We had an early 7:30AM breakfast, which was quite reasonable, then we left the San Marco hotel and Vasto and headed via motorway towards Gargano. I drove as we had a long way to go and I’m always fresher in the morning. The first section was motorway and although it was quiet I found it quite stressful - Italians drive so fast on the motorway (and so slow everywhere else!)
As we drove onto the Gargano headland we encountered small twisting roads that wound up and down the hills. Our first stop was at Vico del Gargano where we wandered through the old town and found the Vicolo del Bacio which gives the village it’s nickname of the ‘village of love’. It is an alleyway so narrow that you have to squeeze past each other -apparently it was a very popular place with courting couples in bygone days.
Our next stop was Pechichi which is built right to the cliff edge. Another lovely old town with great little streets to wander.
The last stop on the Gargano headland was Vieste which seemed to be hosting a love festival (bit of a theme in this area). By midday it was over 30C so we enjoyed a gelato to cool down.
Glorious views of aquamarine waters from the cliffs. The drive back to main roads were initially windy with fantastic views over the coastline (very Pacific Highway!) but once again Italian engineering came into play and the last stretch consisted of long tunnel and bridges through the hills.
The next section of coastline was completely flat with a huge area of shallow water to our right, with a large number of flamingos and other wading birds. We soon discovered the reason - Margherita di Savoia has the biggest salt pans in Europe, and second only to Bolivia in the world. 40,000 hectares apparently. They had the same pink colour as the salt pans in the Camargue and there were some enormous piles of salt stacked beside them. We wandered down to the beach and had a cold drink to chill.
Our accommodation tonight is an Air B&B in Polignano. We were met by the owner and his daughter (she spoke English) and shown a lovely little studio apartment. A quick stock up at a nearby supermarket and we had our first “night in” this trip.
Daily drive 237miles
Total trip 1947 miles.
