Puglia: Gargano National Park

The Gargano peninsula in Puglia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (I say one of because I have also visited La Costa Amalfitana!). How beautiful is it? You'll soon see.

Two of the main towns are Vieste and Peschici. Vieste is home to lots of campgrounds, resorts and tourist hotels, and its main beach stretches for miles and miles.

Peschici is more given to small coves with little stretches of beach. We usually opt for the town with more life, but went with Peschici because we wanted to relax.

I am going to show you all the places we relaxed in Peschici, and in the Gargano National Park.


Relaxation spot No. 1.





The little terrace in our room at the Locanda della Castellana in Peschici. Here's a shot of the view from the terrace.

The Locanda was a perfect spot to unwind, after a whirlwind tour of San Marco dei Cavoti, Il Salento and Trani. With a small pool and a patio that looked out at the sea in the distance, guests could spend hours relaxing with no particular place to go, and no important museum to visit. I spent my time reading. I was reading the best-selling book "Eat, Pray, Love," at the suggestion of my sister Denise. (Good suggestion, 003! Now if only I could find a way to travel for a whole year.....)

But I digress. The family that ran the small resort frequently sat around a table playing cards -- if you needed something, they would get it, but hey, we are ALL here to relax, they seemed to be saying.


Relaxing, reading, swimming, taking notes for the blog (!). That pretty much describes my days in Peschici. Here's Relaxation spot No. 2. A tiny postage-stamp size stretch of beach in Peschici that you can only reach by walking through a rock-strewn path forged through a cliff. And of course, you arrive, and there's a bar! Because really, why go somewhere if you can't order un caffe? (O, va bene, we ordered una birra, but why quibble?!)

I publish this photo not because I think I look good (is that really what my face looks like?! Please don't click on the photo to enlarge!) but to show you the piece of paradise I discovered. Hey, maybe some day they will have an opening at that bar, and I can work there.


Here's a few more shots of the beach (with the town of Peschici perched on a cliff in the background), and the little path we took to reach what I will call Bar Paradiso.





The shot above shows the path through the rocks. If you click on the photo, you may be able to read the sign scrawled in green marker on the rocks: USCITA (which means exit). On the right, you can see others walking toward the little beach.

In the four days we spent in Peschici, we visited little beaches, jumped the waves, heard a jazz concert (our trip coincided with the annual Jazz Peschici festival), drank Negroamaro and Primitivo, and I, Ciambellina, concluded that just perhaps I had squeezed a little too much into this trip. San Marco. A quick stop in the birthplace of Padre Pio. Matera. Ruffano, Lecce and the rest of Salento. Trani. Il Gargano.

Whoa that's a lot. But hey, vacation only comes once a year, if at all.

What's next? Oh lots more to come, cari lettori. Take a sneak peek!





Grazie per averci seguito! Please come back!