Heel of Italy 2024
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Having put True East to bed for the winter in Corfu, we decided to explore some of the heel of the Italian boot in anticipation of next summers cruise.
We took the ferry from Greece over to Brindisi in Italy where we spent a night at the Neptune Hotel. Of course are first stop was at the port to inspect the prospective facilities for a stop next summer, Approdo delle Indie was the choice marina. We could spend a couple of days in this lovely city.
We rented a car (seventh road trip this season) in Brindisi and headed south along the coast to Casalabate, then inland to Lecce. This is one of the highlights of the Puglia region of Italy. The next day, we visited the fortified village of Acaya then on to San Foca. The marina here would be a potential stop; however, it quite far from the city. Continuing on down the coast, we stopped at Roca Vecchia with it’s interesting natural pools then on to Torre dell’ Orso and Ortranto where we spent the night.
In Otranto we found the operator of a small boat rental that also controlled a couple of slips in this crowded port, he promised us a spot on our return. Otranto is a charming city and popular tour stop. Sure enough, we encountered Alessandro, our friend from Florence leading a tour. We would meet up again in Matera where we had time to have dinner together.
Back on the road, we stopped at the Bagno Roman sea baths at Santa Cesarea…what great construction. We made many stops along the coast as we worked out way down to Leuca. Here we found a very fine marina that would definitely be a stop on our way to Sicilla in 2026. Continuing on our next stop was Gallipoli were we spent the night at Palazzo Flora and it was a true Palazzo.
We continued up the inside of the heel to Taranto for lunch with a stop to play mini golf at La Buca, pretty grim course. Frankly, we did not find this part of Puglia very interesting and decided we would bypass the Gulf of Taranto headed east.
Headed inland we stopped at the terraced city of Locorondo described as the prettiest little town in Puglia. Here we started to see the famous cone shaped stone houses known as “trulli”. They are constructed without mortar so they can be disassembled when the tax collector is coming. The next town was Alberobello that is the epicenter of the trulli construction…magical.
On to Matera, what I would call an upside down city. The dwellings were literally carved into the side of the cliffs. In 1952, the population was evacuated due to the poor living conditions. Now many of the dwellings have been renovated, new utilities installed and the city has been rejuvenated. Be prepared to do a lot of climbing.
From Matera we headed back to the coast at Bari. After a few hours of wandering the city, we decided to head south to Monopoli a city that was highly recommended to us. It was a fine walled city; however, the marine facilities were very disappointing. The next day we headed back to the airport at Bari making a stop along the way at Polignano where they had a fine marina we would use next summer.
Overall Puglia was a very underrated area we would be pleased to return again.
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