Dreaming In Italian

Why did I even know or think of Galipoli? I don’t really recall who it was, but someone Italian that I talked with in Bologna waxed ecstatic about the red shrimp in Galipoli. She said that they were particularly delicious and found nowhere else. So that fixed Galipoli in my mind, food references have a tendency to do that. So while we were at Lecce it seemed a good thing to do something else for a day. In some idle time I considered some alternates, for example Grottaglie known for it’s regional ceramics. Galipoli won out, perhaps because of the food and perhaps because of the Ionian sea.

So we set out one morning from the apartment in Cavallino (Lecce). It was an easy drive through very nondescript scenery for less than an hour to reach Galipoli. I have no idea what the major part of the city is like since we were interested in the old part – an island complete with fort.  It came with the typical twisty-turny streets only large enough for a cart and, of course, lots of history. Our first glimpse on the island was walking from the parking lot through a seafood market. I always love seeing all of this extremely fresh seafood.

Random shells – what beauties.

Part of the seafood selection in Galipoli

And more seafood

Street scenes follow.

Street scenes in Galipoli

I guess they weren’t thinking ahead when they planted that tree

Galipoli was incredibly windy. Apparently this is one of those named winds that blows at this time of year. You can see from one of the pictures that the flags are sticking straight out from the flagpoles.

Was it windy? – check the flags.

After having a successful shopping encounter, a nice coffee and sweet tidbit at a bar we walked around the windswept island. It’s surprisingly unfazed by tourism – perhaps there is not much (not a bad thing). We found a very nice restaurant for lunch. It was very pretty, somewhat sophisticated and a bit formal. Fortunately the food compensated for some of those flaws but were accompanied by formal prices. I think that I remember the formality, so different from most of my dining experiences which I have found in Italy, more than the food.

Lovely restaurant

Ride the wild shrimp.

One thing historic was the olive press (frantoio). There are actually several on the island and I suppose more on the mainland. In any case this one was entirely underground and  was typical of many of those in the area. There were the millstones that used burro power, some other presses used large wooden screw devices to apply the pressure, and there were excavations in the rock which temporarily stored the olive oil. Apparently at one time they (the good citizens of Galipoli) launched 30 boats a day of olive oil destined for the lamps of Europe. I guess if you don’t have good options for light that certainly makes sense but I can only think of olive oil in a culinary sense.

One of the presses

Frantoia millstones that used burro power.

Our hosts in Lecce said that there were some fantastic beaches south of Galipoli. There’s still a world of Puglia to explore.

Yes, I should be ashamed of the pun but I am, after all, shameless. I visited Lecce last year but hardly saw anything of the city. I was desperate to find an ottica (optics – glasses etc) to buy a replacement contact lens so I didn’t explore very much  while I waited out the typical 4 hour lunch break when virtually everything is closed. Typical of the south of Italy. So I didn’t really understand what the big deal was about Lecce. This year everyone kept telling me how great Lecce was so I figured I really missed out on something and how right I was. The old town of Lecce is really a marvel of baroque architecture, has wonderful handicrafts should one, uh, wish to shop a little. And of course great food.

We found a wonderful apartment through AirBnB in the house of Antonella and Omero in the nearby town of Cavallino which is apparently part Lecce but has a long history of it’s own of which Omero was extremely proud. He is of the 4th generation in Cavallino so naturally it’s in his blood. We were not quite as impressed with Cavallino as Omero but it made an ideal base to explore the city. One note of advice here. I decided to set the GPS in the iPhone to what was probably the very center of the city, the Piazza del Duomo. That makes sense. However it led me through tiny streets in the old city center followed by irate locals in cars and scooters who had little patience with an almost lost American tourist. So if you ever drive into Lecce set the GPS for Porta Napoli. There is easy access in and out of the  city (relatively) and also ample parking within easy walking distance to the best parts of the old town. Beats having a guy pulling along side the driver (me) and gesticulating and yelling at me. I just told him to f*** off and continued on. I used english rather than Italian so I wonder if he understood that much. Probably.

So back to the baroque. We went through the duomo and really marveled at the design inside and out. Then we went on to the church that is supposed to be the pinnacle of baroque design but just like everything else in the south that doesn’t involve eating and drinking, the church itself was closed from 1:00 to 5:00 so I satisfied myself with pictures of the facade and stole some photos from the web of the interior. Well, I looked for photos without great success but please click on this link to see a tour of the incredible interior.

The Lecce duomo

Detail of Lecce duomo facade

Incredibly detailed interior

More incredible interior

And yet more

Facade of Basilica di Giovanni Battista

Detail of the facade.

In addition to all of this fantastic baroque stuff there is also a reasonably well preserved roman amphitheater, except of course that part that has now been paved over and built upon.

The roman amphitheater not far away from the duomo

More of the amphitheater

And let’s not forget that all important aspect of Italian life – FOOD. We had dinner at a very traditional Lecce restaurant which featured the southern “cucina povera” (food of the poor) called Trattoria di Nonna Tetti. A pleasant evening at modest cost. Then there was the food that Antonella served each morning for breakfast as well as the night out with the family for a great pizza in Cavallino. Lecce is a fantastic place to visit. I hope that you can get there someday. Actually the same can be said for about everywhere that we went in Puglia.

Interior of Trattoria di Nonna Tetti.

Typical breakfast – impossible for 2 to eat.

Pizza with
Omero, Massimiliano and Antonella

The next morning I took a bus to the Bari airport. I had asked for Economy or Mini  sized car but they were out so gave me what seemed to me a big car at the same price. Frankly smaller is often better in Italy since the streets in old towns are pretty narrow. In any case the Citreon C3 “picasso” was kind of a mini-SUV but we managed OK. Since it was a diesel it was economical to drive because it gets better mileage and diesel fuel costs less than gasoline in Italy. We drove out of the city with only a couple of wrong turns and stayed for 3 days near Monopoli. It was outside the city which was a good idea considering parking difficulties in cities but finding it was a real adventure. After several calls to Martino (whose place it was) we finally connected and he led us to the place. It was OK but certainly nothing special but the price was relatively economical. Once there it was pretty easy to go wherever we wanted. We ate lunch the first day in Polignano a Mare which is a charming little town with a spectacular sea inlet. I did a big post on that last year (combined with a stay at Fasano) that you can find by clicking here.

Same stairs in Polignano as last year but the owner has changed the poem

Especially in some of these smaller towns in Puglia and for all I know in smaller towns elsewhere in Italy it is not uncommon to see a bunch of guys sitting around in a piazza on a nice day. Some of them bring their own chairs and they often are in constant animated conversation.

I always wander what these guys are talking about.

We enjoyed Monopoli with all of the twisty turny streets in the old town and one really exceptional meal at La Guazzetto. The food is really good in Puglia and since there seems to be almost nothing more than 15 or 20 miles of a sea there tends to be terrific seafood everywhere. Also a specialty of Puglia is “cucina povera” (food of poverty) which can be very good. People become very innovative when they need to make the most of what they have. There are lots of pastas with fresh pasta made with only flour (often semolina) and water in contrast to that made also with eggs in the more affluent north. Also sometimes rather than cheese the pasta is sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs. Everyone in Italy raves about food in the south and for good reason.

Lovely fountain in an out of the way park in Monopoli. They like octopi as much as I do.

The fort at Monopoli

Can’t resist a selfie

Graffiti everywhere – including a cannon.

More of the fort with view of boats through the porta.

Building a big wooden boat

Il Guazzetto – great trattoria in Monopoli

Mmmmm.

Orecchietti – a regional specialty

Love them fried fishy things! Especially those tiny squid.

After our stay in Guilianova we took the train to Bari. We decided to spend the night in a hotel not far from the train station rather than make the trek with a large (and heavy) suitcase to the airport to pick up the rental car. This turned out to be a good idea and Bari turned out to be a really nice place to be. Once you get used to the relative chaos compared to Bologna, you can find that it has a fascinating old town, good food and good shopping, especially for clothes. We went to the old town for a meal and walked around the first night and then I went to the airport the next day at around noon and picked up the car. Photos of old Bari below.

Somewhere in Vecchia Bari

In Piazza Mercantile (I think)

Lights at a porta of the old city – nice landmark for returning to the restaurant

Just another church

Church interior – always interesting and always different

Saint?

Same church

Typical little windy street in the old part of town