This was an amazing vacation. For us terra incognita, in our many Italian vacations we'd never gone farther south than Tuscany. How can I tell about this in a way that's not boring for the majority? I kept daily notes while there, I think I'll use them as a basis and tell the story day by day, making a new post for each day. This may also spawn some extra posts, for example about driving in southern Italy.
Background
For those not familiar with Italian geography, Puglia is the region in the extreme southeast of the country, the heel of the boot. The terrain is mostly flat, save for the last southern extension of the Appenines running down the middle of the region, the Murgia. It's bordered on the east by the Adriatic Sea; Albania is only about 60 miles away. It's a dry region, but not a desert. Along the coast vegetables are produced, and (as in much of Italy) olive trees and grapes seem to be growing everywhere. It's not a famous wine-growing region, but there are good local wines.Earliest signs of human habitation go back to the Stone Age; there were Bronze Age settlements, which were later strongly under the influence of the Greeks. Later Puglia became part of the Roman Empire. In more modern times it had strong connections with Byzantium, and later with Venice.
We mostly planned this vacation using the internet and a couple of travel guides we purchased. A cheap flight exists from Munich to Bari; we decided on going that route and renting a car rather than driving, because the drive would have been at least 14 hours and we weren't enthusiastic about driving our Mazda Premacy with German license plates in the Mezzogiorno (as southern Italy is known). Since Puglia is comparatively large, we opted not to try and see everything but to concentrate on the area from Bari (the capital) south - a good decision. The Gargano peninsula in the northeast of the region is supposed to be beautiful; we'll save that for a future trip (anyone want to join us on that?)
We made reservations in three different B&B - type accomodations - the first near Polignano a Mare, called Il Casale dei Fornici, the second near Lecce to the south, called Villa Conca Marco, and the last near Martina Franca, a small B&B called Il Gallo Felice. They were all moderately priced (around 70€ for a double room including breakfast); we had varying experiences with them, as the travelogue will show.
The weather was ideal - highs from the mid 70s F to the upper 80s, sunny, nary a drop of rain. It was windy at times. The day was noticeably shorter than in northern Europe, sunset was shortly after 8 PM.
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