THE BLOG IS BACK !......30th Oct to 6th Nov

Boungiorno everyone.....we are back in the land of the internet after our stay in Monte Sant' Angelo in the Gargano Peninsular.
We left Assisi bright and early on Saturday the 31st and headed south, ummm a slight detour quite soon after due to the really rubbish Italian road signs, I'm so glad I was driving and not navigating! The saying that all roads lead to Roma is quite true, for some reason Roma is always on the road signs even in the smallest village and possibly 500 miles away !!! However we arrived at MSA, the last 6 kms being a climb of 3000 feet and many switch-backs. We found a parking spot in a little piazza down from the apartment (lots of steps up to it !) and set off on foot to the other side of town to collect the keys from Pasqule and then had one of life's experiences when he took us back in his very beaten up Fiat Panda that must have been about 30 years old and which never got out of first gear! We do, since being on this trip, understand why the Panda is so popular in Italy with the very narrow cobbled streets! Pasqule does not speak English (we knew this in advance) in fact no one in town does, but we managed with our few words of Italian and sign language and lots of nodding to get the gist of things.
We were very disappointed with the apartment, it was really not up to standard and it was obvious that no one had stayed here for a while as it felt damp but the Harris spirit was not broken, we had a glass of wine and a moan and then set to with mop and bucket.....

General view of Monte Sant' Angelo. We arrived on a bank holiday weekend (also clocks back one hour same as UK). Sunday is All Souls Day and Monday All Saints Day. We assumed the shops would be closed but not so the town was vibrant with street sellers and all of the shops open to cater for the influx of pilgrims visiting the shrine. They arrived by coach loads, motorhomes and most forms of transport, in fact there was a motorcycle gathering too !!  It was really interesting as although not a really big town like Assisi it is a destination for pilgrims as the Archangel Michael supposedly left his  footprint in a rock in the Basilica. He also is reputed to have erradicated the plague after speaking to a bishop who we guess must have asked him to intervene. The bells of the Basilica, the monastery and local churches were ringing out at intervals all day, almost a party atmosphere. We had a good walk about in the sunshine, in fact when we added it up,it was 3 hours of walking up and down steps and alley ways, we also found a bakers just up the road from our apartment who sold fabulous crusty rolls. We did much the same on Monday too with another stop at a local cafe for coffee and a spot of people watching. We had been told before we left Assisi that this weekend is also about the giving of flowers, on Sunday to the dead and on Monday to the saints and by Monday afternoon all of the flower shops looked like a plague of locusts had passed by with not a bloom left!

The front of the Basilica. We were surprised when we had a look around later in the week it is a facade for the entrance down many steps to the shine and museum and exhibits inside the rock. The crypt is a very spiritual place as it is more or less a cave and very atmospheric. 

The bell tower of The Basilica, The Sanctury of Saint Michael.

One of the many streets of MSA. It certainly is not the prettiest town we have seen !! There is a lot of  new construction going on which we are sorry to say looks like barracks.

The castle at MSA. This was built in the 9th century to protect/defend The Sanctuary of Saint Michael.

We walked around the castle later in the week.

A view out across the valley from the castle at MSA. We drove across the valley and up over the mountain through the Forest Umbra to the coast. A very winding switch-back road, 60 kms in just over 2 hours but we had all day and it was a very pretty drive.

MSA is 3000 feet above sea level and we were very much in the clouds at times. It was quite fascinating as especially in the evenings, one moment it would be clear and the next a thick fog swirling about,  just like the sea mist in Portsmouth! Ha ha what with the bronze sculpture on Mt Subasio (see comments 29th Oct for explanation)  perhaps there is a link, a kind of twinning !!

Part of one of the 4 roads leading up to Monte Sant' Angelo

More of the road up showing one of the many switch-backs or "tornate"

A cove on the Adriatic at Vieste.



A cove along the coastal road from Manfredonia a large industrial town at the bottom of the mountain from MSA. This "plain" between the mountain and sea is completely covered in olive groves.



This is called a Trabucchi and  is very interesing. It is an antique wooden structure jutting out over the water and used for fishing and is unique to this area of Italy. We hiked down the track to get a closer look. Had we a 4 x4 or a Piaggio (if we lived in Italy we would have to have one of these!) we would have drove down but the exercise was good for us !

Closer look at the Trabucchi, in the season there is a little restaurant open serving the freshly caught fish. I didn't get any closer as there were dogs and you know me and dogs although himself befriended them !

View of Trabucchi from our beach walk.

Sunset at Monte Sant' Angelo and really fascinating as we were above the cloud base. Just like being in a plane !!

Saturday 6th and we are up and about early to move on down to Carmiano near Lecce in the "heel" of Italy. It's a beautiful morning up on the mountain but we are looking down on cloud which actually turns out to be fog when we eventually get down to sea level. We have a good journey down the autostrada to Bari (didn't realise it is so big) and on past Brindisi to Carmiano. Just had to get directions at the last moment from a very helpful local who gave us a scare as she didn't speak English but we gathered from what she said that the owner of the apartment had died !! However it turned out that Salvatore and his family had been to a funeral....

Well we are very pleased with this apartment by far the best we have stayed in and (most folk arrive by plane and the shops are closed tomorrow) they have stocked the fridge and cupboards with enough food, wine and beer for a few days.