En route from Sicily to Puglia we had an overnight stay at the town of Pizzo on the west coast of Italy. It would have been idyllic if it had not been so chilly, windy and wet.
Our next stop was to be a two night stay in a hill top town called Bernalda, near Matera. It is the traditional family seat of Frances Ford Coppola and had benefitted from much largesse from his family to encourage tourism, jobs and infrastructure. Worth a look we thought.
Bad idea!
We found our accommodation a goodly way out of town and on inspection of the room noted that the "bedroom" was exactly the same dimensions as the double bed (think about that) and the shower was over the toilet (think about that one, too). We had to walk through a very deep puddle to actually get to the room; the pool was closed but they might open it for a 40 Euro consideration for an hour if we said exactly which hour we wanted it and because there was nothing in the "room" to sit on we could use a chair in the "breakfast room" which was actually a plastic tent.
We left!
We checked out the rest of the town and didn't hang around there either. Paul is now in "discussions" with bookings.com to get a refund - but we're not hopeful.
So we drove on to Taranto, our next booking and rang the host to enquire if he could take us for 3 nights instead of one. Of course he could if we could wait for 2 hours for him to drive into town from his home about 50 km away. This turned out to be a great solution as Taranto was fascinating and our apartment was in the absolute centre - 100 metres from everything of interest. The apartment was an old family home - the best type of accommodation you can find: big rooms, solid fittings, good equipment, absolutely every single item you could need and provided with generosity. In this case the generosity included fresh strawberries, fresh fruit, yoghurt, coffee, milk, breakfast pastries and chocolates.
Taranto has a great castle managed by the navy because Taranto is a major naval base being in the middle of southern Italy and centred on the Ionian Sea in the Gulf of Taranto.
Taranto is also the gateway to the Salento Peninsula, which is the southern half of Puglia. In ancient times there were significant Greek settlements around Taranto and the area is referred to as Magna Grecia (part of Greater Greece).
Th ancient Greeks were active traders throughout the Agean from 1650 BC to 1050 BC (600 years) and had multiple trading settlements throughout the Gulf of Taranto area. The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto is ones of the most important in Italy and has a a wonderful display of Greek artefacts.
The Greeks traded wheel-made ceramics, ornaments, jewellery, glass, ivory, precious oils and essences, olive oil and wine.
This is a pair of gold earrings, in perfect condition and 3,700 years old.
Glass bowls, 3,600 years old and the one on the left is intact.
This was called the Nutcracker, in ebony and brass.
And vases with the most detailed illustrations.
Our next stop was Gallipoli, where the ancient city is on an island, connected to the mainland by a short bridge garded by a castle.
The castle at Gallipoli was very interesting.
And the walk around the old city walls revealed some beach ...
We then drove south down the rather boring west coast of the Salento Peninsular and rounded the very tip.
The drive north up the east coast of the peninsula was much more interesting and there were lots of coves and little rocky bays like this one. You wouldn't be able to see the ground for bodies in summer, but we are still struggling for some sunshine.
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