Tuesday morning, we packed up and caught the Number 2 bus to Bari Centrale for the short 40 minute (would have been shorter but it was the milk run) train ride down the coast to Monopoli, our home for the next 8 days. A bit of a hassle getting a taxi from the station in Monopoli, but we finally managed to get a rip-off NCC (private transfer) that didn't end up knowing where in the old town our street was--couldn't drive there anyway, but we wanted to be close. We got to our apartment in time to drop our bags and head out to find lunch--searching for food is obviously a major activity for us on this trip. We grabbed some frisselle (like crunchy bagels) at The King Street Food and did a little exploring in the winding laneways and got our first look at the port. After doing some laundry (washing machine in the apartment!) and getting ourselves cleaned up, we headed out for dinner and I had an excellent mixed seafood fry and Carol had pasta with clams & mussels at Osteri Perricci.
Literally (almost) every time you turn around in Monopoli's Centro Storico, you see another church. Wednesday morning, we headed up to our rooftop patio with our coffee and tea and got views of a lot of them, starting with the two closest to us, the Basilica Cattedrale and Chiesa San Leonardo. Then we had a day of exploring--lots of winding laneways, churches, the port area (a small cruise ship was in), the castle (didn't go in--there was an art exhibit going on that we didn't want to pay to see) and had pizza (yes pizza at lunch!) at Tamborr Pizza & Cocktail Bar. It was threatening to rain--lots of thunder in the area--so we hustled home. After a little nap and a bit of TV (there are actually 2 channels here showing 70's American shows), we just went out and grabbed some panzerotti to go and decided to relax at "home" for the evening. Tomorrow, a day trip to Polignano A Mare.
2025-02-11