Salento coast. I have heard from many folks that this was there favorite spot in Puglia and I want some time to appreciate the city as well as the coast.
I just looked at the Palazzo Margherita, Francis Ford Coppola's high end hotel in Bernalda and was thinking about a 2 night splurge stay here in Basillicata before heading to Cilento/Amalfi coastline. At this point I will have 7 more days nights before flying out of Rome, unless I cut a day or two from each base in Puglia. Any thoughts on that.
Did you actually stay anywhere in Cilento region? I have Pisciotta and Castellabate on my radar as pit stops before heading north to Ravello. I can't find a lot of information about the Cilento aside from the few fodorite posts, and I'm wondering if the 2nd week of May will be too sleepy there. We have been to Ravello before and it is a favorite spot of ours. I completely agree with your feelings about Positano which we too only day tripped to, but I prefered the hiking above Amalfi thru the small hilltop towns, and the serenity of Ravello in the evenings.
If we are having nice dry weather we will stay on the coast and just head to Tivoli for the day and night before we leave from Rome. If the weather is not favorabe for the coast plan B will be to return the car in Rome and spend our last 3 -4 nights in the city.
I would love some feedback on my current thoughts and plans.
My husband is now not wanting to base in Naples for a few nights so my latest plan is
Rome to Benevento ( souteast of Rome in the hills of Campagnia) for our first night before heading for Puglia to break up that long drive.
3 nights at the Masseria Luma di Luna near Montegrosso,Villa Casa DAngelo sadly is not longer running as a B&B just a slow food restaurant now. I would like a day for Trani and one for the Gargano Penisula. Do you think this is feesable if we only stayed 2 nights here or would you recommend the 3rd night since we do have 3 wks and prefer slow travel!
3-4 nights at Masseria LaRascina outside of Ostuni as a base to explore Valle D'Itria. Do you think this area warrants a 4th night for an extra day of day tripping from here?
4-5 nights at Palazzo Persone a boutique B&B in Lecce as our base to explore the Salento coast. I have heard from many folks that this was there favorite spot in Puglia and I want some time to appreciate the city as well as the coast.
I just looked at the Palazzo Margherita, Francis Ford Coppola's high end hotel in Bernalda and was thinking about a 2 night splurge stay here in Basillicata before heading to Cilento/Amalfi coastline. At this point I will have 7 more days nights before flying out of Rome, unless I cut a day or two from each base in Puglia. Any thoughts on that.
Did you actually stay anywhere in Cilento region? I have Pisciotta and Castellabate on my radar as pit stops before heading north to Ravello. I can't find a lot of information about the Cilento aside from the few fodorite posts, and I'm wondering if the 2nd week of May will be too sleepy there. We have been to Ravello before and it is a favorite spot of ours. I completely agree with your feelings about Positano which we too only day tripped to, but I prefered the hiking above Amalfi thru the small hilltop towns, and the serenity of Ravello in the evenings.
If we are having nice dry weather we will stay on the coast and just head to Tivoli for the day and night before we leave from Rome. If the weather is not favorabe for the coast plan B will be to return the car in Rome and spend our last 3 -4 nights in the city.
I would love some feedback on my current thoughts and plans.
Feb 16th, 2014, 07:11 PM
#38
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Thanks I have posted a similar thread, I had some feed back but not great. For some reason not as much action as the old posts from you, and eskcrunchy, and dina4 but I did take lots of notes from the old threads. Just having a hard time committing to the pre booking of hotels and knowing how many nights to a lot for each base having never been before. I guess in the end that's a personal choice.
Feb 16th, 2014, 08:03 PM
#39
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Glad this post came back up. DH and I are planning on Pulia in a few weeks. It had been on my dream list for awhile. Now I can settle in and read your whole post. Thanks.
We will land in Naples, stay a night, then head over to Pulia.
Have to do some research on getting around. We will want a car part of the time, but not sure if we should pick it up in Naples or train or bus from Naples and pick up the car in Pulia. Any thoughts on that are appreciated.
I will read as much as possible and put together an itinerary with notes from all fodorites' experiences.
We will land in Naples, stay a night, then head over to Pulia.
Have to do some research on getting around. We will want a car part of the time, but not sure if we should pick it up in Naples or train or bus from Naples and pick up the car in Pulia. Any thoughts on that are appreciated.
I will read as much as possible and put together an itinerary with notes from all fodorites' experiences.
Feb 16th, 2014, 09:59 PM
#40
Original Poster
Yes, 3 versus four nights is a personal choice and really negligible in the scheme of things. Sorry, you are not staying a night or two in Naples. I did not visit the Cliento region.
Lots to explore in the Ostuni region assuming you have a car, you can do nice day trips. Ditto for the Salento so five nights in Lecce is fine. I too prefer slow travel and in Puglia everything closes between 1ish and 4ish cutting down on sightseeing time. I know how hard it is to figure out how many days where.
I don't no anything about coppola's place, but a few nights of luxury is always nice.
@sassa...we flew in andout of Naples so that's where we picked up our car. We got it at the airport to avoid city traffics, but since it was a Sunday, city traffic. Getting around Puglia can be done by public transport, but a car makes is much easier. Little traffic and roads are fine.
Lots to explore in the Ostuni region assuming you have a car, you can do nice day trips. Ditto for the Salento so five nights in Lecce is fine. I too prefer slow travel and in Puglia everything closes between 1ish and 4ish cutting down on sightseeing time. I know how hard it is to figure out how many days where.
I don't no anything about coppola's place, but a few nights of luxury is always nice.
@sassa...we flew in andout of Naples so that's where we picked up our car. We got it at the airport to avoid city traffics, but since it was a Sunday, city traffic. Getting around Puglia can be done by public transport, but a car makes is much easier. Little traffic and roads are fine.
