On the road: from Italy to UK – part 2

Hello my friends…here I am again.

So, the last city I visited in my last post was Mafredonia. After that I went south to visit more places in Puglia and then, from there, back to London .

Day 6: from Manfredonia, we drove south to Monopoli on the “provinciale street”. We decided not to take the motorway, first because in Italy you need to pay for it, and second we were not in a hurry and it was nicer to go slowly and stop whenever we wanted to take photos. So early afternoon we arrived in Monopoli where we booked a one bed apartment for 4 days with Apulianstay . The apartment is called Hellen House and it is located a few minutes from the beach. I booked the apartment on their website and I really advise to do the same if you want to visit Monopoli as they have very beautiful apartments in the best areas of Monopoli.

Monopoli is a small city in the Bari area with a wonderful old town all in white. It also has a beautiful beach just outside the city wall with shallow water where you can also swim late at night. I know Monopoli very well as I have been there many times but all I love to go back, walk in the old town, eat in one of the great places in the piazza and then have a siesta after lunch, then to the beach. I will write more about Monopoli in another post because there is really a lot to say…….

Therefore, Monopoli became our base and departure daily point to other beautiful city of Puglia.

Day 7: Today we had appointment for lunch with a great friend from Bari, Francesca Palumbo (IG name: frantic_61, click on the link) , famous writer and incredible person. We exchanged some text messages so I was not sure what the progam was and where we were going to have lunch………SURPRISE!!!! She brought us to her wonderful countryside trullo in Polignano and she cooked some Italian food for us!!!! – Actually if you are interested in renting it DM Francesca and check the IG page of Campagna Fusella.

The lunch was amazing, lasagne, wine, organic vegetables, all eaten outside on the wonderful veranda!! After lunch we decided to go to the centre of Polignano to get a special coffee (secret recipe with liquor and whipped cream…..absolutely amazing) and a super nice ice-cream. The weather was nice and we could stay outside without a coat……..we really spent a wonderful day!! Thanks again Francesca and Giacomo!!!!

Day 7: First thing after waking up….a nice walk at the beach. It was sunny, quite warm and the water was blue and flat. Second thing a nice brekfast with espresso and croissant.

We decided to visit Fasano and Alberobello on the 7th day. We headed west from the strada provinciale driving up the hill towards these two cities. The landscape started to be very green with pines, prickly pears and vegetation. There were some works on the road so the traffic was slow; however in sort of half an hour we reached Fasano.

We arrived at lunch time and the place was empty. As you probably know in Italy there is a long lunch break so usually shops close at 12.30/1.00pm and open again after 4.00pm; therefore everything was closed and nobody was around (as it was lunch time 🙂 . We were looking for a bar and we found one at the end of a small road (forgive me but I do not remember the name). I had an expresso and a small cake while sitting in the nice bar and then we came back to the car as we wanted to visit to Alberobello.

It did not take long to drive to Alberobello. It is a very nice drive in the middle of the countryside, full of trulli, the characteristic Apulian house. We arrived at Alberobello and parked at the car park at the entrance of the city. Then we got out and walked to the centre.

It was amazing to see all those trulli all together…..in one of them they explained to us their architecture and why they were built in such a way. In another one there was a nice bar/ bakery instead so I had one of the local cakes, pasticciotti, with custard, chocolate or cherry inside…..amazing!!!I could have eaten the whole tray….but I have to stop sometimes…:) Anyway, the town is full of nice bars, bakeries and resturants if your interested in food (as I am…). You can enojoy your day going around and visiting the trulli, looking at the nice shops and eating nice food. The place is usually quite busy as there are visitors from all over the world!!!

Day 8: On day 8 I decided that I wanted to go South and visit Lecce and San Donato di Lecce. I travelled to Lecce by train from Monopoli. I took a regional train; the price from Monopoli to Lecce is 7.90euro and there are many options. Please visit trenitalia website if you want to check the timetable or book a train. Anyway, it took about 1 hoour and 15 minutes to reach Lecce while I was confortable sitting and watching the landscape.

Lecce is a beautiful Barrocan city of around 100,000 inhabitants in southern Italy and second province in the region by population. Lecce has many buidings, churches and monuments to visit. I just mentioned a few things but I will write a whole post about Lecce because there is really a lot to write about this beautiful Apulian city.

Anyway, the day was nice and sunny with just a bit of wind. I arrived at the railway station where my sister was waiting for me. I have some cousins and relatives in Apulia so we had lunch with them. After lunch, we went to Piazza Sant’Oronzo, in the old city centre for a coffee. Piazza Sant’Oronzo has a Roman column topped with a bronze statue of the city’s patron saint, and the sunken Roman amphitheater. Then we visited the Castello di Carlo V (Castle of Charles V), the Cattedrale (The Cathedral) and the Chiesa di Santa Irene (Chuch of Saint Irene).

I had a great day, eating pasticciotti (the typical Apulian cake) and tarallucci (another typical savoury dry bread) and walking around the town centre.

Day 9: On day 9th I woke up and it was an incredible sunny and bright day. After brekfast I went to the railway station to go back to Monopoli. I bought the ticket and I validated it before boarding the train. Back to Monopoli I went to my nice apartment I rented with Apulianstay left the handlagguage and I went directly to the beach before having lunch. It was my last day in Monopoli before starting the journey back to UK. So I wanted to celebrate it with a nice lunch and dinner 🙂 At lunch I had a pizza at the Pizzeria la Dolve Vita while I decided to go with fish for dinner at the Sottocoperta.

Day 10: I started the trip back to Senigallia where I wanted to stop one day before contiuing north. The plan was to stop one day in Germany and one in France to do some sightseeing and some photos…..however things do not always go as planned ….:) well we were nicely driving back on the motorway A14 when we decided to stop for a coffee…..we had the coffee, we come back to the car and……..the car engine was not turning on anymore!!!! The car was “dead’!!!!

Ok, after a fist moment of complete panic, we tried to restart the car. Some guys at the petrol station tried to help us but…..no way…the car was not moving anymore 🙁 The only thing to do was to call the AA (soccorso stradale) and bring the car to a mechanic. We did so and they brought us (and the car) to a small city called Cerignola, in the Foggia province. A part of the car had to be ordered and replaced therefore, considering the time for the order and delivery plus the fact that in Italy they have a long break at lunch time…..I thought it was better to book a hotel and pray some saints for quick results 🙂

We booked a B&B in the centre of the town called Piazza Duomo with a wonderful view on the main church, The Duomo. The owner, Sergio, was great and helped us a lot with everything. Moreover, he knows everything about the place and he can give you whatever direction on sightseeings or restaurants you need.

Day 11 and Day 12: we were stuck in Cerignola……so we decided to go around, visit the place, take some photos and try some nice caffe and restaurant. I will write more about Cerignola in a future post 🙂 At the end of Day 12 the car was ready!!!!!!!! Therefore we departed striaght away to reach Senigallia asap. We left at about 7.00pm, took the motorway, and reached Senigallia late at night.

Day 13: As we did not have so much time, we spent the morning in Senigallia, we had a nice breakfast, lunch and then in the afternoon we left again….. we drove until Milan and then we decided to stop for the night………

Day 14: we departed very early in the morning, the day was nice and we reached France in the afternoon. We stopped at Strasburg in the evening for and early dinner and we reached Calais very late at night….as we were very close to England…guess what? it started rainign cats and dogs 🙂 so we took the tunnel by train and we reached UK in the middle of the night under a torrential rain…..

Day 15: we stopped a few hours and then drove back to London. Luckly the rain stoppend pouring even thought it was cloudy and very gray. We had an English brekfast on the way and, at around 10.00 we arrived at home!!!! It was a nice trip, we visited so many places and took many pictures. I enjoyed it and I will do it again (please no broken car this time!!!)