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From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Origuy
The Gargano peninsula sticks out into the Adriatic Sea like a spur on the boot of Italy. Numerous small beach towns line the coast, while the inland includes the Foresta Umbra, a remnant of the vast oak forests that once covered much of Central Europe. At the tip of the Gargano is Vieste, an ancient fishing village that is now a tourist destination. Italian tourists mostly; Americans and other Europeans seem not to have discovered it. I was there in July for the World Masters Orienteering Championships, along with 3,000 other participants 35 and older.
Vieste isn’t easy to get to. I took the train from Rome to Foggia, the provincial capital, and a bus from there. The mountains rise steeply from the sea, so the roads are slow and twisty. But the views are spectacular on both sides of the bus. This is the Baia di Mattinatella, and the town is Mattinata.
Coming into Vieste, the bus stopped at several beaches. This is the Spiaggia del Castello and the white monolith is called Pizzomunno. I’ll just quote the legend from the Visit Vieste website:
It is said that at the time when the current city was only a village made up of sparse huts and inhabited by fishermen, a tall and strong young man named Pizzomunno lived there. Also in the same village lived a girl of rare beauty, with long hair the color of the sun named Cristalda. The two young men fell in love, madly in love with nothing that could separate them. Pizzomunno faced the sea every day with his boat and punctually the sirens emerged from the sea waves to sing sweet songs in honor of the fisherman. The marine creatures didn’t just sing, but prisoners of Pizzomunno’s gaze they offered him immortality several times if he accepted to become their king and lover.
The love that the young man poured on Cristalda, however, rendered the sirens’ offers in vain. One of the many evenings in which the two lovers went to wait for the night on the islet that stands in front of the coast, the sirens, seized by a fit of jealousy, attacked Cristalda and dragged her into the depths of the sea. Pizzomunno chased in vain the voice of her beloved. The fishermen the following day found the young man petrified by pain in the white rock that still bears his name today. Even today, every hundred years, the beautiful Cristalda returns from the abyss to join her young lover and relive their old love for just one night.
A much more recent legend is attached to the Scala dell’Amore, which is dedicated to Pizzomunno and Cristalda. It says that if you walk the stairway hand in hand with someone you love, your love will last 100 years. The words on the steps are from a song about the legendary lovers.
Every city and town in Italy has the passagiata, the evening stroll. Around dusk, the streets were closed to cars and started to fill with people, eating, drinking, shopping, and just wandering and talking. The shops and restaurants stay open late after closing for the afternoon. There were gelato shops around every corner.
I wasn’t just there to see sights, I was in the competition. Two of the competitions were urban sprints, navigating the complex maze of streets, alleys, and stairways of the medieval towns of Peschici and Vieste. An orienteering sprint is a short event with a winning time of under 20 minutes. You’re running hard and trying to make quick decisions while reading the map. North Americans are at a disadvantage, not having medieval towns to train in. The closest we come are some university campuses. Here I’m nearing the finish line in the Qualification race in Peschici. It was exciting to run among the local people going about their regular day.
The longer events were in the Foresta Umbra, the Forest of Shadow, part of the Parco Nazionale di Gargano and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is a control location on the practice course. Dozens of buses ran each day from Vieste to the event site. The Carabinieri escorted the buses and stopped traffic to keep us going. We did have to stop one day for a herd of grey Podolica cattle. Their milk is used to make the highly prized caciocavallo podolico cheese. I brought back a whole globe, about 2kg, for a friend.
One of the highlights of my time there was a boat trip along the southern coast of the peninsula. Wind and water have carved sea caves into the soft limestone. Our pilot maneuvered the boat through some really tight spaces.
Some smaller boats were exploring the caves, too. It’s possible to rent a boat to explore the coast or go to the nearby Tremiti Islands on your own. I didn’t have time for that.
eclare
Another part of the world I have never heard of! Looks like a great trip.
Scuffletuffle
Great photos and commentary, beautiful place!
Also, awesome hobby!
raven
Love those fisher people!
JPL
What a fascinating story!
Dorothy A. Winsor
What beautiful pictures. I hope it works if you want down the stairway and not just up.
OzarkHillbilly
Caves!
AM in NC
What a trip – thanks for the photos and commentary! When did you start orienteering?
Kristine
Thank you for the lovely photos. What a great trip!
WaterGirl
Wow. The first photo, not sure how you ever turn away from that view and walk away! The second photo, too. So charming.
Origuy
Thanks for your comments, everyone. The Adriatic Coast has some hidden treasures; I wish I’d had more time to explore. The orienteering event was a big deal locally. We had an opening ceremony where we paraded through the town in country order, like the Olympics. They had flags for each country and a local kid carrying the name of the country. I ended up carrying the USA flag. We were behind Ukraine, so heard a lot of cheering for them. At the end of the parade, a lot of local dignitaries spoke, mostly about how they wanted more people to come to the Gargano.
Dorothy, I’m sure it works both ways. The stairway is one of several that leads from the main piazza to the old town.
I should have included a picture of a trabucco, which is a machine for casting nets out into the sea while the fishermen stay on the shore. They are only found along the Gargano. The link shows how they work.
I was in Rome and Naples too. I’ll try to submit more pictures.
StringOnAStick
Yes, more photos please!
I spent two months in a remote part of Italy and it was long ago so no digital images; it was a transformative time for me. I’ve been thrilled to see gelato become commonly available here, but so far nothing has matched the limon flavour in central Italy, at least in my memories!
Origuy
@AM in NC: I’ve been orienteering since 1989. You’d think I’d be good by now. It’s taken me to a lot of interesting places, Scotland twice, Canada a bunch of times, and all over the US. This was my first time on the European mainland.
currawong
@Origuy: We staying in the beautiful harbor town of Trani just south of the peninsula and spent a day driving right around the peninsula and visiting Vieste. It’s a beautiful part of the world – I have a picture similar to your first one.