Puglia Day 12 (Egnazia)

On our last full day here, I wanted to do something more outdoorsy, despite the threatened heat. One highlight we had missed was the archaeological excavation at Egnazia near Monopoli, a city with Bronze Age roots that ceased to exist in the Middle Ages after being sacked by a variety of enemies. The site consists of a museum, the necropolis with graves from the Bronze Age up till Roman times:

and the partially excavated Roman and early Christian era city.

Especially amusing was the sign in one corner of the park to the effect that snake repellent had been applied, but visitors should be careful nonetheless. We didn't see a snake, but dozens of lizards.


To recover from the heat we looked for a beach along the coast, a few hundred meters away. Here we relaxed for most of the afternoon before heading back to the Gallo to get cleaned up for a 'fancy' dinner at Ciacco, a restaurant highly praised in our travel guide. On my second snorkel of the day I saw a good-sized octopus, a beautiful animal about as big as a dinner plate.

Our dinner at Ciacco was marvelous; we dined on a rooftop terrace. We let ourselves be talked into a three course dinner, but with only half portions for the primo and secondo. As we should have expected by now, it was way too much. But all very good, typical local cuisine with local ingredients and a Puglian wine (Cappello del Prete). We ended up leaving half of our secondi, wondering how many pounds we gained on this vacation!