Puglia Travel Guide · Aug 26, 09:22 AM by James Martin
Puglia has the right combination of grit and greatness; nobody is likely to mistake Puglia for a spit-polished Disneyland project, there aren’t enough tourists to warrant such hideous treatment. Puglia is a long way from Tuscany, a long way from the Renaissance, a long way from the glorious excess of a fat Tuscan beefsteak. Yet the carefully calculated and lushly sculpted curves of the southern Baroque carved into the soft surfaces of native rock is enough to captivate your eye, especially in the glittering sunlight, and the platters of seafood served up at modest, rickety-table trattorie laid out along the sea will more than keep the food-motivated traveler’s hunger at bay without breaking the bank.
There is a lot of coast in Puglia, and save for the spur of the boot, the Gargano promontory, the land is flat and walkable—or bikeable.
Fish aren’t the only thing you’ll find to eat here; this land has been famous for vegetables forever. The weather in the Gargano allows for two harvests of its famous agrumi, the citrus fruit that finds its way into much of the cooking in these parts. And the olive oil production, once structured for cheap blending oils, has been improved greatly, and the focus is on quality oils that are stunningly good.
If you like American Zinfandel, you’ll love similar characteristics in Primitivo di Mandura. You can even visit a museum and get a jug of it filled from a pump to take back to your vacation apartment if you wish.
And you don’t have to stay in a boring vacation apartment; even the housing and farms of Puglia express a unique architecture. The huge family farms called Masserie , sometimes fortified against coastal pirates, are being converted to apartments and hotels for discerning tourists—at a price almost any tourist can afford.
How do you access all this? Where can you stay in a Trullo, the little beehive houses concentrated around Alberobello that everyone knows? Where can you stay in a Masseria apartment and take classes in stained glass? Where can get the real scoop on the local foods?
Well, it’s all in Martha’s app: Puglia Travel Guide – Sutromedia.com, just updated to be compatible with the latest technology in iOS 5.
Puglia Travel Guide originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Aug 26, 2011, © James Martin, 
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The Electric Rodi Garganico · Jun 8, 01:47 PM by James Martin
One of the things I most enjoy about wandering around Italy is getting out in the evening and joining the collective walk called the La Passeggiata. The hot sun has almost set the shadows are long and mysterious, and things you don’t notice in the light of mid day snap into focus.
Like the electricity they charge you an arm and a leg for. Notice the care they have taken to make sure it’s all in place. Neatly.
Walk, have a gelato (in this case at the Gelateria Ognissanti (dal 1985), and enjoy the Seaside town of Rodi Garganico. Don’t worry about the electricity, it will be there in the morning. Unless it’s not.
The Electric Rodi Garganico originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Jun 08, 2011, © James Martin,
Romantic Puglia: Vico del Gargano · May 7, 03:30 PM by James Martin
I may be the wrong person to ask about romantic destinations, but what if I found you a town that features a “kissing alley” called Vicolo del Bacio (and another called Vicolo Veloce—for the men I suppose), has as its patron saint St. Valentine, and every summer celebrates the Vico Love Fest?
In addition, there is probably one of Italy’s most loved bar/pasticcerie right on the main drag.
Vico del Gargano; remember the town’s name. It’s in Puglia.
One of the endearing things about the south of Italy is that the conservative religious community kept love in check (or thought they did) until fairly recent times and just now we outsiders are hearing the clever ways in which the “virginity forever” crowd was defeated.
Vico, you see, had quite a few narrow alleys like the one in the picture. Let’s say that you and your sweet honey wanted to kiss and to rub your bodies together lasciviously—in public, because that was your only choice. Well, what if you picked a narrow alleyway and pretended to be passing in one direction at the exact same time as your little pumpkin happened to be passing in the other? Sure, you had to brush up against each other. And if you were face to face it stands to reason that your moist and yielding lips might, if one leaned in a bit to keep the cobwebs from brushing one’s collar, come together. And if two people puckered?
But Pico del Gargano’s romantic allure doesn’t end a narrow alley named Vicolo del Bacio. There are romantic places to eat and drink in Vico del Gargano. My choice would be in the dramatically lit Il Trappeto, an old coooperative olive mil in which the tables are the ancient grinding stones (covered in glass) you see in the picture, set in front of the oil extraction machinery. And Il Trappeto isn’t just a gimmick restaurant, the food is excellent. The food is traditional, the lighting dramatic, and the owner eager to please.
You can even stay at an “Eco” B&B in Vico Del Gargano, and have breakfast every morning in one of Puglia’s (and Italy’s) most famous bars—the Bar Pasticceria Pizzicato is justly famous for just about anything you can put in your mouth. Giuseppe Romondia is your host, and he speaks English expertly.
And finally, you can attend the Vico Love Fest in July and enjoy live music and, of course, food.
Take your valentine to Vico del Gargano if you want an unusual but interesting vacation. Rent an apartment like this, it’s part of the Pizzicato EcO B&B, a sort of “albergo diffuso,” a quartet of apartments around town that have been recently restored for tourist bliss. Imagine a kitchen and great views for the price of a hotel room. And you don’t have to fix breakfast every morning, you just stroll over to the Pizzicato and have it. It comes with the apartment.
And just in case you need more incentive to visit this land, Vico del Gargano is one of I Borghi Piu Bella d’Italia and it’s la città dell’Amore.
And you’ve never heard of it, right? The allure of Italy doesn’t stop outside the city limits of Florence, Venice and Rome you know.
Romantic Puglia: Vico del Gargano originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com May 07, 2011, © James Martin,
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More on the Abbey of Pulsano · May 5, 01:10 PM by James Martin
When I visited the Abbey of Pulsano, a sort of spiritual center awakened from the dead by volunteers and now very much a community of like-minded people, I looked at some pictures of other spiritual buildings in the area, all in ruins and many built on nearly inaccessible cliffs and forbidding outcrops—like some of the monasteries of Meteora in Greece.
In some ways, these rocky skeletons had finally achieved the ultimate peace, or at least it seemed that way when you looked at the pictures. They were beautiful, blending perfectly with the landscape. Human work against a stronger power, a “horrible” power, decay. In between comes a sort of perfection.
In any case, Angelo Torre, a professional photographer, has uploaded some incredible pictures of these ruins. Be amazed. Be at peace. Be one with the world.
If you want plan a trip, we’ve got it covered with some pictures and a map and guide to the Abbey of Pulsano on the Gargano promentory in Puglia.
(The picture above shows the apse of the church in the Abbey of Pulsano; the church is backed into a cave.)
More on the Abbey of Pulsano originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com May 05, 2011, © James Martin,
Conquering Puglia's Deep, Dark Foresta Umbra with Indiana Gianni · Apr 17, 08:46 AM by James Martin
Meet Indiana Gianni—or, as he’s sometimes wanting to be known, Gargano Jones. In the picture, he’s just fashioned a knife from a river cobble which you could use to butcher a wild Boar if one should lay himself in front of you wanting to become sausage. Indiana has a couple vehicles that can take you down the steep canyons and torrente of the Foresta Umbra on Puglia’s Gargano promontory. He knows a lot about the local area, and I recommend him as a guide. You can read more about him: Indiana Gianni – Jeep Tours of the Foresta Umbra in the Gargano. There’s even a short video of his work on that page.
Gianni took us on a tour that went up a steep and in rainy times dangerous drainage called a torrente in Italy. The torrente was “graded” every year since forever. That’s because of two things: folks in these parts use them as roads when they’re dry and they want the water to exit quickly when it’s wet.
Gianna told us one of those stories from the olden days that had great meaning then and even now. During the age when travel in these parts was mainly done on the backs of donkeys, it seems a man in town had the foresight to finance a very small Fiat excavator for the job of clearing the torrente. He drove the beast deep into the canyon and started moving earth. All the folks in town followed him. There were asses everywhere. Parked, presumably.
It began to drizzle. Man and beast looked toward the sky and silently shared a single thought bubble, “this can’t be good.” The guy with the excavator kept on moving earth. In just a few minutes, water came gushing down the torrente. The excavator got stuck. Since it was financed with a loan, the guy had to save it. As folks started heading for the exits, there he was, the little beast belching smoke as its operator slammed it into reverse, then forward, hoping to extricate it from the river.
But soon thereafter the big water came with a force that sent him kicking and screaming to his death.
So folks, don’t get too attached to your stuff. Pay cash for what you need. And sometimes an ass is worth two Fiats.
I made the last one up. You still want to go on the tour though. Right? Here: Indiana Gianni – Jeep Tours of the Foresta Umbra in the Gargano.
We, of course, survived.
Conquering Puglia's Deep, Dark Foresta Umbra with Indiana Gianni originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Apr 17, 2011, © James Martin,
The Abbey of Santa Maria of Pulsano · Apr 16, 05:47 AM by James Martin
It’s not often you hear of a church, monastery or abbey rising from the dead these days of viciously judgmental and often uncaring “Chistianity,” but our trip to the Gargano promontory led us to one of the most compelling spiritual sites we’ve visited on our trip. The abbey, shown below, has a very long history that came to an abrupt end; in 1991 volunteers not only helped restore the buildings, but have helped to start a whole new spiritual community on the site.
Today the abbey is nearly self sufficient. Little lambs run wild over the landscape and the this time of year the gardens are being whipped into shape by volunteers and residents.
The Abbey is both Latin and Byzantine. In summer you can take iconography classes. But there’s a catch.
Like many places in off-the-beaten-track Puglia, you won’t find information in English on site. In fact, you won’t find much on the internet either. But friends of the Wandering Italy Facebook Page say that this means a visit—or attending a workshop—becomes more of a genuine Italian experience when its experienced in the mother tongue.
Of course, I suspect many of them speak a little—or a lot—of Italian.
Nevertheless, most folks want those real life, one hundred percent genuine Italian experiences, so dang it why not try to muster up the courage to go to the abbey and see what you can do, check out what experience might move you. I’ve hacked out a little guide with history, pictures, and a map showing the location of the Abbey. It’s the only map I know of where the Abbey is actually shown in the right place, so beware of imitations.
See: The Abbey of Pulsano Guide
Go in peace. Heaven knows the world needs some right now.
The Abbey of Santa Maria of Pulsano originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Apr 16, 2011, © James Martin,
Making Bread in Puglia · Apr 12, 06:07 AM by James Martin
When we pushed open the door to the business end of Chichino Pane in Monte Sant’Angelo, the scene you see to the left was smack in front of us.
If any one fits the phrase, “speak softly and carry a big stick,” it might be Lorenzo Accarino, who quit school at age 9 and has been making bread in Puglia since he was ten. The huge oven behind him in the picture is wood-fired, as bread ovens should be.
Chichino Pane makes a couple of different loaves. One is potato based—potato was often used in bread back in “the old days” because the addition of potato made the loaves moist and able to last a long time. We had one of these loaves at dinner, and it lived up to our expectations. The irregular internal texture (big holes, little holes, gigantic holes) was moist and only slightly chewy and crispy crust was faintly smoky. Delicious bread.
They also make pizza.
What amazed us was the process that took place after the dough had been dumped out of the industrial-sized mixer onto the stainless steel work surface, where Lorenzo fashioned precisely sized loaves with a few quick motions, without kneading, just forming the bread into a round and throwing it into the raising drawer. If you have 30 seconds, you might want to see how he does it in the video below. And if you’re making the pilgrimage to Monte Sant’Angelo, stop by and have your daily bread. But beware, you might want to move to Puglia after you’ve tasted it.
Chichino Pane dal 1973
Via G. Tl Giordiani, 25
Monte Sant’Angelo
Tel. 0884.565333
Making Bread in Puglia originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Apr 12, 2011, © James Martin,
Lampascioni - Puglia's Celebration of Spring · Apr 11, 11:44 PM by James Martin
There are many reasons to plan a spring vacation in Italy. Certainly there are flowers. Among the many flower festivals in Italy going full tilt this time of year, we are currently celebrating daffodils at Villa la Pescigola in the Lunigiana.
But there is also a celebration of the first signs of the growing season, the promise of spring. In Rome there’s puntarella, a season that’s already passed. Here in Tuscany there is agretti and spring fave, in many places in Italy folks forage for wild asparagus, and in Puglia the markets are awash in lampascioni, the little, slightly bitter bulbs you see in the picture above.
If summer is associated with the lush ripeness of tomatoes, then lampascioni are the perfect hint of spring, crunchy, lively, blushingly pink and slightly bitter—a valid taste in Italy and in other places where the increasing sophistication of palates with age isn’t altogether hindered by the evolutionary stone wall of sugar and its derivatives promoted by industrial crap food factories.
In the picture you see them as served as an antipasto by the chef at Park Hotel Villa Americana in Rodi Garganico—preserved with a little vinegar and olive oil.
Simplicity, that’s the ticket. It’s interesting living in a land where food is seasonal. It’s fun to have something good to look forward to at just about any time of the year.
There’s a whole site (in Italian) devoted to lampascioni. The site has picture of an ancient clay statue on its home page. It is not a statue representing a pile of lampascioni at a market. It is a large-breasted woman. Perhaps lampascioni are important for breast development. Or perhaps it is just more food porn.
Who can tell? Life is hard. Lampascioni are good. Trust me.
Lampascioni - Puglia's Celebration of Spring originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com Apr 11, 2011, © James Martin,