VIESTE & THE GARGANO NATIONAL PARK

VIESTE

Vieste was to be the most northerly point of our travels in Puglia and also the final destination with sailing friends, the Garcias.  It is a stunning small town built out on a rocky promontory jutting into the Adriatic Sea.  

We moored the boat in a marina around a small headland north of the town and in the evening we walked into the centre catching a glimpse of white washed Vieste in the setting sun, it literally took our breath away.  

Alan and I ended up spending about 10 days here and enjoyed every minute.  The town was very relaxing, busy with people going about their day’s work, school children in their overall type uniform going off to school - it was wonderful to observe life going on as we sipped our coffees and best of all Alan was able to secure a copy of The Herald Tribune.  

View from outside the Castle Wall along the never ending white beaches....

A bank of poppies surrounding the old Castle

Interior of the Cathedral, originally Norman and rebuild in 1800

The opposite side of The Promontory

Of course Vieste also had a centro storico – most of which has been restored.  The old lanes lead UP to the Cathedral and finally to the summit where there’s yet another Frederick II castle; today this is closed to the public and used by the Military.  The views over the stunning stretches of white beach on either side of the promontory are wonderful.   It’s a fantastic coastline which hasn’t been spoilt by encroaching urbanization due to the Gargano National Park which surrounds the town.

Old Vieste and Alan enjoys a lunch of mussels and beer........

Another lovely lunch with Cathy and David in Vieste

Trabucci - a complex and ancient system of poles, levers and nets

Trabucci and restaurant on headland

This coastline is also home to the Trabucci – an ancient form of fishing.  The Trabucci are found all along the coast and I think a photo describes it better than my words……….  Some of the Trabucci are now restaurants.

One day we took a drive through the Gargano Park into the Foresta Umbra.  As we left Vieste we drove through rolling farmland, then gradually climbed tree clad hills eventually entering the forest.  It's called the Foresta Umbra, 'shaded forest', because the canopy of leaves is so thick very little light penetrates.  It forms part of the last of Puglia’s ancient forests with Aleppo pines, oaks and beech trees.  We saw deer but there are also wild boar, badgers, foxes and many varieties of birds.  It’s a popular place for hiking and biking. 

View of Vieste before entering the Foresta Umbra

Giant beetle on picnic bench

There are picnic areas where the trees are more sparce allowing dappled light to penetrate and it was in one of these spots that we discovered the giant beetle…………. 
The forest must be a great place to escape to in the heat of the summer.

Another day we took a trip on the regional bus with all the local school children to Peschici – another white washed village on the north side of the Gargano promontory.   It is built on a steep rocky headland – not good walking for Alan – but the village is dramatic and apparently in summer it attracts thousands of visitors to its huge expanse of white beach (sorry no photo!)

From Vieste we travelled south revisiting some of the ports already described - Trani, Bari, Brindisi and Otranto.  In addition we visited Monopoli which I'll describe in the next post.