Puglia, the heel of Italy, is known for its white-washed villages, as the bread basket of Italy as well as the producer of around 60% of Italy's olive oil. Despite being often overlooked by foreign tourists for the more glitzy, sophisticated and stunningly gorgeous Amalfi Coast, Puglia has been a popular vacation spot for Italians. Flying under the radar until recently, Puglia has had a recent surge in popularity as the rest of the world discovers it as a holiday destination. Traditionally a poorer area of Italy, what Puglia lacked in instant wow beauty it made up with abundant charm. On my bucket-list of places to visit in Italy, it quickly made the shortlist when we first started organising the trip. Our only niggly concern was visiting in August, when the whole of Italy goes on holiday and when the weather could be unbearably hot, especially taking into account Europe's recent heat waves. We decided to go for it, so let's hope this heat averse gal survives...
We managed to sleep until 4:30am so I'd call that a win! We got up and decided to walk around and try to catch the sunrise. It didn't disappoint, the town was quiet and we took the opportunity to explore the streets in the cool and without the crowds. By the time the cafe where we had breakfast was open at 0730, the temperature had already climbed to a warm 32 degrees.
Fun fact. The Italian song 'Nel blu dipinto di blu', better known as 'Volare' was written by Domenico Modugno who was born in Polignano a Mare!
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| Gorgeous purple hues of the sunrise |
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| Volare...oh, oh. Written by this man, Domenica Modugno who was born here in Polignano a Mare |
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| Yes we missed the exact moment the sun burst above the horizon |
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| Breakfast was included in the apartment rental and was served in this local cafe nearby |
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| Lara finally used her Italian, and scored us free orange juice from the lovely Pasquale, the owner of the cafe |
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| Espresso macchiato, fresh orange juice and Nutella croissant. Sweet! |
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| The lights above are the lyrics for the popular song "Volare"! This street would not look empty again for the rest of the day... |
As we had time, I was subjected to a "no-make up" make-up makeover by Lara in preparation for our lunch at Grotta Palazzese, a venue popular with instagrammers. We coughed up €195 per person for the cheapest 4 course set menu. The 3 options came down to essentially meat, seafodd or vegetation. We scrapped the vegetarian option immediately and went for the seafood. Malcolm would be appalled that one of us did not choose the meat option. The food was surprisingly decent, the weakest link was probably the seabass, but it was still tasty.
And for those wondering about booking availability, I booked on 5 Jun for our 13 Aug lunch and there was plenty of slots of availability, at least for lunch. You can look at the Menu online if you were interested, which also has a list of allergens for each dish.
Was it a worthwhile experience? We say yes! The waitstaff were friendly and we enjoyed our 2 hours there. There was no lack of entertainment with a background music of bossa nova covers of various modern hits including Britney's Hit Me Baby One More Time, and the parade of boats, kayaks, paddlers and hydrocyclers offering us excellent people watching opportunities. There was one who hydro-paddled with a Fendi bag, a whole family atop one single paddle board, others with doof doof music, the ultra beautiful, the Asians, and much much more!
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| Nobody says anything about all the steps! For those with mobility difficulty be warned that there was no lift |
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| After all the stairs, you get rewarded with this stunning setting for a meal |
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| Channeling my best Italian chic |
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| The main dining area. The waters below made for natural entertainment as we people watched... |
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| Our linen napkins |
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| The bread service |
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| Scallop, topinambur, sour cream and truffle |
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| Raviolo cacio e pepe, red prawn and caviar |
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| Sea Bass, spinach, black garlic and herb bread |
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| The waiter who had probably taken this shot a gazillion times, took a lovely photo of us! |
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| This was labelled "Modern Tiramisu" |
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| In SE Asia, it would a family with parents, children, grandpa reading the newspaper and the family pig getting on one motorcycle. Maybe this is the European version... |
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| The grotto at the back of the restaurant |
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| Lama Monachile Beach, the most popular beach in Polignano a Mare |
After lunch, the heat became oppressive and we headed back to our apartment to nap. We needed to stay awake this evening as we had a boat tour organised. The tour included a pick up which took us to the harbour and we had an hour and half touring the caves of Polignano a Mare, as well as a quick dip in the warm waters of the Adriatic. As with everything Italian, there was some swerving on the road when another car nearly hit us, and some yelling on the water when there was a disagreement on the right of way to go into a cave. Gotta love them! And honest review? The caves themselves were interesting but average. However, it was a relaxing trip out on the water. The air temperature was comfortable, the scenery was pretty and most importantly the water was amazing in both colour and temperature! The rest of the 9 passengers on the boat were Italian as were most other tourists we've seen with only just a sprinkling of the occasional tourist of other nationality. Oh I digress, there was also a dog onboard, June, who was very cute and very well behaved. I know not what breed she was so don't ask...
Happy to report this time we stayed awake until at least 9:30pm. Goodnight and here's to another day exploring Italy's heel tomorrow!
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