Puglia (Italy)

Puglia or Apulia as the English would have it is more or less the heel of the Italian boot. With 800 km of coastline and quite a long land border with other southern regions it is one of the larger Italian regions and also a very diverse and seemingly quite complicated one.

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 ...
...HISTORY SUMMARY*****

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.

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Puglia or Apulia as the English would have it is more or less the heel of the Italian boot. With 800 km of coastline and quite a long land border with other southern regions it is one of the larger Italian regions and also a very diverse and seemingly quite complicated one.

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.

*****OPTIONAL: HISTORY SUMMARY*****

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.

*****BACK ON TRACK*****

What made Puglia difficult to grasp was the fact that – as opposed to northern parts of Italy, (especially places like Tuscany with Florence; Venice) or- even more so for me - Rome – Puglia does not seem to have much of a place in the standard Northern European mindset. OK, I am cheating here. I actually have no idea about other Northern European minds, but certainly neither Polish or British people I know seem to have that much of an idea.

Before the trip I have heard of Bari as the most famous Polish queen came from there, Brindisi because of the ferry to Greece, Otranto with a vague awareness of some Byzantine connection and that was about it. The landscape is not etched in our aesthetic patterns like Tuscan landscape is. The churches do not bring ‘déja vu’ feelings when we see them. Not much rings a bell. That is why the trip I am going to write about became a voyage of real exploration rather than confirmation. It was less of a dream come true like my previous Italian holiday, it was more of eyes wide open discovery quest.

We only had two weeks and had to travel with a lot of gear (camping) by public transport so we were not terribly efficient. What we did was a small sample and below are the impressions from the first week, covering our stay in the southern part of the region and specifically Lecce and Otranto. The second part of the trip will be covered in a separate review. I would like to make it clear that the splitting of the review into two parts had nothing, but nothing to do with MALU's advice...

***BAROQUE GONE MAD***

Having established ourselves in the pleasant 2-star Cappello hotel in Lecce – vaulted ceilings and a giant gold-framed mirror by the bedside (oh dear!) we set off to explore the city. Guide-less and pretty much clue-less we grab a map from the reception and head towards the old town.

Breakfast is had in a café full of locals just outside Porta (Gate) Rudiae and consists of the best (and best value) pastries we have tried during the whole stay . So refreshed we approach the gate – it looks vaguely Baroque but nothing special really. Then we walk through.

Now, Lecce is the one place in Puglia mentioned and usually fairly extensively covered by guide books for the whole of Italy. Of the 6 pages devoted on average to Puglia at least one is given to Lecce. It is easy to see why: the extensive, partially walled area of the old town is a furry, flurry and flourish of Baroque architecture, rivalling or maybe even surpassing in its singularity anything that even Rome can offer. The Lecce stonemasons had a specially pliable local stone of warm, pinkish-cream colour to make use of and boy they made use of it.

Maybe 50 meters on the right after Porta Rudiae, Chiesa del Rosario sits in all its glory, one of the best examples of Lecce baroque at the hands of its most famous representative Giuseppe Zimbalo or lo Zingarello (The Gypsy). It comes as a shock, even more so if you arrive from Britain where London's St Paul's is considered to be example of the style, but even Rome does not prepare you for the exuberance, ornateness, sheer folly of Lecce: twisted columns, columns that are covered in carved leaves, facades that heave with ornamentation. In fact, it is ornamental gone mad but somehow, unbelievably, still maintaining grace and beauty. No wonder ‘Lecce Baroque’ is considered to be a distinct sub-category.

The star sights of Lecce would definitely include the aforementioned del Rosario and – further down the main, almost pedestrianised thoroughfare of the old town – the Duomo (cathedral) with nearby Bishop’s Palace and a seminary building enclosing what is in my opinion an impressive but slightly overrated piazza. Duomo’s campanile dominates Lecce’s skyline; its main façade has a strangely restrained, classical look while the side façades are again given to the ornamental flourishes.

Walking further down Via Vittorio Emmanuelle we get to the vast Piazza Sant’Oronzo, with a mix of modern, old and ancient including well-preserved ruins of Roman amphitheatre. Turning left at the bottom of the Piazza takes us to the not-to-be-missed sight of Lecce: basilica Santa Croce, another building in which lo Zingarello had his hand. The lower part of the façade is by another Zimbalo (Antonio) and, while obviously baroquely decorative, it maintains some semblance of stately religious decorum. The top part, though, from the balcony supported by a row of perfectly carved beasts, to the magnificently elaborate rose window, to the curvedly carved, almost scalloped pediment is Lecce Baroque in all its glory again.

Of course, there is more to see in Lecce than these - there are many other churches, palaces, gates, statues and piazzas. The whole area of the old town is perfectly charming and the combination of the local warm-hued stone and the heat of the Mediterranean sun render even slightly grotty alleyways and cul-de-sacs picturesque rather than squalid.

Besides Baroque, Lecce has substantial antique remains, with aforementioned amphitheatre in Piazza Oronzo and another well preserved theatre tucked away behind the Duomo; there is also a XVIth century castle and a local museum.

Cafes and restaurants abound and if you look further away from the main tourist trial while staying still within the Old Town, you are likely to find places which are very reasonably priced but still offer good quality. Once we paid 37 euros for a lunch for 4 adults and a child, including beer, pasta, some meat, salad, water and fruit!

People we encountered in Lecce were extremely friendly and very helpful, offering compliments, advice, tissues for a child's runny nose (how embarrassing!) and home-made ice-cream (how nice!). If you can muster 100 words of Italian (and no grammar - that's me!) you will manage OK.

***EDGE OF SALENTO***

Salento or, administratively speaking, Lecce province, is a popular destination for holidaying Italians, who still generally take their vacation in July and August and thus everything was functioning at half-steam in June. This is why we find ourselves on a shaking, trundling, hiccoughing old diesel train from Lecce to Otranto - 2 changes and about 1.5 hours to cover less than 40 miles.

The terrain is flat, the land covered almost uniformly with olive groves, occasional fig tree thrown in for variety and hundreds of poppies, red poppies ablaze against the silvery, shimmering green of the olive trees. Crumbling drystone walls look old as if by default. This is ancient land and it has been brought to fruition by the efforts of human hands whose labour brought water to the arid, sun baked surface from deep underground.

Otranto is the easternmost town in Italy and situated only a couple of miles away from the actual easternmost point of the country. On a clear day you can see Albanian mountains on the other side of what is called the Strait of Otranto. Picturesquely sat amongst the limestone cliffs on the edge of the Salentine plain, Otranto is now a quiet resort, no more than a tourist trap for Italians and Germans frequenting holiday villages, apartments and spas on this stretch of the Adriatic coast.

In its heyday it used to be one of the most important ports in Italy and during the Byzantine times - the foremost outpost of the Eastern Empire on the Italian soil. Otranto's old town, spreading down a hillside from and Aragonese castle in a maze of cream and white buildings and steep, narrow alleyways is now pedestrianised and turistyfied but still retains some charming Levantine feel.

The crowning glory of Otranto is undoubtedly its Duomo, a squat building constructed in Xth century in Puglian Romanesque style with a beautiful Renaissance rose window and Baroque portal. The interior is equipped with a rather pretty, decorative wooden ceiling from XVIIth century but you need to look down to find the most amazing sight. The floor of the cathedral is covered by a XIIIth century mosaic, interesting not only as a well preserved artefact but also - still- a powerful work of art; almost spell-binding. Executed in what seems like a Norman style with what my untrained eye perceived as Celtic influence and imagery applied to this quintessentially Italianite medium, the Otranto mosaic depicts scenes from the Bible, historical monarchs and real and mythical animals in astonishing detail and fascinating style.

The Duomo also holds the mortal remains of Otranto's 800 martyrs, whose skulls and femurs are housed in glass-fronted cabinets in one of the chapels. These were the men of the town, who after it had been sacked by the Ottomans in the XVth century refused to convert to Islam. I have to say that the chapel with its bones was interesting rather than macabre and it is rather frightening how passing of time removes the moral judgement.

Is it possible that the mass graves of the XXth century will be viewed as quaint curiosity if human civilisation survives another 500 years? Is it likely that the horrors of slavery that built the White-Sea Canal and the Trans-Siberian railway will be glossed dover the way we gloss over the slavery that brought about the Parthenon? How long does it take for a moral judgements to become anachronistic?

Leaving aside historical and moral musings, Otranto is surrounded by a coast of abundant beauty and quite substantial drama. The whole of Puglia is karst-formed and caves, grottoes, ravines and rock formations can be found all over the place.

Unfortunately there is no bus to take us south down the road towards Porto Badisco, Santa Cesarea Terme and Castro. Thus, after catching a lift from the campsite and abandoning after a day's try the cultivated sandy beach north of Otranto, full of loungers and parasols for hire, where only emerald and aquamarine shimmering sea seemed free, we enter the travel agency/tourist information office in Otranto just opposite the Esso petrol station and next to a diving centre. The lady in there is said to "speak very good English" and indeed she does as anybody with unmistakable origins in Thames Estuary would be expected to.

After a long chat and a lot of deliberation we decide to hire two bicycles, one of them equipped with a child seat, and bravely venture south, in the vague direction of all these rock formations and spectacular cliffs. We don't hope to reach any of the towns mentioned above as neither DH nor me had even a brief encounter with a bicycle for at least 5 years and we still try to maintain vestiges of realism.

The terrain is hilly; much, much hillier than it seemed when walking and I suffer my first breakdown about 500 meters up the road and it's my spirit that breaks, the bike is, somehow unfortunately, fine. DH performs his standard (known from mountain-climbing and similar escapades) goading, laughing and symphatizing and eventually I settle into an ungracious but survivable routine of pedalling on flat, free-wheeling downhill and simply walking on a slightest indication of an ascent. DH, who is a big bloke, though not fitter than your reviewer really, fares better and Katie seems very happy in the child seat. I would be as well in her place.

We leave the town and soon are pedalling and pushing along the coastal road with a glimpse of the sea to the left and dizzying array of Mediterranean foliage on both sides of the road. Olive groves are gone for now; there are fields, one growing melons, some wheat and some unidentified crops; but mostly we see and smell the colourful, thistly, prickly, fragrant expanse of makia. The herbs which we regard as precious garden and pot plants can be just picked off the roadside.

There are several stops for a drink and at one parking bay we are given a bottle of water by a local guy who saw us finish our own. We exchange small talk and wave gratefully when he drives off with his lunchtime catch of small fish. Eventually we reach what I later identify as Cap Otranto and after hauling the bikes up the road ledge and chaining them together we set off on foot towards the cliff edge. The terrain gets more and more precarious and we manage to make it with more luck than sense, Katie on Daddy's shoulders.

The view is worth he struggle, to our right is the bay and - presumably - behind a rocky promontory the town of Porto Badisco; sheer cliff with waves breaking at the rocks below and to the left. The heat haze mists the horizon; the sea does its shimmering, magical, colour changing thing; sweet smell of herbs permeates the air; the road is far away and we cannot see or hear anybody; it's just us, on one of the edges of the world, "by the sea that is dark as wine".

***A LONG JUMP***

We take a train to the north of Puglia and the Gargano promontory (see next review!). In doing that we skip over what is a large part of a whole country, rich with sights and attractions, history and landscape.

We have not been to the Ionian side of Puglia's coast where sandy beaches and lovely towns like Gallipoli are located. We have not visited ancient Taranto, the main settlement of the Magna Graecia colonists. We skip over the central part of Puglia with its cave settlements, Frederick II castles and the best Puglian Romanesque cathedrals in Bari and Trani. We skip even the curious conical roofed "trulli" houses of Arberobello and the incredible Castle del Monte (please read excellent review by MALU entitled "Crown of Apulia").

***TIPS & TECHNICALITIES***

*One week is really minimum of what you need for one province, and that assumes either efficient transport or staying in one or two locations only - like we did in Salento.

*If you go for a weekend do what the other Ryanair weekenders do and go to Lecce. If it’s in season spend a day on the coast of Salento (Otranto, Santa Cesarea Terme, Gallipoli, Santa Maria di Leuca).

*There is already a few reviews devoted exclusively to the practical aspects of the experience (hotel, flight, camping in Italy with a child). We flew to Brindisi by Ryanair and stayed in hotels as well as camped and we ate out as well as at the campsite. Please see there for details if you are interested. Some points not covered otherwise:

*Italian long-distance trains (FS) are good quality, reliable and fairly expensive (less than 300 km journey cost about 25 euro one way).

*Local trains (Ferrovie Sud-Est) are old, slow, moderately reliable and very, very cheap.

*Buses in Salento DO NOT EXIST OUTSIDE THE HOLIDAY SEASON. In season (end June- mid September) there is extensive network of SalentoBus covering major and minor tourist destinations and centering on Lecce. Out of season there are only the above local trains (torturous albeit interesting and cheap).

Thanks for reading.

 

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