Story and pictures kindly provide by Jo Malcolm
Italy: Out of the Ordinary
One of the best things about the Gargano area of southern Italy is that you don’t get many foreign tourists. At least not in June.
Part of the better-known Puglia region, the Gargano is the ‘spur’ of Italy’s ‘boot’ in the country’s southeast. It’s not very easy to get to, and there are no international airports nearby.
If you go by car, as we did, you come off the Bologna-Bari Adriatic motorway at the Lesina exit and quickly get into flat, unkempt terrain marked untidily with one-horse towns and old men sitting outside cafés, not quite with worry beads or playing backgammon, but that kind of thing.
It’s the coast in the Gargano that makes it so cute, though.
Rodi Garganica
We stopped for a quick look round the town of Rodi Garganica. It was celebrating its two patron saints, the Madonna della Libera and St. Christopher, so the whole place was festive and some of the candyfloss-pink buildings in the main square had fairy light chains dangling round them. It was 1pm, barely a stray dog in sight, and only three people were languishing in the one café that was open in the 35-degree heat. We managed get a beer in a plastic cup and some water with a delicious mozzarella and tomato croissant (there was no bread, and the barman told us the tomato was from his own garden).
Peschici
Peschici is just up the coast from Rodi, and you can stop your car anywhere you feel like along the vast beach between the two villages. Park by the roadside, walk into the sea, and swim.
We stayed at the brand-defying Locanda Castello in Peschici (3 nights, €320 for two single rooms, plus breakfast). I’ve gone back there over a long enough period to know three generations of the Fusanello family that owns and runs it. The eponymous castello (and there really is a kind of castle ruin beside the hotel) totters out into the sea, right on the extreme promontory of the village, and the hotel itself is quirky and higgilty piggilty with big rooms, some involving improbable alcoves, and soothing views out onto the Adriatic Sea.
Vieste
Further along the coast on a twisty road inundated with little family resorts, campsites, and almost no other cars, you get to Vieste, the biggest town in the Gargano peninsula. We had a languid lunch here, again in deserted beauty with cheerful service, more staff (including waiters from Slovakia and Morocco, sufficiently well established to speak Italian with the local accent) than customers. Our delicious lunch consisted of Friselle (traditional Italian bread shaped like a ring), homemade troccoli pasta with cuttlefish sauce, fresh swordfish and a simple salad with exquisitely tangy local olive oil.
The Gargano area is just Italy for anyone who wants to avoid the obvious, and there’s lots to explore apart from what I’ve mentioned here.
Take a trip down there yourself and see what happens.
Recommended Read: novels set in the place I am.
Recommended Listening: Feel by Davido, when driving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL0KV5xMjvo
If you would like further information on this story please contact Jo Malcolm on her blog site https://anythingtoavoidwriting.wordpress.com/page/2/
