Sicily and Puglia

After the few days camping with my brother and his girlfriend Anna camping in Stockholm [click here for the post], I started the second part of my summer holidays - in Italy where Marco was already waiting for me :-)
We had planned an 8-days road trip through Southern Italy, i.e. Calabria and Puglia and more precisely to the area of Salento.

Agrigento (Sicilia) - 19.-22.08.2014:

So on Monday afternoon I flew from Stockholm Skvasta down to Sicily where we spent a couple of days together with Marco's family, bathing at the beautiful Scala dei Turchi and meeting friends.

Tropea (Calabria) - 22.-23.08.2014:

 

In the morning we left Agrigento and drove towards Catania and further on to Messina where we took the ferry to set over to the mainland to Calabria.

Today's final destination: Tropea, a famous bathing place, situated on a reef connected with the mainland by a narrow strip in the Tyrrhenian Sea. We arrived just on time to enjoy a bath at the beach followed by a magnificent sunset (which we didn't really manage to capture with our amateur/pocket cameras).

 

 

 

 

Matera (Basilicata) - 23.-24.08.2014:

We left Tropea in the late morning...

...and headed towards the region of Basilicata and the town of Matera which lies in a small canyon that has been eroded in the course of years by a small stream.

Known as "la Città Sotterranea" (the Subterranean City), Matera is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and is well known for its historical center called "Sassi", considered World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1993.

The prehistoric "Sassi" are suspected to be some of the first human settlements in Italy. They are houses dug into the calcareous rock itself which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia. Many of these "houses" are really only caverns. Until the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, but a more toursim-oriented approach brought many thriving businesses, pubs, and hotels over the years.

In the early afternoon we checked in at "Hotel and Termae Locanda San di San Martino", right in the middle of the Sassi - with a room in a cavern.

 Nice view from the room and our terrace.

The afternoon was dedicated to the discovery of this historical "Sassi" centre of Matera.

 

 A model of the "Sassi":

 

 The canyon around the city centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the hotel for a little rest.

 

Later on we checked out Matera by night and enjoyed a yummy dinner at "La Talpa" restaurant.

 

 

 

 A warmly decorated breakfast room awaited us the next morning.

The day before was a bit greyish and lacking sun. Much much better in comparison this next morning when stepping out of our hotel room :-)

 

Alberobello (Puglia) - 24.08.2014:

We left Matera pretty early in direction Alberobello - to visit yet another UNESCO World Heritage site: the trulli. Alberobello is a small town in the province of Bari in Puglia. It is famous for its unique trulli constructions. The „trulli of Alberobello" are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites list since 1996.

A trullo is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof predominantly from the 19th century. Their style of construction is specific to the Italian region of Apulia. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers.

 

 

I was and am simply amazed by those trulli! They totally fascinate(d) me! In my opinion they create such a charming, funny atmosphere - one can't get enough from looking at them :-)

However, after some four/five hours and lunch in a trulli restaurant we had to continue and drive to the peninsula of Salento (= the "heel" of the "boot" of Italy) and the city of Lecce.

Lecce (Puglia) - 24.-27.08.2014:

A couple of hours drive away from Alberobello lies Lecce where we stayed for the next three nights. We had booked a hotel a little outside Lecce city centre, avoiding us the hassle of finding parking space in town and to easily get back on the road the next couple of days for some day excursions.

The rest of the sunny and super warm afternoon we remained at the hotel to benefit from its refreshing pool area. Later on we headed towards town for a stroll through the centre and a delicous pizza for dinner.

Lecce was our base for the next 3 days. From here we started our day excursions to the coast to benefit from the beautiful beaches in Salento on hot summer days.

Spiaggia di Torre dell'Orso (25.08.):

 

 

 

Actually that beach was extreeeeemly crowded (of course a beautiful place like this attracts locals and tourists alike). So crowded that we hardly found a place to put our towels - the eventual spot we found cost us 25€ the day (but at least umbrella and sun beds included). But still, 25€ - bastards! In the afternoon, though, a pretty bad and stormy front came up. The rain came so quickly that many people (including us) wouldn't have managed to get dry enough back to their cars. Thus a crowd of people around us we were all crouching under the little plastic roof of the beach bar waiting for the storm to be over.

The waiting was worth it. The rain and the lightning lasted for about an hour, but afterwards the beach was pleasantly empty and the sunlight after the storm gave the place a warm atmosphere.

Riserva Naturale di Torre Guaceto (26.08.):

This place represented the total opposite of the touristy, crowded and big beach of the day before. A calm place, with few people and only accessible after quite a long walk along the shore. A natural reserve area. A relaxing, sunny and warm beach day!

For the dinner of our last evening in Lecce we followed the recommendation of the hotel staff and went a little bit southwards of Lecce to the trattoria "I Sapori Salentini". We had well done in following this suggestion as the food was really great :-)

Gallipoli (Puglia) - 27.-29.08.2014:

Time to leave Lecce and proceed to our last leg of our South Italy road trip: to Gallipoli.
While we had passed the previous two days on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, Gallipoli is located by the Ionian Sea, i.e. on the west coast of the Salentina Peninsula. The old town of Gallipoli is located on a limestone island, linked to the mainland by a bridge built in the 16th century. And right in the heart of this old town we had our hotel where we stayed for the coming two nights :-)

It was so hot that day that we took the car searching for a nice beach to cool of: Lido Punta della Suina.

Back in Gallipoli we strolled around town and finish the day with a dinner somewhere.

 

On our last day in Gallipoli we had taken the car to move northwards of the town in search for a certain supposedly nice beach. But either we had never reached/found the correct place or that place had simply been total crap. We had made several detours eventually ending up in a place which hadn't really left a big impression. It wasn't even worth a picture which is why - until the moment that I'm right now writing this post - I couldn't even remember what we had done that day. I just knew we hadn't left Gallipoli until the day after and it took me a while to call that beach and day back to memory. What a pity that this place wasn't really meeting our expectations and the high standards of the places been to the previous days. But well...

After the two nights in Gallipoli we spent a whole day in the car driving all the long way back to Sicily. Here we spent some 4 more days on the beach, with friends, eating well and having a good time.
On the 2nd of September then it was unfortunately time to fly back to Oslo. Two great weeks of holidays had come to an end and the daily life in the North was waiting for us to re-start.

We spent quite some time just driving on this trip through Southern Italy, changing location nearly every or every second day. Nevertheless we have visited some beautiful places and there are even more beautiful ones still to discover. So all the driving was well worth it and we got our "annual portion" of sun :-)

Can't wait to have my next summer holidays, though - wherever they might take place :-)