Puglia- Ostuni, Polignano a Mare and Bari

Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor.

Puglia is an amazing part of Italy, but it is also quite big. You cannot see everything in just a few days. It is better that you get recommendation what you can do and see there. This post describes the second part of our weekend to Puglia with starting point Bari. For just two days we visited Alberobello, Locorotondo, Ostuni, Polignano a Mare and Bari. Below you can read more about the last three towns. If you are more interested in Alberobello and Locorotondo, go to the first part of the story.

We started our trip in Bari. This is the closest airport to the towns we were interested in. We took a train from Bari central station to Monopoli which takes an hour. Then we hired a Vespa and this is how we moved around. All the towns in the story are easily accessible with a Vespa and you can do this in just a weekend. The most southern town we reached during this trip was  Ostuni. It is located at 85 km south of Bari.

Ostuni

Ostuni was the farthest point that we have reached. It took us around 45 mins to get there from Locorotondo with the Vespa. The road between Locorotondo and Ostuni was very picturesque. Small Trulli here and there, neat yards with a lot of lilac flowers- this kind of bush is very popular in Italy. There was no one on the road at this time and this made our trip amazing. It was during the day and it was extremely hot.

Ostuni was recommended to us by the person who rented to us the Vespa. He said that the town is lively in the evening as many young people go out for a drink. All buildings are also white and at sunset they are covered with golden shade which adds romantic touch to the scene. The town is much bigger than Locorotondo and Alberobello, so you can dedicate 2-3 hours.

There are a lot of things you can do in Ostuni:

• The town hall of Ostuni

A big old building in the heart of Ostuni.

• Palazzo Vescovile and La Loggia.

Located just on the side of the Cathedral, the two Palazzo are being connected by an elegant arched loggia.

• The sea view from the end.

Just take any of the tiny streets in the old town and all of them will lead you to a place from where you can observe the sea in the distance.

• Ostuni square with Saint Orontius’ column

The column is located in the center of the town and it celebrates the Saint Orontius of Lecce who was pronounced as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Orontius is the patron of Ostuni. The legend about him says that he hid in a cave nearby. The ending of an outbreak of cholera is attributed to him. A church and sanctuary were dedicated to him as well. Nowadays, there is a three-day festival in Ostuni held from the 25 August to 27 August to honor him.

• Visit one if the many restaurants in the old town.

All of them are nicely decorated and look very appealing

• Shopping

If you love handmade things, this is your place. You can find not only souvenirs, olive oil and other traditional goods, but also a lot of shops for shoes and clothes. The shoes were much cheaper than what we have seen in other parts of Italy.

I can as well recommend a bar where we had some drinks. It has a small terrace overlooking the central square and Saint Orontius’ column.

On the second day we headed early in the morning back to Monopoli- not only because we had to return the Vespa, but also because we wanted to see some other things during the day. Before getting to Monopoli, we want to mention one special place where we stopped. It was a statue of Christ just by the road. It is on the right when driving from Alberobello to Monopoli.

As it was quite early, there was no one there. Not only the place was amazing and had some special energy (I have goosebumps even when writing about it), but also you can see a magnificent view- the whole Monopoli and the sea at the back. For lovers of high views like us, it was a pure bliss.

Another thing I cannot but mention is that I’m impressed by the Italian drivers. As we were very flexible with the Vespa, we were stopping here and there to take photos. At some points I was on one side of the road and Dimo- on the other. When passing by, the drivers were even stopping and waiting for him to finish taking that photo of me. They were doing this with a smile and actually appreciating what we were doing. If this was Bulgaria, we would have received hundreds of beeps and a lot of cursing :-).

Polignano a Mare

The town is famous also as “the Pearl of the Adriatic”. The town is just 5 mins by train from Monopoli. However, I would advise you to have a look at the train schedule before going there. The trains are once per hour or sometimes less often. The equivalent is taking a taxi which costs 40 Eur (vs the train ticket for around 2 Eur). We spend this hour of waiting in a cafe tasting the local ice cream – of course ice cream in Italy can never be disappointing.

Polignano a Mare is quite big and it is more a resort. An ancient legend says that a piece of the coast separated from Greek land and came to merge with the Apulian coast. It is not surprising that the coast is as beautiful as the ones in Greece :-). There is a beach and thousands of people are visiting it every day. The town has an old part which is small, but very nice. As expected, after Locorotondo, Alberobello and Ostuni it was quite difficult for something to impress us.

Things to do in Polignano a Mare:

• Visit the beach.

The most famous place (which I’m sure you have seen many times on pictures) is the small beach with the Cliff located between two high rocks. The beach is tiny and crowded. There are a couple of options to see it from above and each of them offers different perspective.

• Eat ice cream.

Taste the local ice cream in a place called Mag. Unfortunately, we could not do so, but the person from which we hired the Vespa recommended it as a must-do.

• Walk in the Old town.

Spend some time in the old town. As it is not very big, you will not need much time. Like the other towns in the area, Italians are paying special attention to the details. You can see that the buildings have traces of town’s Arab, Byzantine, Spanish and Norman past.

• Visit San Paolo island.

At a short distance from Largo Ardito, you can see the majestic and solitary Island of San Paolo or Scoglio dell’Eremita. This rocky formation which emerges from the water for about 30 meters, owes its name to the ancient legend  that tells of a mysterious person that had chosen this rock to pursue a life in solitude and meditation. At the end of the article you can read the whole legend.

• Take a walk to the neighbouring San Vito.

If you follow the coast, you will get to a neighbouring resort, quite small one, called San Vito. We walked to there. It took us around 35 mins and it was worth it. There is an old abbey and a small boat harbour in front of it. It had completely different spirit from the resort Polignano a Mare. There are a couple of cute restaurants where you can relax and enjoy the view.

The legend about the abbey built by Benedictine monks in the 10-11th century is quite interesting. A noblewoman from Salerno was drowning in the river Sele. Out of a sudden, San Vito miraculously saved her. In one of her dreams, he asked the woman to move his body to this place. The saintly relics made the sacred place prosperous over the next centuries.

Maybe you have noticed that we did not put any recommendations for specific restaurants. It’s  simply because there are so many options and most of them are a good choice. I cannot but mention the place where we had lunch in Polignano a Mare. It is was a bit posh, but located just above the tiny beach and offering an amazing sea view. The service was perfect and the food – delicious. It is not a place for every day, maybe for special occasions like this one, as the prices are a bit high. The name of the place is not a coincidence: Meraviglioso.

Bari

The last stop of the trip was returning to Bari. I’m sure we would have different impression if we had visited it first. But after all the beauties we have seen, it somehow faded.

Things to do when visiting Bari:

• Explore Bari old town

Compared to the other towns in the region, it is bigger. We got lost several times (a bit exaggerated- we have taken the wrong way:-) as the streets are not straight and even with a GPS it is a bit confusing. Unlike the other towns in Puglia region, we have spotted some very dirty streets. This is something which I assume is more typical for Napoli, but it was strange to see it here.

• Walk down the sea promenade.

There is a very long alley by the coast. I haven’t seen anything special there, but it is a nice relaxing thing you can do in the evening.

• Admire the cathedral Basilica di San Nicola.

This one was very big on the outside (we did not go inside).

• Shopping.

If I have to be honest, the best thing you can do in Bari is shopping. The main street is very long and there are many shops. Because some of them are open also on a Sunday afternoon, you can consider including this activity in your weekend plan.

Maybe Bari is also a nice place. However, after the amazing beauties we saw in the south, it felt nothing special. The good thing is that you can use Bari as a starting point for your trips to all towns in Southern Italy. It is not necessary to stay there for long.

The legend about Sao Paolo island and where its name the “Rock of the Hermit” comes from. The text of the legend is taken directly from Borghi Magazine.

“We are in the eleventh century, or maybe two or three hundred years before, there are no documents that accurately tell the story of the hermit on the island of San Paolo in Polignano a Mare. A story passed down from father to son, fishermen and believers. A story that is still today enveloped by the mystery and which, like the sea between Polignano and the small island, changes according to who tells it or who listens to it.

I am speaking of a faithful man, who went to Puglia perhaps by divulging the gospel, but of course it is known that he was a hermit. When he arrived in Polignano, the hermit saw the small island, no bigger than a big rock, with almost invisible vegetation, almost like a large boulder launched by some giants during some tournament. The large boulder was about three dozen meters high against the strength of the waves, alone, just a few meters from the coast.

The hermit recognized himself in such a place, so much that he decided to live there. He, the rock and his solitude and contemplation.

Departing to the sea, fishermen of those times often saw the hermit on his rock trying to pray or bother with other things. Occasionally, a fisherman landed on the island to bring fish or other essentials to the Hermit’s survival, as the island had not that much to offer. It was that fisherman who one day found the poor hermit dead in a island’s corner.

And hypothesis continues…

Perhaps, the last hypothesis that would justify the construction of the Chapel of S. Antonio Abate is that fishermen who considered the rock a place of respect and worship built the chapel. A chapel dedicated to a hermit on the ground where a hermit lived. Unfortunately, the chapel became lazaret in 1837 due to a cholera epidemic that struck the area. Later on they destroyed it for hygenic reasons.

Today, only a few local fishermen’s stories, a water collecting well and an iron cross, which has nothing to do with the story I told you and was installed in 1901 by some religious on the occasion of the centenary of San Vito Martyr, patron of Polignano.”

We rarely go twice to places we had already visited. However, I definitely want to come back to Puglia as there are some other towns which I think are worth seeing. This region is simply amazing.

If you are interested in more places to visit in Italy, you can refer to the section dedicated specifically to this amazing country in Southern Europe.

We also have many other ideas where you can go for a weekend escape in Europe.