TRAVEL

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It looks like an exotic destination and while admiring the crystal clear seabed one hardly believes it is the Adriatic Sea. And yet the Gargano is a paradise within reach. This enormous spur, the “Spur of Italy”, outstretched towards the Balkans, enchants with its fascinating colours (blue and turquoise water and green Mediterranean maquis), with the flavours of its cuisine (simple flavours, but yet unmistakable, also when mixed together and the taste of the sea meets that of the earth). The Gargano enchants with the sunlight (which is silver in the morning, and gold in the afternoon), with the magic of the ancient towers that keep the memory of the Saracen raids, with the fascinating towns – Peschici, Lesina, Mattinata, Vieste – rich of history and traditions, with its straightforward people, simple and very generous. It is an incredible jigsaw of nature, art, history and gastronomy, to be discovered within 200 kilometres. Starting from the Northern coast with the salty lakes of Lesina and Varano, separated from the sea by a long bar of sand hills, ideal for bird watching. Continuing a few kilometres away, along an inner road, after some exciting curves and ups and downs, you will find Rodi Garganico, also known as the “capital” of the citrus from Gargano, with its “gardens” of citrus fruits (this is how the fruit land is called and the gardens still remain a unique agricultural landscape). The other two towns, which with Rodi Garganico make up the “yellow-orange triangle”, are Ischitella and Vico del Gargano, a romantic medieval town of the inland (called “of love”, for its Vicolo del Bacio – “Kiss Lane”, where lovers exchange promises of endless love). In this area citrus fruits, presided over by Slow Food, ripen throughout the year, but May is the culminating period with the Blonde orange (which stays fresh until September). Once citrus fruits were exported all over the world, wrapped in precious colour tissue-paper and lacy paper with the trademark of the company, and thus packed would travel by sea in the hold of ships to the United States and to England. An accurate wrapping that amazed the Savoia Family for the beautiful image of the product. In 1905 the Minister Ponzio Vaglia congratulated the Company Ricucci, on behalf of the Royal Family, for the fragrant fruits they had received as present.

The most beautiful scenarios overlap between Peschici and Mattinata (the reign of wilds orchids, with more than 60 varieties, more or less 70% of the species present in Europe), as the Zagara Bay, a deep inlet, characterized by two vertical stacks – “Arco di Diomede or Le Forbici and the window of dreams” – which, eroded by the waters, emerge at few metres from the shore and from the sheer cliffs. Continuing towards North, you will see a clear change: olive trees and citrus fruits trees are replaced with woods of Aleppo pines. Here begins an enchanting alternation of grottos - sea caves that bore the entire coast like lace (the Cava delle Rondini, where swallows live throughout the winter and mesmerise splendid flying formations, or the Grotta Campana, 47 metres high, so called because the thousand years erosion of the atmospheric agents has given it the typical bell shape) - and isolated beaches (the Campi Bay with a beautiful inlet), until you reach Vieste. Vieste is the “heart” of the Gargano, to be discovered especially in spring, before the beach becomes crowded with thousands of bathers. A tangle of alleys and staircases that link low white houses, which culminates on the rocky Punta di San Francesco, with the fortified monastery and the Norman-Svevian castle (now used as a radar station by the Italian Navy); from the Romanesque style Cathedral, to the “Chianca Amara”, the rock that recalls the slaughter of the inhabitants of Vieste by the Turkish pirates of Dragut Rais, in 1554. History meets with legend by the Faraglione Pizzomunno, this pointed chalky tooth that stands 26 meters above water guarding the sandy coast, symbolizes the entrance to Vieste, of which it has become the icon. It narrates the love story between a beautiful girl, Cristalda, and a young fisherman, Pizzomunno. The mermaids, jealous of their strong love, turned him into a gigantic promontory and tied her ankles with a chain before dragging her down in the sea. Every hundred years the mermaids allow Cristalda to emerge from the sea depths to meet her lover, thus living again, even if only for one day, their union and happiness. Another peculiarity of this territory are the “Trabucchi”, ancient fishing machines made of pine of Aleppo, which allow fishermen to project themselves on the sea, up to 45 meters away from the land, through the long “antennas” used to lower the “trabocchetto” (trap) (that is to say the net used to catch fish, from which the name derives). Result of the ingenuity of the skilled craftsmen of the past, the Trabucchi represent the most ancient seafaring tradition of the Gargano and today they are part of the cultural heritage of the Region Puglia. There are more or less thirty Trabucchi, especially in the stretch of coast from Vieste to Peschici. A dozen of them have been restored and are being reutilised, thanks to the enduring work of the trabuccolanti-owners and to the joint-venture amongst the Association “I Trabucchi del Gargano”, the Municipality of Vieste and the Gargano Park Authority.

Those who love nature must visit the national Park of Gargano, a protected area with more than 2200 botanical species and an extraordinary rich fauna. In the Park, the real jewel is the Umbra Forest (shady, as its name recalls), one of the favourite destinations of Renzo Arbore, who loves to go for walks where deers, roe deers and wild boars freely live, through beech woods, pines, linden trees, maples, and ash trees stretched out towards the sky like very high columns.

allegato : "The trabucco, an antique ingenious fishing machine. You can find them in the whole Gargano area"

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