Puglia or Apulia as the English would have it constitutes more or less the heel of the Italian boot.

Now please allow me to include a bit of history – this is because I knew nothing about it and I found it mightily annoying to see references to periods and peoples who were obviously everyday bread and butter to the locals but meant nothing to me. Once I found an outline things became much more clear and thus I am including one here for the benefit of a thorough but not knowing reader. Others are very welcome to skip straight to the next section.

Puglia was inhabited in the third millennium BC by the people from Illyria and Epirus (now Greece), tribes who were divided into Daunii in the north of Puglia, Messapi in the South and Peucetti in the middle. The Ionian Sea coast, with its centre of Taranto was part of the Magna Graecia while later on the region became incorporated into Rome with Via Appia actually finishing its course in Brindisi. It was an important outpost of the Eastern Empire and was a subject of fighting between Rome and Byzantium. Normans were brought into Puglia to help draw out the Byzantines and in the end of the Xth century occupied the whole region for themselves. The Swabian dynasty succeeded the Normans in the XIIth century and the rule of the grandest of them - Frederick II - brought justice and prosperity to the land. After Swabians, Angevine dynasty from France and the House of Aragon from Spain ruled Puglia. It was part of The Kingdom of Naples and apparently unhappy under the Spanish rule. Things got bit better under the Bourbons, and in the XIXth century Puglia became the part of the unified Italy. Nowadays Puglia is more prosperous than other southern regions of Italy and seems to be successfully utilising its agricultural and tourist potential to redress the long history of neglect and deprivation.

As the EuroCity train speeds from Lecce in the south of the region to Foggia in the north, some of the olive groves give way to vineyards and then wheat fields - we are approaching Tavoliere, the plain round Foggia; the biggest wheat-producing area in Italy which makes Puglia a true land of bread and pasta as well as olive oil.

The first night in Gargano passes safely though boringly in a hotel in Manfredonia, a biggish town and a good centre for exploring the southern part of Gargano. In fact, Manfredonia is worth a look or two itself, with its rather grand castle, a couple of interesting Romanesque churches and a seafront shipyard where construction of wooden fishing boats can be observed from scratch.

For the rest of the our stay we camp near Mattinata, a town descending down a hillside above a coastal plain which stretches for 2 miles below and on which most of the holiday accommodation is located amongst the olive and lemon groves. Its white-washed buildings, winding streets and interconnecting steps with the emerald sea glistening between the houses exude your typical Mediterranean charm. Small local museum shows some Daunii artefacts but sadly all description is in Italian so we are left guessing. Local people are friendly and the place is not overrun by tourists as most of them are located down near the sea rather than in town. So was our campsite - a good 40 minutes hike up to the town if no lift was available.

The beach is good for adult swimming as the bottom drops pretty quickly but swimming shoes are almost necessary as the size of the stones renders walking on these an agony. There are parts with tiny stones, more like rough sand, more suitable for children's playing. One of them is near the small Mattinata port which is also the place to hire water craft as well as to board a boat trip to surrounding bays (daily at 8:30) but as we have no money, encounter difficulty with getting ourselves to the port for 8:30 and are not sure how well Katie would react to the movement of what is essentially a large speedboat, we decide to see at least some of the coast from high up rather than sea level and take a walk along the coastal road one bus-less Sunday.

Passing cars and motorbikes greet us with hoots, waves and smiles and we do indeed walk to the next bay, and then a bit more to stop for a spot of lunch and a bottle of cool rosé in a small trattoria perched on edge of the cliff. It is advertising its 'pane - pomedoro' (bread and tomatoes) with a big 'HALT' painted in red letters on the rocky side of the road and the large slice of bread drenched in olive oil and covered in tomatoes, basil, olives and capers is indeed the best starter you could imagine in this situation. Pasta with clams and courgette flowers seems perfect and the rosé goes gently into our heads and legs. We sit outside, under a canopy of vine leaves, with a view down to the sea and cannot stop wondering why the proprietors don't charge a massive premium for the location.

Pictures of Foggia (Italy)

View towards Mattinata from the coastal road

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***WHERE THE ANGEL TREAD***

Monte Sant'Angelo is the most ancient and originally the most important of the Gargano's shrines, boasting an apparition by Archangel Michael in the Vth century. Apparently the basilica of St Michael is the only church in Christendom not consecrated by human hands as the angel claims to have done it himself. Regardless of your attitude to angelic or otherwise apparitions, the shrine is well worth a visit. The town has grown around it and is an interesting sight itself, roosted on the hilltop and with more breathtaking views. The medieval Junno quarter, steeply descending into a ravine is almost painfully pretty, with all the requisite lanes and passages, steps and courtyards. Black birds circling above complete the picture which is almost unreal, like something coming from a dream or a film-makers fantasy or a book.

Walking down those steps is indeed a good way to prepare oneself for the experience of the cave, of crossing from the realm of the profane to the sacred, from human to divine. Saint Michele can be said to be doubly suited to the shrine-purpose, its location both on a hilltop like ancient Greek's temples connecting it to the gods of the sky and in a cave inside the bowels of the earth to commune with perhaps even older powers of the nether regions.

Two days later we are sitting at the pavement cafe in Mattinata, waiting for the bus to take us to Foggia, EuroCity train, Brindisi airport and ultimately English rain; we are drinking coffee and maintaining a semblance of child-based chat with a middle aged waitress who claims to have five (children) - I cannot quite work out if it is 4 boys and 1 girl or the other way round when the sounds of accordion and trumpet can be heard, playing gypsy music, music from the slums of between-the-wars Warsaw and from Slovak taverns.

*About three days is really a minimum to experience anything in Gargano.

*Ryanair fly also to Bari and this is better option for just Gargano, as the flight is in the morning rather than afternoon and significantly closer to Gargano.

*Gargano is served well by two bus companies (Ferrovie del Gargano and SITA). The service is reliable, cheap and reasonably frequent on weekdays, but almost non-existent on Sundays.

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