Medieval Monopoli

Friday October15 started cool in Trani and ended a bit cooler with some rain in Monopoli.

It was tough to say goodbye to Trani, a beautiful sophisticated town, as one reviewer noted.  Our train wasn't until 12:10, so we went for morning walk.  We stopped at Panificio del porto, a wonderful small bakery on the port that had been closed the last time we had walked by.  It  had some wonderful Pugliese focaccia.  We bought half a pizza to take with us to Monopoli.

Panificio del porto

One last look at the Trani harbour

We said our goodbyes to Silvia, our B&B host.  She and her husband and two teenage children live in a separate section of the B&B.  She was very responsive and helpful to us.  We would highly recommend a stay there.  While it was a small room, it had everything we needed.  It was fun to take breakfast at the café across the narrow street.   We walked to the train station (about 8 minutes) and caught our 12:06 train to Monopoli just down the coast.

Arrivederci Trani-- the train station

Welcome to Monopoli

Monopoli is a city "born of the sea and one that lives from the sea".  It was first settled in about 500 B.C. as a fortified Messipian city.  In the Roman era it became one of the Adriatic's primary ports. It is about 40 km southeast of Bari and has a population of around 50,000.   Its coastline stretches for 13 kilometres and offers 32 natural coves interspersed with beautiful sandy beach resorts and clifftops overlooking the sea. 

Yes, the board game, Monopoly, dedicated a special edition to the town's centre, even though the Italian version of the game has always been called Monopoli!! (so says our guide book).

We got a bit lost getting to our Airbnb which is located in Centro Storico (Historic Centre), a maze of medieval streets near the harbour.  We were only about a 15 minute walk from the train station, but Google Maps was not too helpful, as we could not locate street names.  The town was also very quiet, but we found someone who got us oriented in the right direction.  We were still wandering about, when lo and behold, our host Alberto appeared and asked if we were Allan and Toby!  He led us to our spacious apartment on the ground floor on a tiny street called Vico Pugliese.   He and his wife Elena left us a nice bottle of Rosato di Primitivo, some Puglia treats and a map! 

The entrance to our street

Bathroom

Kitchen area

Large bedroom and extra bed

We are on a ground floor apartment (beige door)

Looking up the Street

It was quite cool and cloudy when we arrived and it started to lightly rain.  We headed out to Piazza Garibaldi where there are a number of cafés and the Tourist Information Centre.

Rainy day at Piazza Garabaldi

Tourist info centre in an interesting building, which was once a fish market

Display of photos of fishermen  

We got out of the rain and had a coffee and panini at Barumba, on the Piazza Garibaldi.

We were checked for vaccine status once we sat down

Alonso with coffee and panini

Clock Tower in Piazza Garibaldi 

The very helpful woman at the Tourist Info centre told us about a local fish store around the corner.  We went there and got fish for our next two dinners.  Having had our last four dinners out (two in Rome and two in Trani), we decided it was time for some Alonso home cooking.

Fish was so fresh

Outside of the store--- a lot of stores have those strings of beads as you enter (like the 1950s films)

The harbour across from the fish store

Heading back to our apartment- many tiny streets

Alonso made us a dinner of orata (sea bream) and salad.  We also had the focaccia we had purchased at the Trani bakery.

Alonso prepping the dinner

Orato (sea bream) and focaccia-- very tasty.

 Saturday October 16, was a mostly sunny day with a high of 18C.  Perfect for exploring the city.

Our front door has an outer door and two parts of an inner door---
Alonso doing his best Mr. Ed impersonation. 

Walking through the historic centre to the harbour

Flowers on a wall

The harbour is only about 10 minutes (at most) from our apartment. So much nicer with blue sky and blue boats.

Monopoli harbour

Lots of fishing boats- called "gozzi"

There is an International festival of photography and art called PhEST, See Beyond the Sea, which has 15 free outdoor exhibits as well as some ticketed indoor exhibits.  We passed a number as we walked along the coast.

The first exhibit we saw was entitled Corpus Fugit, by a Jordanian photographer, Mustafa Sabbagh (b. 1961).  

                                         Striking photographs of young men and women looking forward

We started to walk towards a lighthouse on a piece of land jutting into the Adriatic Sea.

Looking back into the harbour

More of the photos

Another view

The next exhibit we saw was entitled: Weathering Time, by Nancy Floyd (b. Minnesota, 1956), a fascinating project she started in 1982 of taking self-portraits every day to watch herself grow older. For the first 36 years she used an analog camera.  There was a three year period when she did not take photographs and she also missed some days.  Her visual calendar now consists of more than 2500 photographs.  

39 Years 1982-2019

Nancy often groups her photos by themes:

Protest 1984/1988/2018

Top: Evolution of the Typewriter 1983-2013 and Bottom: Evolution of Trousers 1982-2021

The display of her work

Walking to the lighthouse

Looking back

Around the corner from the lighthouse was the Castello Carlo V, a stone fortress built in the mid 1550s and used as a jail for centuries.  It is now used for exhibits, but it is closed at the present time.

A view of Castle

More photos from a series called: Hidden Motherhood, by Alena Zhandarova (b. 1988, Birobidzhan, Russia).

Alena Zhangdarova

Paired with: Artist Unidentified, Untitled (Hidden Mother), 1860-1879, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Palazzo Palmieri- rococo aristocratic residence, built at the end of the 18th century.

Chiesa San Vito-- very old church

Monopoli cat

Chiesa S. Teresa (XVIII) 

Chiesa SS. Pietro e Paolo -1795

Beautiful archway

We decided to stop for a panini at a small deli in one of the side streets (no other stores around).  We shared a delicious sandwich and a beer.

The inside of the small shop

Making our panini

Alonso with our lunch

Lots of ceramics on balconies

The beachfront

On the Waterfront - Porta Vecchia-- where one of the city gates once stood.  
This is the closest beach to the city

We passed an installation which is part of the PHest.  It is a work by Alicia Eggert (New Jersey, b. 1981), entitled "You are (On) an Island".

Neon sign on the small island reads "You are on an island."

Hard to see the writing on a sunny day

We headed for the Cathedral of St. Maria della Madia.

View of the Cathedral

View where we had walked from

We passed a "Frish and Chips" resto-- loved the name

Passed by the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio (also known as church of Purgatorio), where five mummified corpses are apparently on display)

Very macabre door with skeletons

The Cathedral is spectacular.  It was originally erected near the site of a Roman temple and burial site.  Work began in 1107, but was supposedly halted for the lack of roof beams.  A miracle occurred in 1177, when a raft carrying an icon of the Madonna drifted into the harbour.  The raft logs were used to construct the roof.  Originally built in the Romanesque style in 1442, it was completely rebuilt in the 1700s with a baroque facade.  In 1921, the cathedral was declared a minor basilica. While the Cathedral was not open, it houses a precious Byzantine icon of the Madonna.

Basilica Cattedrale Maria Santissima della Madia

Another view

My attempt at a panoramic

After more wandering we stopped at Gasperini, "Artigiani del Gelato dal 1936", recommended by our host.  I had chocolate and strawberry (non-dairy) and Alonso had pistachio and coffee.

Entrance

Alonso with the gelato-- excellent quality (Note- masks are required in stores and there are limits on the number of people allowed inside at one time)

We walked to the train station to get tickets for our day trip to Ostuni tomorrow.  Then we headed back to the apartment for a rest and a salmon dinner.

 Fresh zucchini and tomato salad, salmon and wine

We really enjoyed exploring Monopoli in the sunshine.  Tomorrow (Sunday) we are taking a day trip to Ostuni,  (about a 20 minutes train ride) known as the "White City".