Vanya was determined to visit the Prosecco Hills (where the good Prosecco is produced) and so we packed up our things and left Padova, driving some 35 miles north to the charming town of Bassano del Grappa which sits on the River Brenta. Bassano del Grappa is not quite in the Prosecco Hills but it is a medium sized picturesque town, which deserves to be visited if only because it is where the Grappa brandy liqueur was invented and; it would serve as the perfect base from which to visit the Prosecco Hills.
Most important, Bassano del Grappa (BDG) has a reasonably sized old town, complete with narrow streets and small piazzas and a covered wooden bridge. I mentioned already that BDG is famous for inventing Grappa; it is made from the leftovers of the winemaking process. The town is also known for it’s white asparagus and certain locally produced ceramics and; it also featured quite a bit in the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleon Bonaparte won and lost battles here) and the First and Second World Wars. However, it is the old wooden pontoon bridge, the Ponte Vecchio (also known as the Ponte degli Alpini) which is perhaps BDG’s most celebrated feature.
The Ponte Vecchio – Unique among Italian Bridges
Designed by Andrea Palladio in 1569 and built on the site of an earlier wooden bridge over the River Brenta, the Ponte Vecchio has been destroyed many times but it has always been faithfully rebuilt to the original specification. Indeed, it is sometimes referred to as the Ponte degli Alpini because it was Italian Mountain Troops (the Alpini) who rebuilt it in 1948 after it was totally destroyed during WW2. It is not the only bridge in the town but it is certainly the most pleasing to look at.
There are a few other sites worth visiting in BDG; principal among them is the 12th century Castello degli Ezzelini which surrounds the town’s cathedral (the Duomo di Santa Maria in Colle) but after the bridge, it is the old town cobbled streets and attractive linked squares (the Piazza Liberta with the San Giovanni Church & City Hall with it’s large clock and the Piazza Gaibaldi with the San Francesco Church & Civic Tower) which most fascinated me. George Sand, the French author(ess) described BDG as “one of the greatest fortunes that could ever befall a traveller”.
Piazza LibertaSan Giovanni Church and the City Hall with it’s large clockA very pretty town
I mentioned George Sands. I should perhaps also mention another much later author who stayed in Bassano del Grappa, Ernest Hemingway. He served in the area as an ambulance driver during WW1 and received shrapnel wounds on the Italian Front in 1918. He modelled his novel A Farewell to Arms on his service in the area.
A few more images… and then something about Prosecco
We’d booked into the Hotel NH Padova in the city of Padova (Padua in English) for a couple of nights. It’s a nice hotel with plenty of suitable parking and it is within easy walking distance of the old town. You need only walk through the Porta (Ognissanti) o Portello by the River Bacchiglione and you are there.
So many people talk about taking a day trip to Padua while visiting Venice (Venice being just 23 miles to the west) but, trust me, Padova is worth a great deal more than just one day.
Through Porta o Portello and into Padova
Also known as the city of St Anthony (more about him later), Padova is an ancient city, believed to have been founded by the mythical Trojan hero Antenor (although in reality the city was around long before him). Having said that, most of the city’s early architecture was destroyed either by the Longobards who razed the city to the ground in 602AD or the Hungarians who did much the same in 899AD. It wasn’t until after 1000AD that the city once again began to flourish and it has since become one of the most vibrant cities in Italy with far more than it’s fair share of art, architecture and culture.
Nowadays, Padova’s old town is a mass of narrow porticoed streets and monumental squares criss-crossed by two rivers (the Bacchiglione and the Brenta) and a significant canal system (the most famous of which is the Brenta Canal which stretches all the way to Venice).
Part of Padua’s canal system
The most impressive of the squares, if an elliptical plaza can be termed a square, is the Prato della Valle (Meadow of the Valley) which at 90,000 square metres is the second largest in Europe (after Moscow’s Red Square). This truly monumental and quite beautiful square is used primarily as a public gathering place and to hold huge street markets (every Saturday) but it has also served as a sports venue (speed skating events are held here) and as a music venue and they hold at least two massive fireworks displays here every year.
The square’s centrepiece is a fountain which sits in a large dark green lawn. The lawn is surrounded by a moat and the resulting island, which can be reached by any one of four ornate bridges, is bordered on both sides by 78 marble statues of illustrious men associated with Padova. It doesn’t end there; the whole island is then circled by a seriously wide road which makes for one of the largest and best looking roundabouts in the world.
Prato della Valle: the green island in the centre is known as Isola Memmia after the square’s designer, Andrea Memmo… and if I didn’t mention it beforehand the whole kit and caboodle is then enclosed by some very large and impressive buildings
Other squares not to be missed during a visit to to the old town are the Piazza dei Frutti, the Piazze delle Erbe and the Piazza dei Signori which are all very close to each other. The Piazza dei Frutti and the Piazze delle Erbe are separated only by the Palazzo della Regioni (the old town hall) with it’s massive hall and impressive verandas (they call them loggias in Italy) and there is a walkway through the middle of the Palazzo which connects the two squares. The Piazza dei Signori is just to the south of the Piazza dei Frutti and is easily recognised by the Palazzo del Capitano with it’s unique centrepieces of a triumphal arch and the 1344 Torre dell’Orologia (astronomical clock).
The Piazza dei Frutti after the morning’s market. The large building with the massive verandah is the Palazzo del Regioni
A good time to visit these particular squares is when the street markets are open (i.e. every morning Monday to Saturday inclusive). All three squares are packed with temporary stalls selling just about everything known to man. Even the ground floor of the old town hall is divided into two rows of more permanent stalls selling local foods (predominantly meat, cheeses and fish but, as I arrived, there was also a wonderfully fragrant spice stall).
First photo: Piazza dei Fruiti with the morning market underway. In the background, you can see part of the astronomical clock on the Piazza dei Signori. Second photo: Triumphal Arch is obscured by a market stall but the astronomical clock is obvious. Third photo: Part of the ground floor of the Palazzo della Regioni
Don’t just visit these three squares in the morning. The stalls disappear during the afternoon and in the evening the squares are filled with tables and chairs as the surrounding restaurants and cafes prepare for their evening trade. The squares are once again packed, this time with diners, and the place buzzes. Our first meal in the city was on the Piazza dei Frutti.
Piazza dei Frutti and Piazza dei Signori at night. The place comes alive with diners
Talking of eating, on our second night in the city we ate at the famous Cafe Pedrocchi. It is famous as a meeting place for academics, artists, writers and revolutionaries (indeed, it was a scene of some anti-Austrian sentiment in 1848 which resulted in shots being fired) but also because it never once closed it’s doors (for much of the time it never had doors) between 1831, when it was built, and 1916. It was open 24/7. We enjoyed our food there but the service was wanting.
A surprisingly high proportion of Padova’s population of 214,000 people are students – there are 60,000 at the University of Paova alone! No surprise then that Padova has a lively night life. We stumbled across some of it while on the way back to our hotel that first night in the city. We saw lights and heard music coming from inside a small park (the Giardini dell’Arena) not far from our hotel. It transpired that the park holds a pop up bar complex and it was packed. We managed to find a spare table for two and sat soaking the atmosphere up over a couple of drinks each into the early hours. It was a great ending to our first evening in the city.
I cannot end a blog on Padova without reference to some of the great churches that fill the city. Without a doubt, the most impressive is the Basilica di Sant’Antonio di Padova or, as it is called locally, ‘Il Santo’. The construction of this huge church began immediately after the death of the saint in 1231 and his body is enshrined there. Everything about this church is extraordinary, inside and out. It is built in a Romanesque and Gothic style and has 8 huge Byzantine domes. Inside, there are numerous chapels and gold and marble is everywhere but the key features are Donatello’s Madonna and Child on the high altar (he was in Padua 10 years working on both the Madonna and Child and on the large equestrian statue of Gattamelata which is on the square outside the church) and some artwork by Titian.
Basilica di Sant’Antonio di Padova (Il Santo) with Donatello’s statue of Gattamelata in the foreground of the second photo. Gattemelate translates as ‘honeyed cat’ and was the nickname of Erasmo de Narni, a mercenary who fought for VeniceThe queue is formed of pilgrims who have come to pay respects to the relics of St Anthony. A Mass was underway and I was therefore unable to see all that I would have liked.
Other churches worth seeing in Padova include the Capella degli Scrovegni (or Scrovegni Chapel) which holds a Giotto Masterpiece (being his series of frescos depicting stories from the bible) but, you need to pre-book to access this church and numbers are very much restricted) and; the nearby 13th/14th century Eremitani Church with it’s wonderful wooden ceiling and; a very small church I stumbled upon and really liked, the Sant Tomas Becket.
The inside of the very impressive Eremitani and the not so impressive but still adorable Sant Tomas Becket (he of Canterbury Cathedral fame)
All great cities will have equally great street art and Padova is no exception to that rule. Theirs matches anything I have seen elsewhere although it is perhaps not so abundant. There is a fair amount of ‘Banksie’ style street art but my two favourites are those reproduced below (although I’m not sure if the excellent 3D painting qualifies as street art?)
One place I missed during our brief stay in Padova and that I really wished I had visited is the Botanical Garden. On our last day, I stopped for a glass of barbera wine in a small family run cafe bar near the Porta o Portello. The place was closing for the weekend but I was joined by the whole family and invited to take a second (very large) glass of wine by the grandfather. With the eldest grandson translating the family then took turns asking me what I liked about Padova and what I had seen. They were impressed by the amount of ground I had covered and the grandmother was particularly pleased that I had visited all the principal churches (and she loved my photos of the Tomas Becket) but they were all aghast that I had not seen the Botanical Garden. Next time.
Oh, one other faily worthless piece of information. Did you know that Padova (or Padua) is the setting for William Shakespeare’s comedy ‘The Taming of the Shrew’?
Duino was recommended to us as a nice place to visit by our friend Clare and it is. It is a tiny Italian fishing village on the Adriatic Coast with a focus towards cozze (mussels) but it’s two castles which sit on the cliffs overlooking the Gulf of Trieste have long been the star attractions of the area. For a while, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Duino became a fashionable seaside resort of the Austrian Riviera with the then owners of the newer of the two castles hosting Austrian Royalty (Franz Joseph I and Archduke Maximilian I) and such notable guests as Johann Strauss, Franz Liszt, Mark Twain and Victor Hugo. Those days ended at the conclusion of WW1 with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Duino being ceded to the Kingdom of Italy.
The hamlet has a small fishing harbour which on hot sunny days doubles as a sunbathing and swimming area. It was 34 degrees centigrade and getting hotter as we arrived and there were plenty of locals stretched out on the harbour walls or swimming in the water. It was almost noon and so we decided to stop for lunch at the prettiest of the two restaurants by the water. We had the best prawn salad.
You’ll not believe how long it took me to take the above photos without people in them. The harbour was full of locals swimming or sunbathingI love these moments… sitting in the shade with a drink, waiting for your food and watching the world go by
As the afternoon went by it became increasingly hot; too much so for the dogs and Vanya took them back to the Van for some respite from the heat while I continued on to view the towns two castles.
Of the two castles, the older 11th century castle (the Rocca di Duino) was left deserted in the 15th century and is now little more than a spectacular ruin on a large rock beneath the newer 14th century castle. The new castle is still inhabited and was opened as a museum in 2003. It’s exterior and it’s gardens do not match Miramar Castle further down the coast towards Trieste but it’s inside and it’s views are every bit as majestic.
The New CastleThe same side of the new castle; the first photo taken from one of the castle’s viewpoints in the gardens and the second from a gun emplacement or bunker built by the Germans occupiers of the castle during World War IIThe inside of the castle is beautiful and surprisingly homelyThe views from the new castle down towards the old castle
One unusual feature of the new castle is it’s bunker, added by the German occupiers during WWII. The entrance to the bunker is in the garden at the rear of the castle. The cool air in the bunker was well worth the hike up and down the stairs. However, I can’t help but think they could do more with the bunker. There was one glassed off room containing a few pieces of old WWII military equipment but the glass was covered in too much condensation to properly make all the items out.
Gosh, it was so cool down in the bunker.
I didn’t get to it but cut into the rocks just above Duino is a small 1st century BC temple to Mithras. This religion was a Persian religion championed by Roman soldiers.
Temple to Mithras
That’s a rather abrupt ending to this post but I’m running behind time. Vanya is ready for wine….
My last visit to Trieste in the winter of 2017 entailed a great deal of walking, taking in the sites – Miramare Castle, the Grand Canal (and the James Joyce statue), the Trieste Waterfront and the Molo Audace, The Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia, the Castle and Cathedral of San Giusto and, of course, the Roman Theatre. This time the stay would simply be about relaxing and celebrating Vanya’s birthday.
Three photos for readers who have not been to Trieste and who are interested in the sights. The first two were taken during my last tour and are of the Miramare Castle and the Grand Canal. The third photo was taken during this tour and is of the Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia
We parked the Van up on the promenade almost opposite the Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia and walked the short distance to the Doubletree by Hilton on the Piazza della Republica – one of many impressive buildings in this city.
Checking into the Doubletree Hilton… Beanie soon made himself at home
While Vanya and Beanie rested, I took Nala to check out three restaurants which were recommended by the hotel receptionist as possible places to celebrate Vanya’s birthday in the evening. That done I sat drinking wine outside a cafe on the Piazza della Borsa and simply watched the world go by. That’s always been a favourite pastime of mine.
I sat drinking wine outside a cafe on the Piazza della Borsa for a while with Nala just listening to a most unusual but good busker
That evening we dropped the dogs off in the Van (they are used to being in the Van and seem okay being left for a couple of hours) and went for pre-dinner drinks at a small cafe on the Via delle Beccherie Vecchie and then to the nearby L’Etrusco Restaurant for dinner. The service at L’Etrusco was excellent; the food was great and not too badly priced but; my wine, while a very good Chianti, was bloody expensive. Oh well. I enjoyed it.
The food was excellent although I cannot recall exactly what I had to eat. I recall the starter, a shared platter of cold meats and cheese, and I was drinking a good Chianti but, I cannot remember my main course. Too much wine!
By the end of the evening I’d had rather a lot to drink and our plans to see Trieste by night had to be curtailed. Sorry Vanya. We collected the dogs from the Van and ambled back across the Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia to our hotel.
The Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia looks good at night but, see they are putting the Christmas Trees up and we are still in October!
Over breakfast the next morning we (i.e. Vanya) decided she would like to see something of Slovenia and so we set off for one of my favourite destinations in Slovenia – Bled.
While loading the Van I paused to watch a local man catch a large fish from the bay with the smallest of rods. I have no idea as to how he managed to land such a huge fish with his small fishing rod but it was exciting to watch and he was as pleased as punch..
Of the 118 islands that form Venice, Burano is my favourite. Venice as a whole is wonderful but it is Burano’s colourful contrast that most complements the city. With some 4,000 inhabitants it is a fair sized island (it actually comprises four separate islands linked by bridges) famous for it’s lace, fishing, leaning bell tower and, most particularly, it’s colourful houses.
Legend has it that the neon coloured houses were first introduced to help fishermen get their bearings. Not sure I believe that – It is more likely to do with tourism since it is the local council which has made it compulsory for Burano residents to paint the facades of their houses every so often and it is the council which stipulates the colour (although residents can make application of the local council for a colour change).
There are a number of private tour operators who will take you to Burano and you can take such a tour from Zattere but we chose to walk across Venice’s principal islands from Zattere to Fondamente Nuovo and get the number 12 water bus (vaporetto). The bus goes every half hour or so with the journey taking about 45 minutes and stopping at Murano (the largest of the islands in the lagoon and famous for it’s glass), Torcello (very quiet with just 10 residents), Mazzorbo (connected to Burano by a long wooden bridge) and, of course, Burano. It goes on to another island but don’t ask me which one.
Vanya had it in mind to visit Venice at the outset and guess what? We arrived at our site, Fusina Camping (one of the best to date), some time after 15.00 and, despite my pleas to take time out and just chill until the next day, she had us sitting on the quay at Fusina in plenty of time to catch the 17.00 vaporetto to Zattere. She can be very persuasive sometimes.
Although I at first resisted, I confess I became quite excited at the prospect of returning to Venice. I have been to the city and some of it’s lagoon settlements many times before (I first visited the place as a teenager in 1969 and, of course, Vanya and I visited during our honeymoon on Jesolo, to name but two visits) but, for all that, I don’t recall ever having seen Venice at night.
The ‘bus’ can’t come soon enough
First sight of the Zattere promenade
Nearly there…
…and the San Basilio terminal
During all my previous visits the place has been crowded, especially the better known tourist spots of St Mark’s Square, the Rialto Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs, etc and I wasn’t looking forward to dragging our dogs, Nala and Beanie around the place in such crowds but my fears were groundless. COVID 19 had seen to it that the place was practically deserted. Everything was open but there were so few people! I’m not complaining, believe me.
Venice at night is something else. I loved it and I was so pleased that we made the effort to go in on the 17.00 vaporetto. Well done Van. xx
We didn’t stay too late because, in any event, we had it in mind to catch the vaporetto back into Venice the next morning. I had promised Vanya I would show her Burano (whether she wanted to see it or not). Burano is special. It is another of those quite unique places that Italy is so full of and I am firmly of the mind that you have not really experienced Venice unless or until you have seen it’s island of Burano.
It was getting on in the afternoon by the time we left Sassocorvaro but, using Google, Vanya had identified three camp sites within an hour’s drive. None were ACSI (In Italy, ACSI sites are thin on the ground away from the coast) and none had telephone numbers so it was a matter of just picking them off one by one until we got lucky. I say that because few camp sites remain open in Italy once summer is gone.
It took us almost an hour to reach our preferred site, Campeggio Pian Dei Prati (which overlooked the small village of Frontino and offered splendid views of Mount Carpegna) and Vanya wasn’t at all happy about the drive which was up, over and around a number of steep hills (well, steep by her standards anyway). In fact she chose to hide under a quilt in the back of the Van for much of the journey. Sod’s law the site was closed. In fact it looked as though it had not been open for some while.
I think the name of the second choice site was Campeggio Marecchia and/but I have totally forgotten the name of the third site. It matters not; they were both closed. Of course we spent at least another hour driving around the hills before discovering this and by then Vanya was a terrified wreck. She hates heights
The Satnav in the Van had us going around in circles. On at least two occasions we drove through places we had been not so long before. The worst instance was when we paused in a small mountain village to try and get our bearings (I think it was called Pennabilli over in the Emilia Romagna Region) and I pointed out a tiny cinema to Vanya. It seemed so incongruous there. A half hour later, after driving on what I thought was the road to Carpegna back in Le Marche, the Satnav brought us back to the cinema!! It was a bit like a Stephen King horror story. We were both unsettled at that point and decided decided to give up on a camp site. Vanya would have stayed anywhere so long as no more driving was involved. Me, I just wanted to get away from Pennabilli.
Eventually we found a small car park opposite a lonely pizzeria on the edge of the Sasso Simone e Simoncello Natural Park. The owners were very welcoming; it was warm and; they served an okay pizza with beer. I suspect the Prosecco was good too but Vanya was beyond caring.
We had a good night’s rest (read I had a good night’s rest) and were away early the next morning, heading for Venice, with me totally ignoring the Satnav and following my map until we were a good 50 miles away.
Having said all that, the countryside in the area is beautiful…
Sassocorvaro is a small sleepy town perched 1,030 feet up on a hill overlooking the Mercatale Valley through which the River Foglia flows.
It has little to interest tourists except perhaps for an unusual castle (the Rocca Ubaldinesca) and some fine views across the Mercatale Valley where the river has been dammed to create a sizeable artificial lake. Of equal interest to us however was the sizeable town square car park which nestled under the walls of the Rocca provided us with a perfect parking spot for the night. The car park had been singled out in the “Park4Night” website as being a good, quiet overnight stopping place and; with both a small pizzeria (to grab a bite and enjoy a beer in) and a small supermarket (from which to buy croissants in the morning) nearby, it promised a far better night’s rest than where we had been in the considerably larger, busier, noisier town of Urbino.
View down towards Mercatale
It suited us perfectly – and then Vanya read a local sign identifying that there would be a town market on the site the very next morning. The best laid plans of mice and men… ! No matter, there was time left for a brief wander around Sassocorvaro before looking for somewhere else to overnight at and, if worse came to worst, there were three camp sites within striking distance.
Small quiet square with a bar and store – fine to overnight on
The views over the valley, especially those over the lake towards the town of Mercatale, were impressive but we couldn’t get to see much of the Rocca Ubaldinesca because it was closed. Shame. It is a relatively small Renaissance style castle and quite unique because of it’s turtle like layout (but that wasn’t obvious to us from underneath the walls). The castle’s one claim to fame is that it was used during WWII to house works of art from across Italy in order to prevent them being stolen by occupying German forces.
As has already been explained, there is not much to the town except the castle and the views down the valley
It was time to move on. After checking various sources for camp sites Vanya had identified three camp sites between 20 and 30 miles away to the north east. Two of the three read particularly well… and that was where things started going awry.
Urbino was picked out by Vanya as somewhere she thought I would like and; I do, except we didn’t stay as long as we perhaps could or should have done to do the place justice. I had picked out another small town, Sassocorvaro, which place also looked worth a visit (and is just down the road a bit) and; because Urbino couldn’t offer decent overnight parking, we elected to do both Urbino and Sassocorvaro and trust that the latter town would offer more in terms of a place to overnight at. Well, that was the plan and; it worked well to start with. We enjoyed a brief stop in both Urbino and Sassocorvaro but then it went all to pot. Sorry, I am running ahead of myself. Let me talk a little about the two places and then I will explain how most everything else went awry.
Urbino is a small brick and sandstone walled hilltop city of just over 15,000 people in the Marche Region. It was both a Roman and Medieval town but it really came to the fore during the 15th century when the Duke Federico da Montefeltro, a real patron of the arts, totally remodelled the place into one of the most important Renaissance sites in Italy. He called some of the world’s most renowned scholars and artists to his court and created a centre of learning that would ultimately lead to the city being recognised in 1998 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Urbino is actually built on two hills which makes for considerable ups and downs as you walk the city
It is still a centre of learning with the University of Urbino being ranked as one of the oldest (founded in 1506) and most prestigious in Italy and in so many respects it is a proper university town – witness the numerous university book shops, coffee bars and accommodation letting agencies. We arrived near lunchtime and the town’s steep narrow streets were thronged with students, released for the day and crowding the coffee shops and bars. There are more students than native residents and, if what we witnessed is anything to go by, they invoke a lively, buoyant atmosphere. Ordinarily I would have said there was a real buzz about the place but, sadly, Vanya and I have been exposed to too much “lockdown” and “social distancing” as a result of the current COVID pandemic and I think we both felt somewhat uncomfortable by the tumult and general mood of the place (although we were not deterred from joining them in coffee and cakes at one of the local coffee shops).
Good coffee and an outstanding chocolate cake
There was insufficient time for us to visit even one of the city’s many local art galleries or museums but just by walking the city we viewed countless examples of architectural magnificence and the views from the city across the remarkably green, rolling countryside match any I have seen in Tuscany.
Outstanding panoramic views from the city include those towards the Chiesa Di San Bernardino (San Donato) and the Apennines
The most outstanding building and the centrepiece of the town is the very well preserved Ducal Palace and, alongside that, the Cathedral. The Ducal Palace houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche; one of the best renaissance paintings collections in Europe with Raphael, Titian and Pierro della Francesca predominating. Incidentally, Raphael (or Raffaello Sanzio to give him his proper name) was born in Urbino and the house he was born in is now a museum.
The primary entrance into Urbino…
… and towering over it, the Palazzo Ducale
Other prominent structures include the cathedral…
… and the San Francesco Church
And so it was that by mid afternoon we were heading off to Sassocorvaro…
It was raining heavily in Contursi when we went to bed last night and it was still raining when we awoke this morning. In fact heavy rain is forecast for the next few days in the Salerno area and along almost the whole of the west coast of Italy. There was only one thing to do – move to the east coast where the forecast is much brighter – and so we set off at about 9.30 for a place called Chieti which is on the Adriatic Coast in the Abruzzo Region.
Chieti is about 195 miles from Contursi and I estimated the journey would take between 2.5 and 3.0 hours using the motorways. In the end, we didn’t make it. In fact we are still 87 miles south of Chieti and that is after 5 hours driving! I went totally the wrong way. In fact, we are now in the small fishing town of Lesina on the Puglian coast of the Adriatic. No matter. We’re not in a hurry.
I don’t think there is much to see or do in Lesina but it is a pretty enough place. It is a genuine fishing village on Lake Lesina just to the north of the Gargano National Park (see the Vieste blog earlier this trip). I say ‘genuine’ because you get the impression here that fishing is what it is all about whereas, in a lot of so called ‘fishing villages’ the fishing has long since given way to tourism. We’ll find out for sure later tonight when we check out the restaurants and tomorrow morning when I check out the local fish market.
What’s to look at? Well, there’s an elegant looking (former) cathedral here, the Cattedrale della Santissima Annunziate. Not sure how it is or why a cathedral can revert to being a church?
There is some history here too in that USACE opened an airfield here in 1944 for 325 Fighter Group (317, 318 & 319 Squadrons) with their P51 Mustangs. It closed in 1945.
When arriving in Lesina we chose to stay at the local Aree di Sosta. By any standards the Sosta is a good one, even having a (very) small bar frequented by local fishermen. The proprietor was friendly and enquired as to whether or not we wanted any local fish, offering also to cook it for us in the small kitchen at the back of the bar. It wasn’t a particularly cheap meal by local standards but it was good and he served it with a very nice white wine from the Istria Valley in Puglia and then, to cap it all, presented us with complimentary liqueurs.
