Puglia, Land of Contrasts

The right place for a coffe "Caffe dei serafini" meeeting point with ncc driver.

A special city, amazing winding street, culture, history, food and lovely beaches and an old town centre full of art and history make Monopoli one of the most beautiful towns on the Adriatic coast. The outline of a castle and ancient walls announce the beautiful town of Monopoli, which overlooks the Adriatic Sea 40 km (25 miles) from Bari. The town’s 99 contrade (districts) stretch out flatly, allowing you to admire them entirely with a single glance from the splendid belvedere of Loggia del Pilato. This natural terrace, on the road to Selva di Fasano, overlooks a countryside characterized by masserie (farmsteads), churches, rupestrian settlements, and villas. The symbol of the town is the Castello Carlo V (Castle of Charles V), which stands on the promontory of Punta Penna, and today hosts exhibitions and conferences. You'll find well conserved and carefully restored masserie in the heart of the marina, as well as in the low-lying hills and flat interior. Also in the countryside is the Lama degli Ulivi Botanical Garden with its caves, rupestrian churches, and more than 2,000 species of Mediterranean flora. Local celebrations include the festivities held to honour the patron saints Cosmas and Damian on the first weekend in June, and the re-enactment of the landing of the raft carrying the statue of the Madonna della Madia, on August 14th and December 16th.

According to tradition, a raft, "madia", on which an icon depicting the Madonna was placed, landed in the night between 15 and 16 December 1117 on the coast of Monopoli, at the time when Romualdo was bishop of the city. For some time the citizens had been invoking the Madonna to miraculously solve the problem of the lack of wooden beams for the completion of the roof of the new Cathedral. The virgin appeared in a dream on the night of December 16 to the sacristan telling him that the beams were at the port. Three times the sacristan went to Romualdo to announce the miracle, three times the bishop refused to believe it but, prodigiously, the bells of the cathedral began to ring by themselves. Romualdo then went to the port to recover the painting and the raft with its precious timber, but three times the attempt failed because the raft took off, as if to punish the bishop's incredulity. Since then, the Madonna della Madia, patron saint of Monopoli, has been celebrated on 16 December, carrying the icon that represents her by sea. In ancient times, the elderly fishermen devoted to the Patron Saint, when the raft of the Madonna was about to land, dived into the sea to pull the rope of the boat and carry it to shore. Currently the feast of the Madonna della Madia is also celebrated in August, mainly for emigrants who return to the town and for tourists, but the real anniversary dear to the population remains that of December 16.

The majestic Palmieri palace located in the historic center of Monopoli, which "frames" Piazza Palmieri, was commissioned by Francesco Paolo, (who lived there with his large family, including Michele, the future Bishop of Monopoli) in recent decades of the eighteenth century, from a previous home. The Palmieri family was one of the most powerful and influential families in Monopoli and the prestigious building was one of the many buildings and palaces that the family owned in the Monopoli area.The majestic building, which dominates the square with its bulk, is built like a typical Neapolitan-style mansion house, in the late Baroque style of Lecce inspiration. It is framed at the bottom by an ashlar plinth and at the top by a limestone cornice surmounted by the family crest (another similar crest is present, in key, on the arch called “delle Palme”, which connects the palace to the garden; on this we can read the motto iustus ut palma flore bit). The real marquis house is that of the noble floor. It consists of a succession of rooms, almost all frescoed, that surround the internal atrium and other service areas. The most important room is the gallery which also opens onto the external loggia; it must show collections of art and ancient artifacts. Adjacent to the gallery there is a private chapel suspended over the alley with a pointed arch. The plan also includes a study and the owner's library. Finally, the top floor was intended for the reception of relatives and friends it has been the location of film productions and television dramas.

Framed by the whitewashed houses of the ancient village of Monopoli, Cala Porta Vecchia boasts a sandy beach lapped by crystal clear water.
In Monopoli, in the heart of the old city, the pretty cove of Porta Vecchia offers bathers a picturesque setting on which the 3 Sails of Legambiente wave. Starting from the historic center, with a walk of just five minutes you find yourself right behind the mighty sixteenth-century walls that protected the city, a few steps from the open air artillery museum. Free parking is also a few meters away.

The castle of Monopoli, built on the strip of land more advanced than the sea, was part of the coastal fortification system, commissioned by Charles V in Puglia.
The Carlo V Castle is a cultural container managed by the Municipality as well as the municipal seat for celebrating civil weddings.
The Municipality of Monopoli, within the scope of its powers and statutory purposes aimed at safeguarding cultural heritage, promotes and favors the protection, conservation and use of the Carlo V Castle of Monopoli, belonging to its heritage, in order to ensure its regular right of access to the community. The Municipality of Monopoli grants its rooms to be used for cultural purposes, the castle dominates the whole port, has a privileged view when, close to the boats, the area becomes an open-air photo gallery

The landing place was subject to a not easy reputation over the years, due to the very limited stopover possibilities it was able to offer. This following a particularly dangerous coast that designed it as a very sheltered bay, and difficult to anchor for types of boats with a commercial cut.
Later, the port saw the succession of some improvement works, which over the years managed to make people forget the name by which it was recognized at the beginning of the millennium; Porto Aspro. The works, which saw their maximum manifestation, after the Second World War, saw an improvement but obviously within the limits of the possibilities of the seabed and the economic resources of the place.
The fact is that the Port of Monopoli has always managed to enjoy great respect, especially from the local people, who live a lot on the activity of sailors or in any case own boats for sailing or tourist identity.The Port of Monopoli is an important wrinkle of the ancient Apulian profile, which always attracts the charm of a city that makes boats and marine life its first identity. It guarantees hospitality and essential services, despite its ancient and fascinating profile

The historic center of Monopoli is a jewel of popular architecture mixed with sumptuous religious buildings and splendid noble palaces. It is Porta Vecchia, flanked by the city walls, that leads to the ancient part of the city, lying on the Adriatic and dominated by the Castle. The heart of the old city is the baroque Cathedral of Santa Maria della Madia. Not far away, the nightlife is unleashed in the characteristic Piazza Garibaldi, where the Church of San Francesco d’Assisi and the Church of Santa Maria degli Amalfitani stand. Largo Palmieri is also worth a visit, with the palace of the same name and the Church of Santa Teresa.
Although the coast is largely rocky and with high seabeds, there is the exception of Capitolo, a hamlet of Monopoli which instead offers white beaches and gently sloping seabeds, and therefore more suitable for families with children in tow. It is no coincidence, therefore, that tourism has developed more in this area with the emergence of hotels, guesthouses, bed & breakfasts and all the rest of the associated activities normally associated with a n the square there are cafes that offer a riot for the palate, ice cream, panzerotti, gourmet sandwiches, cocktails, wines and beers ... for all tastes and budgets resort.

Your lunch experience, Pierino l'Inglese is the right place if you want to taste good fish cooked as it once was, a leap in time.

Franca Martina: tradition assigns its foundation, which took place between 1310 and 1320, to Philip of Anjou, fourth son of King Charles II, as well as prince of Taranto. He would have gone to Rome to pay homage to the Pope of the first Jubilee, Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and, upon his return to the Apulian territories, he would have provided for the administrative and economic reorganization of his Principality. He then arose a new fortified city on the Murge, between the Adriatic and the Ionian. The new settlement intended to gather people to cultivate abandoned or wooded lands, thus allowing better control of the rural population, which was attracted within the city walls by privileges of various kinds, according to the typical system of French bastides. In the space of a few years, the prince's appointee, Francesco Monteleone, was therefore able to adequately equip a city capable of accommodating several thousand individuals. All around, in a strip of more than three kilometers, in 1317 Philip granted the inhabitants of Martinique full autonomy, free from any servitude, in order to facilitate the planting of crops and wells. More than "founding", Filippo d'Angiò probably had to "refound" Martina Franca on new political, administrative and, perhaps, also religious bases: both by amplifying the cult for that Saint Martin that the vulgate would like to honor in the area already from above Middle Ages, both allowing the population to "water, graze, gland" and "wood" freely. But such a freedom will not last long: in 1353, King Robert of Anjou will foster Martina to Pietro del Tocco and, although declared (like the feudal lord) in 1358 "real domains and patrons" of a territory extended to fifty thousand hectares, the Martinesi will no longer have the opportunity to escape taxes and levies".

In the century XV Martina Franca became an Aragonese fief and in the century XVI the Duchy of the Caracciolo, a noble Neapolitan family: in the second half of the 1600s, with Petracone V, they built the current Palazzo Ducale, on the site where the Orsini Castle once stood. In the eighteenth century the city experienced its maximum splendor, which affected a strong economic growth, mainly aimed at the agricultural and livestock sector, as well as an improvement of the urban layout, which gave a new and spectacular aspect to the current ancient Martinese nucleus. Palazzo Ducale, in addition to representing the symbol of the power of the Caracciolo dukedom over the city, is above all a metaphor for the cultural and artistic turning point of the city, which passes from medieval art to the baroque one. The design of the building was signed by an architect from Bergamo, Giovanni Andrea Carducci, who had been living in Martina for some time, and endorsed by the famous Gianlorenzo Bernini, then superintendent of the Kingdom of Naples, then in charge of viewing all the projects. The facade is presented in a late-mannerist style, in fact, it is perfectly marked by vertical and horizontal elements that echo the grandiose designs of Roman palaces. The floor of the balcony coincides with the Gallery whose rooms were artfully frescoed by Domenico Carella in the second half of the 18th century. At the beginning of the twentieth century the dukes Caracciolo-De Sangro started the sale of the palace with all its accessories, and it was thus that in 1928 a large part of the Palazzo Ducale became the seat of the Palazzo di Città and the remaining premises purchased by wealthy citizens. Palazzo Ducale is currently occupied by the municipal offices, the court, the "Isidoro Chirulli" municipal library and the "Paolo Grassi" musical artistic center which every summer, since 1974, has organized the Itria Valley Festival, one of the most popular festivals of opera music at an international level.

The consecration of the Collegiate took place on 22 October 1775, about thirty years after the first stone was laid.
The exterior of the Basilica is characterized by the majestic facade, 37 meters high, which rests on the semicircular staircase, an architectural appeal to look up. It is set on two architectural orders, whose ornamental elements, carved in local stone and organized in a harmonious and dynamic game of protrusions and ecesses. The interior of the Basilica, vast and bright, has a Latin cross shape. In the presbytery area, under the triumphal arch designed by Gennaro Sanmartino, there is the precious marble altarpiece (1773) designed by Giuseppe Sanmartino, author in Naples of the Veiled Christ in the Sansevero Chapel, to house the sculpture of the patron saint of the city, San Martino of Tours, made of stone in the first decades of the 16th century by Stefano from Putignano.

Caffè Tripoli is a historic bar in Martina Franca, it just celebrated 100 years ago, I think two years ago. Time has stopped for certain things, the showcase, the counter, the preparation of bocconotti and ice cream, everything has stood still for a century.
Summer is an obligatory stop as a break after the stroll of natives and tourists.

Meeting point with ncc driver.

Leave your luggage in the trullo room, change your clotes and take your experience of Alberobello by night.

Here you can taste typical cheese, salami and a huge selection of wines and beers!

GOODNIGHT Unlike a common hotel in Alberobello, you will stay in the Tipico Resort Trulli: Trulli are ancient buildings, still able to interest and excite visitors who come from all over the world to admire them. Immersed in the fabulous scenery of the Trulli, this holiday offers you the opportunity to stay in historic residences, unique in the world, a Unesco World Heritage Site, an alternative to the classic hotel in Alberobello. Trulli are carefully restored and furnished according to tradition without neglecting comfort and refinement. The owners will be happy to welcome you between the Pinnacles and the living stone of the magical Trulli of Alberobello, a small town that rises on the hills of the Itria Valley, with the availability and hospitality that have always distinguished it for get excited again.