Puglia Connection Blog Archive
2008
OCTOBER 2008
Interview with Puglia’s President
The Italian news service ANSA is featuring an in-depth interview with Nichi Vendola, president of the Region of
Puglia, on its website. The wide-ranging interview covers such topics as economic policies, pollution and the
environment (including preserving and protecting historic and cultural sites that are popular among visitors),
health and sanitation issues, immigration and even the fate of the famed Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. The president’s
comments may be of interest to travelers and those who follow political and economic developments in Puglia. If
you read Italian or have access to translation software or an online program, you may be interested in what
President Vendola has to say:
http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/visualizza_fdg.html_793799796.html
Friday October 31, 2008
No Proof of Tremiti-Libya Link
Tests to determine whether there is a genealogical link between inhabitants of the Tremiti Islands in Puglia and
exiles from Libya have found no evidence of common DNA, the Italian news service ANSA reported today. The
Tremiti Islands consist of an archipelago off the coast of the Gargano Peninsula in the Province of Foggia. Once a
place where prisoners once banished, the islands are now a popular summertime resort area.
Here’s the complete text of the ANSA report:
No Libyan DNA in Italian islanders;
Gaddafi asked for tests on exile archipelago
(ANSA) – Tremiti Islands, October 27 – DNA tests requested by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to see if the
inhabitants of a tiny Italian archipelago are descended from 1,300 Libyans once exiled there have proved
negative, it was revealed Monday.
Tremiti Islands Mayor Giuseppe Calabrese said around 30 people volunteered for the tests, which were carried
out by Libyan scientists, following an appeal from the Libyan embassy in Rome. “From the results it doesn’t seem
that there are Libyan descendants among the Tremiti islanders,” he said.
Around 1,300 Libyans were exiled to the Adriatic archipelago off the coast of Puglia after 1911, when Italy first
colonised the North African country. “Many of the Libyans deported to the Tremiti Islands died relatively soon
afterwards from typhus, an illness they contracted before they arrived here, and were buried in a common grave,”
said Calabrese.
A mausoleum in their honour was built in 2004 and was inaugurated in the presence of Libyan representatives,
with whom the islanders “have a strong friendship,” he added. “I think this was an important experiment that we
had a duty to carry out,” said the mayor. “It’s essential that there is a good relationship between Libya and Italy
and I think I can say that the first friendly actions came from the Tremiti Islands.” Calabrese said he hoped that
Gadaffi would visit the archipelago soon.
Around 350 people live on the islands, which are now a national marine reserve and a popular summer tourist
resort thanks to their pristine waters. However, the archipelago has a long history as a place of exile. The Roman
Emperor Augustus (27 BC-19 AD) banished his granddaughter Julia the Younger to the Tremiti Islands after
discovering her affair with a senator, while up until 1926 political prisoners were sent here during the Fascist
regime.
In August Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Gaddafi signed a historic friendship and cooperation accord
which aims to resolve issues related to Italy’s colonial occupation of Libya. Under the $5 billion deal, Italy will
fund various projects including the Italian construction of a coastal highway linking Libya with Egypt and Tunisia,
while the claims of 20,000 Italians expelled by Gaddafi from Libya in 1970 are also addressed. On Thursday
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is set to reveal details of the accord, which must still be ratified by
parliament.
Copyright ANSA
Monday October 27, 2008
Puglia Travel Links
Information for travelers from ENIT – The Italian Government Tourist Board (www.italiantourism.com):
TRENITALIA – One hour less on Rome-Lecce route
After numerous delays and disappointments on the Rome-Lecce and Lecce-Milan routes, Trenitalia has promised
to shorten some trips, especially on the Rome-Lecce route. The Eurostar 9352 departing Lecce at 5.39 will arrive
in Rome at 10.59. The departure from Bari will be at 7 (arriving in Rome in 3 hours and 59 minutes, a competitive
time to that of an airplane). From Rome, the Eurostar 9357 will depart at 18 arriving in Bari at 21.59 and in Lecce
at 23.23. Intermediate stops will be in Bari, Foggia and Caserta.
EASYJET – New Malpensa-Brindisi connections
EasyJet has inaugurated a Malpensa-Brindisi route and is increasing the frequency of Malpensa-Bari service,
confirming the interest towards Puglia. A daily flight started October 1, whereas from October 27 there will be
three daily flights.
Saturday October 25, 2008
Vote on "Beautiful and Bad-Looking"
We recently reported on a tourism photo contest, “The Beautiful and the Bad-Looking,” sponsored by the Region of
Puglia’s official tourism website. As we noted, what makes this contest different from other travel-related photo
competitions is that the region is not just looking for photos showing the attractive side of Puglia for travelers,
visitors and residents – it’s also looking for evidence of “the ugly,” photos that “express the problems and the
damages that afflict the Apulia territory,” according to the contest rules. There are no prizes, other than seeing the
winning photos posted on the region’s tourism website.
Photos posted in “The Beautiful” category highlight many of Puglia’s most appealing attractions, such as beaches,
the sea, historic sites, flowers, fruit and olive trees, and more. “The Bad-Looking” uncovers the region’s uglier
side, including the factory smokestacks at Taranto, beach litter, tacky billboards and poorly maintained historic
areas.
Check out the photo gallery and cast your votes at
http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/concorso/gallery/en/1.
Saturday October 25, 2008
Our Condolences
This is beyond the scope of a tourism-focused blog, but we feel it is important to express our condolences to the
families of the eight members of a Brindisi-based Italian Air Force Combat Search and Rescue team who were
killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed while on a training exercise in northeastern France.
They are: Captain and Pilot Michele Cargnoni, 30, of Brescia; Lieutenant and Pilot Marco Partipilo, 29, of Bari;
Marshal Giovanni Sabatelli, 50, of Fasano (Brindisi); Marshal Carmine Briganti, 41, of Talsano (Taranto); Marshal
Giuseppe Biscotti, 37 of Grottaglie (Taranto), Marshal Massimiliano Tommasi, 34, of Calimera (Lecce); Marshal
Teodoro Baccaro, 31, of San Vito dei Normanni (Brindisi); and Captain and Pilot Stefano Bazzo, 32, of Vicenza.
As travelers, it is reassuring to know that highly trained emergency responders stand ready around the clock to
rescue us if we get ourselves into dangerous situations on land or at sea. We pay tribute to the supreme sacrifice
made by these eight very dedicated people.
Friday October 24, 2008
Contaminated Milk Found in Modugno
(ANSA) – Rome, October 16 – Three cases of Chinese dairy products contaminated by the toxic chemical
melamine have been found in Italy, Welfare Undersecretary Francesca Martini said Thursday.
Two samples of milk taken from a Chinese food shop in Modugno, near Bari, and a sample of yogurt from a similar
shop at Poggio Marino, near Naples, both tested positive for melamine, Martini said. Health police had been
checking businesses that import or distribute Chinese foods in the wake of the contaminated milk scandal that
broke in China in September, when thousands of babies fell ill and at least four died after drinking melamine-
tainted formula.
Italian health police commander Cosimo Piccinno said the levels of melamine in the samples found in Italy were
between 3 and 22 milligrams per kilogram, while the limit for acceptable levels had been set at 2.5 milligrams.
“These aren’t lethal quantities, but they are harmful,” Piccinno said, adding that the fact that the products could
have been consumed by children was of particular concern. Melamine, which is used in making plastics, makes
products appear to have a higher nutritional value. It can cause kidney stones and renal failure, particularly
among children.
Silvio Borrello, the welfare ministry’s food safety chief, stressed that there had been no reports of melamine-
related ailments from citizens. The three Italian samples brought the total number of cases in which Chinese food
has tested positive for melamine in the European Union to 26.
When news of the scandal broke the EU took steps to ban the entry of Chinese baby food containing milk powder
and to otherwise reduce consumption of Chinese milk products. Martini said all three of the contaminated
samples were “the consequence of illegal imports of Chinese food products destined for ethnic shops. The
situation is under control, but the government will stay on high alert and continue checks.”
Martini added that the government was planning to limit access points for Chinese food entering the country to
four – the ports of Genoa and Naples as well as Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino airports – to facilitate
controls. Police have checked 855 businesses that import or distribute Chinese products and have taken 127
samples, although results for only 48 samples have been processed so far.
In a separate case, Italian police on Thursday confiscated a ton of Chinese milk and 300 kilograms of Chinese
mozzarella from a warehouse in Naples thought to have entered the country illegally. Martini said tests for
melamine contamination would take 10 days.
Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said that while the Chinese community should not fear being discriminated against,
there would be “zero tolerance” against people who adulterated food. “Everyone should know that anyone who
breaks the law and tries to poison Italian consumers will be severely punished,” he said.
Around 15,000 cans of Chinese spaghetti were confiscated from a warehouse in Florence on Wednesday after
police discovered live insects inside them.
Copyright ANSA
Thursday October 16, 2008 - 02:43pm (PST) Edit | Delete | Comments: 0
Puglia’s Food & Wine at Epcot Festival
A variety of Puglia’s foods and wines are being showcased at the 13th annual Epcot International Food and Wine
Festival at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, running through Nov. 9. Among the festival’s “Special 10-Day
Experiences” is an event called “Taste of Puglia, Italy” Oct. 23 to Nov. 2, sponsored by Taste of Puglia, a real
estate agency and developer based in Brindisi. Pugliese gastronomy also can be sampled at a “Regional Feast”
on Oct. 24, from 6:30 to 9 PM. According to the festival’s promoters, “three important Mediterranean crops,
wheat, olive oil and wine…(and) almonds, figs, citrus fruits, diverse vegetables and an amply supply of seafood
make this region a gastronomic treasure.” For all the details, see http://disneyworld.disney.go.
com/wdw/parks/specialEvents?id=FoodWineExperienc....
Tuesday October 7, 2008
SEPTEMBER 2008
Sick Fish in Adriatic Sea
In the wake of our recent posting “Eat Pugliese and Live Longer?” about the healthy effects of following a Puglia-
based Mediterranean diet comes an alarming report concerning the results of tests conducted on fish caught in
the Adriatic Sea. The test results, reported in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it),
show that some species of fish have swollen livers and spleens, “significant traces of arsenic and mustard gas”
and other abnormalities. The tests were conducted by the Istitute Centrale per la Ricerca Applicata al Mare
(Central Institute for Applied Research of the Sea) in conjunction with the Ministry of the Environment. Further
research will be conducted in hopes of finding out how the fish are being sickened and how the illnesses may
affect humans.
Tuesday September 23, 2008
Puglia Suffers If Alitalia Fails
Let’s hope that Alitalia somehow pulls through its current crisis, for Puglia’s sake. Here’s why we should care:
While numerous international airlines fly into and out of Alitalia’s hubs in Rome and Milan, and several foreign
carriers offer service to Puglia’s airports from other countries, only Alitalia has in place a reliable network of
domestic routes that serve Italy’s other cities, including Bari and Brindisi. It would be difficult, not to mention
costly, for other carriers to jump in quickly to replace Alitalia on those routes. Maybe they won’t jump in at all,
given the economic factors in force right now. That would leave Puglia’s main visitor arrival points without
convenient air transportation. And given what we’ve been reporting lately about breakdowns in Italy’s inter-city
train transportation system and the high costs of gasoline and diesel fuel, this is not good news for the region’s
tourism industry. If it’s too costly or too inconvenient to travel to Puglia, as inviting as it is as a vacation
destination, visitors just won’t come.
Here’s the latest information about the Alitalia situation from the Italian news service ANSA:
Alitalia: Chances of survival slim; Nationalization impossible, economy minister says
(ANSA) – Rome, September 19 – Hopes of saving Alitalia appear to be fading rapidly and Economy Minister Giulio
Tremonti has made it clear that nationalizing the carrier is “'impossible.” In a report to the cabinet on Friday,
Tremonti said it was “senseless to even take the hypothesis of nationalization into consideration. Alitalia can no
longer benefit from any state intervention.”
The minister explained that European Union law prohibited the privatization of the airline, which over the years
has benefited from billions of euros in state subsidies, and thus the hypothesis of a public takeover of the airline
was “absurd.” (The impossibility of privatizing Alitalia was later confirmed by the EU executive transport
commissioner, Italy’s Antonio Trajani, who recalled that Rome made a commitment not to privatize the carrier in
exchange for giving the airline state funds for its restructurization in 2004.)
Tremonti made his remarks a day after a group of private Italian investors withdrew an offer to buy Alitalia’s flight
operations with the aim of creating a new national carrier. Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) bowed out after unions
representing the majority of pilots and cabin staff presented counterproposals to CAI’s rescue plan. According to
CAI, their industrial plan was the only one possible and could not be modified.
ALTERNATIVES RUNNING OUT.
Hopes for Alitalia’s survival were further damped on Friday when British Airways, Iberia of Spain and Germany’s
Lufthansa all said they had no intention of coming to the rescue. BA said it was not “even interested in taking a
stake” in the insolvent airline. Lufthansa said the Alitalia affair “does not concern us” and that, in any case, the
Italian carrier's massive debt made it “unmanageable.” The German carrier had been seen by many, including
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, as the “ideal” industrial partner for Alitalia once it was merged with Italy’s
biggest private carrier Air One as envisioned in the CAI industrial plan.
Friday also saw the cabinet hear from Berlusconi’s right hand Gianni Letta, who said flatly that no alternative
existed to CAI’s offer. The seasoned mediator, who represented the premier in talks between Alitalia unions and
investors, went on to stress the importance of explaining to Italians that it was the unions who had torpedoed the
CAI offer just as they had done with one presented this spring by Air France. It was equally important, the cabinet
secretary added, to counter allegations by the opposition that Berlusconi was also responsible for sinking the
French offer. Air France had linked its offer to its being accepted by both unions and the government and during
the election campaign which brought him back to power Berlusconi vowed that he would not allow Alitalia to fall
into foreign hands.
AVIATION AUTHORITY OPENS PROBE.
The definitive nail in Alitalia’s coffin may come from Italy’s civil aviation authority, ENAC, which said it would
begin examining Alitalia’s finances next week. Based on the results of their probe, it would then decide on
whether or not to suspend the national carrier’s license.
“We need to find out how much cash Alitalia has on hand and if the carrier has the means to keep operating,”
ENAC President Vito Riggio said on Friday. According to Riggio, probes of this kind usually take a week to 10
days. This one will begin on Monday when Alitalia’s government-appointed administrator, Augusto Fantozzi,
reports to ENAC on CAI’s decision.
In a related development, Alitalia issued a statement on Friday to confirm that it was operating regularly and that it
was still possible to book tickets. The statement was in response to press reports that ticket sales and
reservations had been suspended.
Copyright ANSA
Friday September 19, 2008
Eat Pugliese and Live Longer?
One of the joys of visiting Puglia is eating the simple regional cuisine, based on fish, pasta, olive oil, and fresh
fruits and vegetables – cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet. Stay away from tourist traps and fast-food outlets
and it’s easy to find small restaurants, many of them family owned and operated, serving simple and inexpensive
meals in the traditional Pugliese style. One of our favorites is Alle Due Corti, tucked away on a side street in the
Old City of Lecce (www.alleduecorti.com). Rosalba De Carlo and her family prepare traditional dishes of the
Salento Peninsula. Here are just a few examples from this week’s menu:
Primi (first plate) – Ricchitelle cule rape (orecchiette pasta with turnip tops) and fave nette cu le cicureddhe
(mashed beans typical of Salento with chicory and olive oil).
Secondi (second plate) – Agnellu te li signuri (lamb cooked in a pan with flour, onions and white wine), purpu a
pignatu (octopus cooked in our special clay pot) and calamari ripieni (fresh squid stuffed with bread, capers,
garlic and pecorino cheese).
Dessert – Lo spumone leccese (special stuffed ice cream of Salento), crostate Alle Due Corti® (sweet tart stuffed
with special Alle Due Corti jams and marmalades) and torta pasticciotto (typical cake of Salento stuffed with
cream).
As Rosalba and her family notes on their website, “Upon entering Alle Due Corti you will feel at once the domestic
atmosphere of the restaurant. The history, culture and traditions of Salento all meet together at the table. Along
with the traditional dishes always present in our menu, you will find original and very delicious courses.
Salentine cuisine, poor or rich, always has pleasant surprises.”
And now, researchers are finding even more evidence that the Mediterranean diet can keep you healthy and
maybe even prolong your life. Here’s the full report from the Italian news service ANSA:
Med diet “lengthens life”: Not just heart and cancer, but other aging ills “prevented”
(ANSA) Sticking closely to the Mediterranean diet can lengthen life spans by warding off the full array of illnesses
linked to ageing and western lifestyle habits, Italian researchers say.
The fish, fruit, pasta, vegetable and olive oil-rich diet cuts mortality from heart disease by 9%, cancer deaths by
6% and the incidence of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases by 13%, a University of Florence team said. The
Florence study is the first time such claims have been made for all age-related diseases and not just heart
problems and cancer. The team, led by Francesco Sofi, drew their conclusions after examining 12 recent studies
on diet and health involving 1.5 million people.
Sofi’s team, whose study has been published in the British Medical Journal, gave each individual points
according to how closely they stuck to the diet. Overall, they found that deaths from all causes fell by 9% in
people who did not stray from the traditional Italian diet.
Saturday September 13, 2008
Toll Superhighway to Link Bari and Lecce?
The mayor of Brindisi has proposed construction of a toll superhighway to connect the cities of Bari and Lecce in
hopes of reducing congestion on existing roadways, which become clogged with traffic during peak travel
periods. Mayor Domenico Mennitti recommends that public funds pay for 20% of the construction costs of the
highway, which would also improve access to his city, with the remainder of the money to be in the form of an
investment by a private operator in return for a share of toll revenues.
Friday September 12, 2008
More Trouble on the Rails
Two days after the Lecce-Milan Eurostar train fiasco we reported on earlier this week, there was more trouble on
the rails in Puglia, when a Eurostar “high-speed” train from Rome and bound for Lecce took more than nine hours
to reach its destination. Actually, three separate trains were required to complete the trip after repeated
breakdowns and delays. “An amazing journey,” one passenger told La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it). A protest against poor Eurostar service in Puglia is planned for Saturday at the
Lecce train station.
Friday September 12, 2008
Bad News for Train Riders
The newspaper headline says it all: “16-Hour Nightmare on the Eurostar.” La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it) reports on an “adventure” that lasted 16 hours for the 400 passengers aboard a
Eurostar high-speed train that departed Lecce and was bound for Milan. A series of technical problems, including
malfunctioning doors, a lack of air conditioning the cars and a locomotive that wouldn’t budge, forced the long
delays, which ended when the passengers were transferred to other trains, buses and taxis to complete the trek
to Milan.
While this is an isolated incident, it doesn’t help Puglia’s efforts to attract long-haul visitors from within Italy and
elsewhere in Europe. Reliable high-speed train service is a key element in the region’s tourism infrastructure,
and any bad publicity about traveling to and from Puglia will tarnish the region’s reputation at a time when it is
working to establish itself as a quality tourism destination.
Monday September 8, 2008
Take a Look at Our New Passa Parola Page
Despite our ongoing technical problems, we're adding content to this site as quickly as we can. Today, we
launched the beginning of what we hope will be a very interesting feature, our Passa Parola page. Passa parola
literally means passing the word. It's a place where Puglia natives and visitors can pass the word among one
another to share what you have discovered, learned and enjoyed and maybe even what surprised you. (Just for
fun, do you know where this photo was taken?) We hope to attract your contributions. Just e-mail us at
info_pugliaconnection@yahoo.com. Thanks
Saturday September 6, 2008
AUGUST 2008
Visitors Beware: Limited Traffic Areas
A warning to travelers from the Italian Government Tourist Board:
Limited traffic areas have been created in most of the historical centers of Italian cities. This measure has been
taken to increase pedestrian areas, commercial activities, and reduce pollution to preserve historical sites. In
these limited traffic areas only authorized vehicles are allowed to drive, such as: buses, police cars,
ambulances, etc. Residents have access as well. All of the authorized vehicles have their license plate
registered with the Municipal Police.
If a vehicle crosses a limited traffic area, cameras will take a picture of the license plate. The photo is
automatically sent back to a computer of the Municipal Police and if the license plate is not registered a violation
ticket is generated and sent to the owner of the vehicle. The limited traffic areas are clearly indicated with a sign
marked with a white circle with red borders (see picture), stating the hours in which the area is restricted.
Please note: Due to the law and the authority that is held by the local Municipal Police, the Italian Government
Tourist Board cannot act as an intermediary in settling disputes over traffic violations.
Wednesday August 13, 2008
A Tourism Photo Contest with a Twist
Here’s an interesting contest to have some fun with this summer. The Region of Puglia’s official tourism website,
www.viaggiareinpuglia.it, is sponsoring a photo competition called Puglia Foto Grand-Prix –“Il Bello e il Brutto”
(loosely translated as “The Beautiful” and the Ugly”) for residents and visitors alike. What makes this contest
different from other travel-related photo competitions is that the region is not just looking for “the beautiful,”
photos showing the attractive side of Puglia for travelers, visitors and residents – it’s also looking for evidence
of “the ugly,” photos that “express the problems and the damages that afflict the Apulia territory,” according to the
contest rules.
While there certainly are plenty of things that can be photographed to display the region’s charms – just look at
the ancient relics of past civilizations, the art and architecture, the castles, the cathedrals, the religious sites, the
historic quarters of many cities and towns, the beaches, the countryside, the food and wine, and the people. But
sadly, there also is much to photograph to meet the criteria of “ugly.” Garbage, dog waste, graffiti and ugly
buildings are just a few of the environmental eyesores that can be found in many places throughout Puglia.
Please don’t misunderstand us: we think that the most beautiful places in Puglia could rival any that are found
elsewhere in the world. In recent years, since we began documenting what we’ve found there, regional and local
officials have done a good job of cleaning up many areas. But there is still work to be done. Apparently, the
region’s tourism officials agree and are using a contest format to learn what residents and visitors alike find
attractive and unattractive. It’s going to be very interesting to see the photos when they are posted and then to
see what the region does with the “evidence” it’s collecting.
The contest is open to everyone (free registration is required) and involves photos taken with digital cameras and
mobile phones from July 26 to Sept. 27. There are no prizes, other than seeing the winning photos posted on the
region’s tourism website. You can find all the rules and requirements for entries on the contest’s English-
language site, http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/concorso/en/1.
Wednesday August 6, 2008
JULY 2008
Military to Patrol 3 Cities in Puglia
(ANSA) – Rome, July 29 – The government on Tuesday launched a scheme that will deploy 3,000 troops in major
Italian cities to help police the streets. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa
unveiled the six-month pilot scheme, which will start on Monday. They said the Army, Air Force, Navy and
Carabinieri would work alongside police.
Two thousand troops will be placed at the disposal of 16 mayors to guard black spots and immigration holding
centers in cities ranging from Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Siracusa and Trapani in Sicily to Catanzarao and Crotone
in Calabria, Bari, Brindisi and Foggia in Puglia, Modena and Bologna in Emilia-Romagna, Cagliari in Sardinia and
Turin in Piedmont – as well as Rome, Milan and Naples. Some units will watch “sensitive” sites in Rome, Milan
and Naples – 51 in the capital, 20 in Milan and one in Naples. This would free up police for regular crime fighting,
Maroni said. The remaining 1,000 will patrol the streets of Bari, Catania, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Padua,
Rome, Turin and Verona. Rome will have the most soldiers on the streets, 195, followed by Milan with 170 and
Naples with 150.
Troop patrol numbers will be 90 in Bari, 80 in Turin, 50 in Palermo, 45 in Padua and 45 in Verona. Patrol troops
will be dressed in fatigues and will carry only small arms while those guarding sensitive sites will have body
armor and machine guns, Maroni said. City prefects will set rules of engagement at regular meetings on public
order.
“'It’s a useful initiative,” Maroni said. “After six months, we will make an evaluation to see whether it has worked
and should be extended to other cities.”
“This is not a militarization of cities but a clear response to the perceived demand for greater security,” La Russa
said.
General Giovanni Ridino, Army commander for ground operations, said Italian troops had picked up valuable
experience in policing dangerous streets while on missions abroad. “A soldier who has been in Afghanistan or
Lebanon won’t have any problems,” he said. “Troops on foreign missions already carry out patrols. With a few
adjustments they will be able to face any situation.”
The center-left opposition continued to depict the deployment as a stunt to meet an alleged crime and immigration
emergency which was not borne out by statistics. They predicted it would backfire by scaring tourists off while
doing little to deter criminals.
Marco Minniti, the shadow interior minister of the Democratic Party, said: “It’s an image-boosting operation that
risks turning into a boomerang. It will make Italy look like a country in the grip of an uncontrolled security
emergency.”
“Paratroopers guarding the centers of the major tourist cities aren't exactly a great calling card for a country at
the height of the tourist season,” said Antonio Di Pietro of the Italy of Values Party; in statistical terms, “we’ll have
one soldier for every 10 municipalities, doing nothing except going to the bar with a policeman. It’s a joke. And to
cap it all it’s only a provisional measure.”
2008-07-30
Driving in Puglia
Although Puglia has a decent public transportation system of trains and buses, the network appears to be
designed principally to meet the needs of working people, commuters and students. While major cities and even
some smaller towns are easily accessible by public transportation, most of the places that would be of interest to
travelers are more easily accessible by car.
Renting a car in Puglia is easy if you arrive at the new international airport at Bari-Palese. About a half-dozen car
rental counters are located on the main concourse near the arrivals area of the terminal. We have booked rental
cars both by reserving in advance and on the day we arrived and have used two companies: Maggiore (which
affiliated with National) and Europcar. Both companies provided us with excellent service, clean new cars and
decent prices, with full insurance coverage and no hidden mark-ups. Company representatives speak English
and other languages. Parking is right outside the terminal, so it’s very convenient to pick up and drop off cars.
(The morning flight from Bari to Rome for connecting flights to the U.S. departs at 7 A.M., before the car rental
counters open for business, so keys and paperwork are simply placed in mail slots in roll-down doors. We were a
bit hesitant about this, but within three days we received confirmation by mail that everything was in order.)
A note about fuel prices: Gasoline and diesel both cost about 1.55 euros per liter, which roughly converts to about
$10 per gallon at the current painful exchange rate. We found service stations open at all hours of the day and
night throughout Puglia, especially on routes traveled by visitors.
If you plan to drive in Puglia, be sure to familiarize yourself with European road signs ahead of time. The symbols
used are different from those in the U.S. and there are no translations for signs using words (for example, “Senso
Unico” means “One Way” and the direction is indicated by an arrow; “Passo Carrabile,” usually posted on garage
doors and on the gates to driveways, translates to “Keep Clear”). No parking, restricted parking, no entry, no
passing and other rules are indicated by bars, crosses in circles, arrows and other symbols. And ignorance of the
signage is no excuse if you break any traffic laws.
Navigating Puglia by car can be challenging. In some places, the signage is excellent and traveling from place to
place is easy. But elsewhere signs can be confusing, misleading or even missing. For example, we had trouble
figuring out how to get from the Salice Salentino wine region to Brindisi, although it looks easy on a road map.
Even with signs, we drove in circles, wound up on dead-end streets, and went back and forth for more than hour
before we found, only by accident, a sign pointing us to the autostrada. And that was in the daylight.
2008-07-19
Alberobello
Our next stop is the historic section of Alberobello, home of the unusual trulli houses. As with Castel de Monte,
there’s no shortage of information available via a quick search of the Internet. We’ve been here before, but today
we’re hoping to meet new people. We had success on our first try. Looking for a shaded place to get out of the hot
sun, we enter Enoteca Tholos ad Alberobello, a small shop with shelves filled with Pugliese wines, pastas and
other local specialties (http://www.trullodelgusto.it/). Here, we meet Luigi Minerva, the owner and a sommelier
who provides tastings for tour groups, many from America. We taste a Pugliese rose that’s new to us, so
enjoyable that we buy a bottle to take back to our hotel.
Interestingly, although it’s high season for tourism here in Puglia, both Castel del Monte and Alberobello appear to
be largely devoid of tourists. For the most part, we had the castle to ourselves, and when we stopped in the
shops and snack bars of Alberobello we were the only people there, the only exception being a family of Germans
who were in one snack bar with us. Asking around, very subjectively, people here tell us the dearth of visitors
could be due to the extreme heat (it’s been 100 degrees or above all week, with oppressive humidity) and high
costs, especially for Americans (for example, a fast-food meal that costs $4 back home costs over $11 here).
More reports to come.
2008-07-18
Castel del Monte
We are at Castel del Monte, Emperor Frederick II’s mysterious 12th century castle on the mountain in Andria. We
arrived from Santo Spirito in about 45 minutes using a network of roads weaving through the towns of Terlizzi and
Ruvo di Puglia, following a series of signs that directed us to the site.
Castel del Monte is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so certain controls are in place to preserve and protect the
structure and its surroundings. During our first visit in 1985, we recall being able to drive up to the castle, park
our car and go inside to explore the castle on our own. Now, we park our car in a secure parking area (fee: 4
euros per car) and are transported by bus uphill to the castle (admission: 3 euros per person).
Much has been written here and elsewhere about what makes the eight-sided Castel del Monte so interesting to
visit, centered mainly on the question of its intended purpose (just do an Internet search for “Castel del Monte”
and you’ll find plenty of information). What makes our latest visit even more interesting is an exhibit of scenic
photos taken throughout Puglia. It makes us realize how rich and diverse this region is, and how much exploring
we’ve yet to do.
2008-07-17
Our Trip to Puglia, 2008
We have arrived in Puglia for a week-long visit with family and friends and to conduct more research to enhance
our website. This is a perfect time to send us questions about any aspect of travel to Puglia because we expect to
be with tourism industry people for the entire week and they can help us answer your questions. (One note before
we can go any further: we’re finding that Internet access here can be spotty, so we’re guessing that there are
going to be gaps between when our blog postings are written and when we can post them.)
At this moment, we are in the coastal town of Santo Spirito, situated on the Adriatic Sea just outside Bari. It’s just
after sunset on Sunday evening. We’re on the rooftop terrace of our cousin’s house facing the sea, overlooking
the main street that runs along the water. The traffic is building as the weekend and Sunday visitors to the beach
pack up and head home. Today was sunny, hot and humid, but it’s getting cooler now with a light breeze. Through
the haze to the north we can see, just barely, the outline of the mountains on the Gargano Promontory. (Santo
Spirito’s beach is not sandy, but rather it is made up of large, slippery rocks. Sunbathers place large mats on the
rocks and stretch out on them to get a tan. Going into the water barefoot can be dangerous, so most of the bathers
wear rubber shoes.)
As night falls in Santo Spirito, we listen as our neighbors to the right celebrate a child’s birthday, singing “Tante
auguri a te” to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” Red brake lights illuminate the couples, families and groups of friends
taking one last stroll, or passegiatta, before returning home; others sit atop the concrete wall that separates the
street and sidewalk from the rocky waterfront. Babies cry, kids and adults laugh and shout to one another,
mopeds weave their way through the long line of cars slowly heading out of town, but we can still hear the sound
of the surf splashing against the rocks. It’s a typical early summer Sunday evening in a seaside town in Puglia.
What we’re seeing and hearing is probably being seen and heard tonight in every other seaside town in the
region. It’s fun to lean on the railing up here and absorb it all before we go downstairs and join them.
By 10:30, the traffic is gone and the sound of the small waves is interrupted only by a few passing mopeds and an
occasional couple in conversation. The brightly lit pizzeria and coffee bar down the street are still open and
attracting customers.
During the past weekend in Rome, we caught up with Puglia tour guide Maurizio Cafagno, a member of the
Associazione Guide Turistiche della Regione Puglia (see the link the Associazione elsewhere on our site).
Maurizio is an expert tour guide for the old city of Bari, particularly the Basilica di San Nicola, and leads visitors
on tours to areas around Bari, such as Castel del Monte. We first met Maurizio in 2002, when he guided us
through the old city of Bari while we were researching the city’s history. He reports that Puglia is now drawing
more international visitors in the “shoulder seasons” of spring and fall, and that his busiest time as a guide is
from March to June, a big change from just a few years ago.
It looks like the sun-worshiper tourists are starting to arrive in Puglia. Just as our flight from Rome was landing
this afternoon, packed airliners were arriving from Spain and the Netherlands. (The ground crews did an amazing
job of handling all the baggage from the simultaneous flights.) This is the beginning of the high season for beach
and resort tourism in Puglia. We’re glad to be back.
July 8, 2008
The Numbers Are In
The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT, www.istat.it) has just reported final tourism arrival numbers for
2007. For the year, Puglia attracted 2,189,973 visitors from within Italy and 410,960 from outside the country. (Just
for comparison, the Region of Lazio, in which Rome is located, attracted 3,867,175 Italian tourists and 6,952,266
foreign tourists in 2007.)
According to ISTAT, here’s where Puglia’s visitors stayed last year, by type of accommodations:
• 5-star-plus, 5-star and 4-star hotels – 990,272
• 3-star hotels and “tourist residence hotels” – 956,965
• 2-star and 1-star hotels – 131,688
• Campgrounds and tourist villages – 286,974
• Leased lodgings – 109,816
• Agriturismos – 48,567
July 1, 2008
JUNE 2008
Summertime Train Delays Ahead
Just as the summer tourism season gets underway, the Italian state railroad – Le Ferrovie dello Stato – has
announced plans for track work and other improvements during the next few months that are expected to cause
delays and “inconveniences” to travelers and affect “the quality and punctuality of the service,” as reported in La
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it). The work is necessary for maintenance and
“infrastructural and technological development,” the railroad said. For example, train service between Bari and
Lecce will experience delays from July 1 to July 15, and on the Taranto-Brindisi, Barletta-Spinazzola and
Rocchetta-Gioia del Colle lines will be suspended from July 28 to August 30. Bus service will be provided on
routes affected by the work. The railroad said the projects were planned for the summer to avoid service
interruptions during other seasons, when it would adversely affect significant numbers of commuters and
students who depend on the trains to reach their jobs and schools.
2008-06-28
Traveling from Bari to San Giovanni Rotondo
We’ve been asked for information regarding the best way to travel from Bari to San Giovanni Rotondo, the
location of sacred sites related to Saint Padre Pio.
Traveling from Bari is easiest and fastest by train. Regular railroad service is provided from the central train
station in Bari to the central station in Foggia. Bus service is then provided from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo
as well as to Monte Sant’Angelo, Manfredonia, Vieste and other points of interest on the Gargano Promontory.
When you arrive in Foggia by train, simply purchase a bus ticket at the newsstand inside the rail terminal and
then walk across the piazza to the bus pickup area. Your ticket will be checked by a conductor aboard the bus. If
there’s a bit of a wait before your bus departs, you may wish to take a short walk along Viale XXVI Maggio, where
there are shops and cafes.
There also is scheduled and charter bus service (some of the latter sponsored by church groups) from Bari to
Foggia and San Giovanni Rotondo. Check the official Puglia tourism website, http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it, for
the latest information about schedules and ticket prices. The website also has information and hotels and
restaurants in the area (also see our April 25 blog posting from some ideas). If you have other suggestions for
people traveling to San Giovanni Rotondo, please share them on this blog. Grazie e buon viaggio!
2008-06-22
MAY 2008
Fake Tickets to See the Pope in Salento
A warning for travelers: The Puglia-based newspaper La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it) reports the sale of counterfeit tickets to see Pope Benedict XVI during his planned
June 14 visit to the tourist community of Leuca, at the tip of Salento in the Province of Lecce. The Diocese of
Ugento-Santa Maria di Leuca cautions that legitimate tickets for use during the papal visit are being distributed
only by local parishes free of charge, and that they have a magnetic strip that will be checked at access points.
The fake tickets have been sold for as much as 20 euros apiece, perhaps by swindlers dressed as priests or
displaying phony identification documents. Sales of the fake tickets have been reported in the communities of
Felline, Castiglione and Ruffano.
2008-05-21
Visit the Official Puglia Tourism Website
If you haven’t already done so, check out the official Region of Puglia tourism web portal, http://www.
viaggiareinpuglia.it/. It is available in English, Italian and German, and it’s loaded with information about places
to see, tours, accommodations and other information that’s valuable for visitors. It’s very well organized and
easy to navigate.
2008-05-20
Puglia’s Tourism Future
For anyone thinking about the future of the tourism industry, the current issue of The Economist (www.economist.
com) is a must read. In an editorial titled “Asia, beware Benidorm” and in an in-depth feature article headlined
“Briefing – Travel and tourism: A new itinerary,” the publication cautions emerging international visitor
destinations about heeding the lessons – the successes and, even more important in our view, the mistakes –of
the past as nations, regions and communities succumbed to the attractiveness (on the surface, at least) of mass
tourism as the answer to economic problems. “Booming tourism in emerging economies promises huge
benefits,” the editorial states. “But not if it copies the mistakes of mature markets.”
Which brings us to Puglia. Consider this: Many “hot-weather” destinations draw vacationers by the millions for
their “sun, sand and sea,” as the tourist brochures promise. And many destinations are home to religious sites
that attract millions of pilgrims and other religion-oriented visitors. Puglia now finds itself in the unusual position
of being a magnet to travelers drawn to both types of destinations. The region’s Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches
and resorts have been hosting hordes of sun-seeking summertime vacationers from cooler climates for decades;
that’s not news and Puglia’s tourism industry has developed (and is still developing) the infrastructure to
accommodate them.
At the same time, the attention being focused lately on Saint Pio is attracting visitors by the hundreds and
thousands to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo on Puglia’s Gargano Promontory (see our earlier blogs) and
authorities are even predicting that that town may eclipse Lourdes in France as a pilgrimage destination. An April
25, 2008, article in The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), headlined “San Giovanni Rotondo Journal: Italian
Saint Stirs Up a Mix of Faith and Commerce,” quotes a Puglia tourism official as saying, “This is an opportunity
we have to turn religious tourism into mass tourism.” While the revenues generated by these visitors is, of
course, welcome in an area that has long suffered from economic deprivation, we believe it is essential that
Puglia’s tourism officials take a step back and really think about the potential impact of “mass tourism” on the
region.
Traditionally, Puglia’s beaches and seaside resorts have meant that tourists pour into those areas by the
hundreds of thousands in July and August, but leave them empty for much of the rest of the year. Now, in addition
to the “sun worshipers,” the region is attracting vast number of worshipers of a different kind. And as the summer
“high season” approaches, our tourist guide contacts in Puglia report that they are already busy hosting groups of
visitors interested in seeing Puglia’s religious, historical and artistic sites.
This is all good news for the region, but its public- and private-sector tourism interests now face the challenge of
accommodating all these visitors. Puglia’s tourism infrastructure has improved greatly over the past few years,
especially its magnificently expanded airport at Bari-Palese, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can
withstand a surge in tourist arrivals without even more investment in the development of visitor facilities.
The condition of the region’s physical infrastructure is even more questionable; for example, tourists consume
large quantities of water and Puglia has been suffering chronic water shortages. Where will new water supplies
come from? And what about wear and tear on Puglia’s cultural sites? The unique qualities of the UNESCO World
Heritage Sites (http://whc.unesco.org) of Alberobello’s trulli homes and the Castel del Monte in Andria have long
been attracting large numbers of visitors, but these precious antiquities need protecting before irreversible
damage is done.
The tourism industry uses the term “carrying capacity” to assess the ability of a destination to host visitors and to
determine at what point the drawbacks of growing numbers of tourist arrivals may begin to outweigh the benefits.
Has anyone yet determined what is Puglia’s “carrying capacity”? Puglia has a rich and diverse culture. Its foods,
wines, history, art and architecture are enjoyed by thousands of visitors every year. It has even gained a
reputation as “the next Tuscany” as foreign investors purchase properties and generate new development.
If you are as concerned about Puglia’s tourism future as we are, we urge you read the editorial and the feature
article in the latest issue of The Economist, and consider how the Puglia of today is already being affected by
current trends in international tourism and what the Puglia of tomorrow may look like. Mass tourism is not
necessarily a bad thing, and Puglia’s economy desperately needs new sources of revenue. Mass tourism
generates huge revenues in taxes and visitor spending on hotels, meals, tours, souvenirs and other goods. Mass
tourism provides jobs (albeit frequently low paying) for many people. But consider what has happened elsewhere.
As the editorial states, “The question planners in these new markets should ask themselves is where they want
tourism to be in 20 years….Mass tourism needs mass development.” Puglia is a wonderful place to visit, and we
hope its wonders will be there for many generations of visitors.
2008-05-18
Padre Pio 'Set to Beat Lourdes' ?
An update from the Italian news service ANSA. More to come on the impact of this situation in a later posting:
Unveiled body will bring in nine times more people, mag says
(ANSA) - Rome, May 7 - Padre Pio's shrine has become a bigger attraction than Lourdes now that the saint's body
has been put on show, according to an Italian business magazine.
The recent unveiling of the Franciscan friar's body will spark a nine-fold surge in the number of visitors to the
southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, Economy reports in its latest edition. The forecast nine million total will
make the town near Foggia the world's second most popular destination for religious tourists behind the Vatican,
Economy said. Lourdes will drop to third spot with its usual annual figure of eight million visitors.
The magazine put the annual turnover of the Padre Pio shrine at some 120 million euros including revenue from
souvenirs, two periodicals and a satellite TV station - plus pilgrims' offerings. Padre Pio, the monk known for
Crucifixion-like marks on his hands, was initially scheduled to remain on show for just a couple of months after
his body was unveiled two weeks ago. But the period was extended due to demands from millions of admirers.
Padre Pio will now remain in his glass-sided coffin until September 2009 to give pilgrims a chance to see and
venerate his remains for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Thousands of people flocked to see the body on April 24 as Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno,
beamed the event live across the country. Almost 100 journalists from the international press covered the
unveiling. Padre Pio's body was exhumed by Capuchin friars in March in surprisingly good condition with the
saint's beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible. The body is now mainly hidden from view under a monk's
habit, shoes and a lifelike silicon mask of the saint's face made by London-based specialist company Gems
Studio. The body will be returned next September to the crypt of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San
Giovanni Rotondo, next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
The saint's massive worldwide following is said to include many famous names, including Sophia Loren, the late
writer Graham Greene, Republic of Ireland football player Damien Duff (who reportedly played with a relic of the
saint in one of his boots) and Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of European Champions AC Milan, who prays to the saint
during matches. A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics pray to the Padre Pio than to
Jesus or Mary.
The saint, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, was born in 1887 and died in 1968. His devotees believe
he bore the wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for at least 50 years. By the time of his
death, he was credited by his fellow friars with having performed more than a thousand miraculous cures and
other miracles - one of them for the future Pope John Paul II. The late pope was the driving force behind his
canonisation, which took place in record time in 2002. This officially made him San Pio, but almost everyone still
uses his former name. Other alleged gifts were the ability to be in two places at the same time and emit the scent
of fresh flowers.
Forgione was shunned by church officialdom for much of his life amid suspicions of fraud and even accusations
of impropriety with female followers. He was only belatedly recognised, largely because of his towering stature
among the faithful. However, even after his death there have been accusations that he was a fraud. A new book
suggested last year that he may have used carbolic acid to create his Christ-like wounds.
Copyright ANSA
2008-05-08
Stone Age Cave Risks Collapse
Disturbing news about a treasure in the Gargano area of Puglia. Article courtesy of the Italian news service ANSA:
Archaeologists appeal for funding for Cro- Magnon settlement
(ANSA) - Rignano Garganico, April 30 - Southern Italy's Paglicci Cave, one of the most important Stone Age sites
in Europe, may soon collapse, archaeologists warned on Wednesday.
The Paleolithic settlement in Puglia's Gargano peninsula is one of the few Italian caves with wall paintings and is
thought to have been continually inhabited by early man between 200,000 and 11,000 years ago.
Archaeologists have so far retrieved 45,000 objects from the cave including Cro-Magnon human skeletons, tools
and animal bones.
President of the Paglicci Study Centre, Vincenzo Pazienza, made an urgent appeal to incoming premier Silvio
Berlusconi and Puglia region president Nichi Vendola for funds to secure the cave after a section of its exterior
wall collapsed on Tuesday.
''It's extremely important to safeguard the cave for research to proceed: if the wall collapses completely it will
obstruct the entrance to the grotto,'' he said.
His plea was backed by Annamaria Ronchitelli of Siena University, who leads a team that has worked in the cave
for the last 40 years.
''If we're going to continue excavations in the cave, the structure needs to be safe and and we need to guarantee
that the archaeologists will be unharmed,'' she said.
The Paglicci Cave is set in a valley between rocky mountains on one side and plains on the other, which experts
believe made it a strategic setting for early man in terms hunting and protection from the elements.
Paintings on the cave walls include horses, stylized figures and a series of 'positive' and 'negative' handprints -
created both by covering the palm with colour and by spraying colour around bare hands placed on the wall.
Images of goats, cows, a serpent, a nest full of eggs and a hunting scene showing a horse and deer surrounded
by arrows carved onto animal bones have also been discovered.
So far archaeologists have found two Cro-Magnon skeletons in the cave: a boy aged around 13 wearing a
headdress, bracelet and anklet made from deer teeth, who died around 24,000 years ago, and a woman aged
between 18 and 20 wearing a diadem of deer teeth and who died some 23,000 years ago.
Copyright ANSA
2008-05-02 12
APRIL 2008
Wine Excursion in Boston
We just returned from a brief trip to Boston that included an excursion in search of Pugliese wines that we cannot
find at home in New York. We found three:
1. Tormaresca NePriCa (2006), named for the three grapes in the blend, which are negroamaro (40%,), primitivo
(30%) and cabernet sauvignon (30%). The label describes the "ruby red wine" as a "harmonious blend with
flavors of dark fruit, chocolate, and hints of licorice with a balanced acidity." ($9.99)
2. Copertino Riserva (2001), named for the small town in Salento where it is created from negroamaro (95%) and
malvasia nera (5%) grapes. The label says the wine "is aged for a minimum of two years prior to release. Robust
and generous dry wine, becomes refined and elegant with ageing." ($12.99)
3. Rocca Bella (2006) negroamaro. The label says the wine "has a deep red violet colour with purple edges. The
palate is sweet fruited and spiced with intense flavours leading to a soft apple finish." ($8.99)
We hope that our next trip to Puglia can include visits to at least some of the wineries whose products we're
enjoying here in the States. As we learn more about these wines and their makers, we'll share that information on
this site. In the meantime, if you have any favorite Pugliese wines, please let us know about them.
2008-04-28
St. Pio Follow-Up Report
A follow-up report from the Italian news service ANSA (see yesterday's blog posting for the original report):
Pilgrims queue for Padre Pio
Popular saint's body will remain on display until 2009
(ANSA) - San Giovanni Rotondo, April 24 - Some 800,000 people have already booked to visit the body of stigmata-
bearing Italian saint Padre Pio, which went on display in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo on Thursday.
Local bishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio said plans to keep the body on show for a few months have been
extended due to the huge demand.
Padre Pio will now remain in his glass-sided coffin until September 2009 to give pilgrims a chance to see and
venerate his remains for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Around 15,000 people turned up in the town to attend a service given by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of
the Vatican's saints department, and to see the the saint's body unveiled.
''What we see is a dead body, no longer animated by the breath of God. But Padre Pio is not simply a corpse: he
lives on in communion with Jesus resurrected,'' Martins said in his homily, describing the monk as ''the saint of
the people''.
Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno, beamed events live across the country, and almost 100
journalists from the international press also attended the service.
Padre Pio's body was exhumed by Capuchin friars in March in ''surprisingly good condition'' with the saint's
beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible.
As he went on show today, the body was mainly hidden from view under a monk's habit, shoes and a lifelike
silicon mask of the saint's face made by London-based specialist company Gems Studio.
The body will be returned next year to the crypt of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo,
next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
Copyright ANSA
2008-04-25
If You're Planning to Visit Gargano...
Yesterday, we reported that we are gathering information that would be of interest to those planning to travel to
the sacred sites of San Giovanni Rotondo and Monte Sant'Angelo in the Gargano area of Puglia, in the Province of
Foggia. Here is very useful information from our colleague, Emanuela D'Andria, a professional tour guide and
member of the Associazione Guide Turistiche della Regione Puglia:
Beautiful and typical places where to stay and where to eat:
1. Villa Scapone, along the wonderful Gargano coast (Mattinata-Vieste) - tel. 0884.55.92.84 - www.villascapone.it
2. Ristorante "Il Grottino", Corso V. Emanuele, 179 - Monte Sant'Angelo - tel. 0884.56.11.32
3. Ristorante "Osteria degli Archi", Via Ripe, 2 - Vieste - tel. 0884.70.51.99
2008-04-25
Body of Saint Pio To Be Displayed
Report from ANSA, the Italian news service:
San Giovanni Rotondo, April 23 (ANSA) - All Italy will be watching the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo on
Thursday when the body of stigmata-bearing Italian saint Padre Pio goes on show to the public.
Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno, will show events live across the country as the saint's body
is displayed for pilgrims to see and venerate for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Coaches of the faithful are already arriving in the small hill-top town in anticipation of tomorrow's service, which
will be attended by an estimated 50,000 people.
The saint's massive worldwide following is said to include many famous names, including Sophia Loren, the late
writer Graham Greene, Republic of Ireland football player Damien Duff (who reportedly played with a relic of the
saint in one of his boots) and Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of European Champions AC Milan.
''For me the saint is the man who came closest to God. He helps me with my job but above all in the challenges of
daily life,'' Ancelotti said on Wednesday, admitting that he prays to Padre Pio from the bench.
Final preparations are under way on the body, which was exhumed in March in ''surprisingly good condition'' with
the saint's beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible.
The Capuchin friars in charge of the public display are still deciding whether Padre Pio's face will be covered by
a wax mask sent from Madame Tussauds Museum in London.
Among the crowd at tomorrow's service will be the two people who were reportedly cured by Padre Pio's
heavenly intercession, sealing the mystic monk's fast-track to sainthood.
Consilia De Martino claims to have been cured of a lymphatic duct injury at the age of 45 after she prayed to
Padre Pio and felt invisible hands ''stitching'' inside her body.
Doctor's son Matteo Pio Colella, now 13, was allegedly cured of multiple organ failure brought on by acute
meningitis when he was seven after his mother prayed incessantly to the saint.
Matteo woke from a coma saying ''a priest'' had held his hand throughout his ordeal.
Padre Pio's body will be on display for several months before it is returned to the tomb in the crypt of the Santa
Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo, next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
The saint's huge popularity - even among young people - can be seen with a video on interactive Internet site
YouTube, where a clip of Padre Pio giving his final Mass in September 1968 has been viewed by almost 45,000
people in the last year.
The video, which is in Latin, has also been given four out of five stars by viewers, who have left comments
thanking Padre Pio for support received during periods of illness or hardship.
A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics pray to the saint than to Jesus or Mary.
The saint, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, was born in 1887 and died in 1968. His devotees believe
he bore the wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for at least 50 years.
By the time of his death, he was credited by his fellow friars with having performed more than a thousand
miraculous cures and other miracles - one of them for the future Pope John Paul II.
The late pope was the driving force behind his canonisation, which took place in record time in 2002.
This officially made him San Pio, but almost everyone still uses his former name.
Other alleged gifts were the ability to be in two places at the same time and emit the scent of fresh flowers.
Forgione was shunned by church officialdom for much of his life and only belatedly recognised because of his
towering stature among the faithful.
However, even after his death there have been accusations that he was a fraud.
A new book suggested last year that he may have used carbolic acid to create his Christ-like wounds.
He has huge followings across the world, particularly in Australia and Ireland, and his shrine near Foggia draws
close to one million pilgrims a year, generating millions of euros for the local economy.
Copyright ANSA
2008-04-24
Gathering Information for Travelers
We are in the process of gathering information that we believe will be useful for travelers to Puglia, with
emphasis on historical and cultural sites. Please watch our blog for updates about places to see, where to stay
and how to go from place to place. We have been asked in particular for more information about visiting religious
sites, especially San Giovanni Rotondo and Monte Sant'Angelo. We posted brief overviews of both locations in
previous blogs and we will work to compile more information that can help travelers visit these significant sites.
If you are looking for particular information, please post a comment on this blog or send us an e-mail and we will
do our best to answer your questions. Thank you and buon viaggio.
2008-04-24
Hotel-Car Rental Package in Puglia
With the strong euro taking away much of the purchasing power of American travelers, we try to watch for good
values in trips to Puglia. We found what looks like a good land-only package, meaning airfare is not included,
from the tour operator TourCrafters.
The package, Apulia Discovery and Relax, includes eight nights at the four-star Corte Altavilla hotel in
Conversano, daily breakfast, eight-day car rental, and daily hotel service charges and taxes, priced from $549 per
person, double occupancy. It is available through Dec. 31, 2008.
Conversano is centrally located in the Province of Bari and easily accessible by car to sites throughout Puglia. It
features a variety of accommodations from double rooms to suites for four people.
For information about this package, see the company website at http://www.tourcrafters.com/sales/apulia_549.
htm.
2008-04-06
Wine Tasting & Tourism, Puglia Style
We are always pleased when we see Puglia receive positive coverage in U.S. news media. While once barely
known to most Americans, Puglia in the past few years has been getting noticed in mainstream media and
earning a reputation for its excellence as a tourism destination. This time, we would like to talk about how
Pugliese wines are doing their part.
We were introduced to the wines of Puglia during a visit in 2000; as we recall, our first samples were all
primitivos (reputedly related to zinfandels). We liked the way these wines tasted and when we returned home we
started looking for, and asking for, Pugliese wines in wine shops and restaurants. At first, we could find only a
few bottles, mostly Salice Salentinos from the Province of Lecce, usually priced around $10 per bottle. Since
then, we have been finding more and bottles of wines made from primitivo grapes as well as Puglia-grown
varieties such as negroamaro and malvasia nera.
On a recent visit to San Diego, California, we were pleasantly surprised to find, at a casual pizza grill, a new (to
us, at least) selection of wines from the Tormaresca vineyards (http://www.tormaresca.it). We sampled a 2005
negroamaro-cabernet and a 2005 chardonnay that we enjoyed very much. According to their website, Tormaresca
is operated by the Antinori family at two estates: one, Bocca di Lupo, is near Castel del Monte (Bari) and the other,
Masseria Maime, is near San Pietro Vernotico (Brindisi).
Which brings us to the latest good news out of Puglia. The wine column by Robert Parker in the latest issue of
Business Week (April 7, 2008, www.businessweek.com) features a selection of excellent but inexpensive wines
from Puglia: Botromagno 2005 primitivo, Castello Monaci 2006 primitivo piluna, Tormaresca 2004 primitivo
torcicoda and Agricole Vallone 2003 Salice Salentino Vereto (the latter is the most expensive at $21 a bottle).
Helping to ignite interest in Pugliese wines is an organization devoted to blending tourism and a fondness for
good wines, Il Movimento Turismo del Vino (www.mtvpuglia.it), whose Puglia headquarters is in Bari. Its regional
president, Vittoria Cisonno, has done much to spotlight the quality of Pugliese wines and promote the region as a
destination for those who enjoy learning about wine-making at small, mostly family-owned vineyards and
wineries.
More to come on this topic in a future posting, but we want to call your attention to the Business Week article
while it is still current. As always, we welcome your comments, suggestions and questions.
2008-04-03
FEBRUARY 2008
Direct Flights from NYC to Bari
The Italian airline Eurofly has announced plans to begin weekly direct service between New York City and Bari,
via Bologna, beginning May 15 and continuing through September 12. The move was prompted by requests from
Puglia's tourism and airport officials based on expectations of developing more tourism traffic to the region out of
an important U.S. cultural and heritage market. Flights from New York City (out of JFK Airport) are scheduled to
depart each Thursday at 8:50 P.M. with return service each Friday at 2:20 P.M. The agreement reportedly
stipulates that Eurofly's "punctuality, regularity and quality of the service" will be monitored closely. Public- and
private-sector tourism interests in Puglia have been invited to develop marketing and promotions tied to the new
air service.
2008-02-27
JANUARY 2008
Yeah, They're Touristy, But...
We just read an interesting book, “Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer,” by Chuck
Thompson (2007, www.henryholt.com, $15). It’s billed as “a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect
locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel.” The
author is critical, for good reason, of writers of travel articles and tourist brochures who, for whatever reason,
fail to tell potential visitors the whole truth about destinations. Along with most people who have done any
traveling, we’ve fallen victim to exaggerations in travel brochures, guidebooks and tourist office press releases.
That’s one reason why we’re here. Our goal is to first, get you interested in traveling to Puglia and, second, to
make your visit as enjoyable and hassle-free as we can. We’ve been there numerous times, have seen most of it,
and have no reason not to tell the truth. If we make mistakes (for example, maybe a restaurant we really liked isn’
t open anymore, or has changed owners and now the food is horrible), we’ll do our best to correct them. Just let
us know.
With that said, we genuinely like Puglia, but not everything there is perfect – in fact, we conducted research a few
years ago at the request of several tourism offices to assess the region as a destination for Americans,
particularly those interested in history and cultural preservation. We were asked to travel throughout the region
and compile a list of what we liked and what we didn’t. What we liked most was the variety of things to see and
do; what we didn’t like was garbage and a tourism infrastructure radically in need of improvement. Since then,
we’ve seen some major improvements, most notably the Bari airport. Signage is better, but is it still easy to get
lost or confused, especially when driving (we took a wrong turn off the “superstrada” and wound up in bumper-to-
bumper rush-hour traffic in an industrial section of Bari, not one of the highlights of our trip. Only by following the
setting sun – no kidding – were we able to find our way back to the highway.). Do your research before you go and
you can avoid unpleasant surprises.
Many Americans, particularly those whose families live in the region, have visited Puglia over and over again.
Many others, however, have not yet had that opportunity, but are planning to visit “someday.” Our first visit to
Puglia took place in 1985, and we knew nothing of the region when we arrived. Our family members in Bari
became our informal tour guides, and they were happy to introduce their American cousins to Puglia’s heritage
and history – and food. Now, every time we travel around Puglia, we revisit our favorite sites and find new
places to go.
Here are three places close to the city of Bari that we think first-time visitors will want to visit. Warning: They can
be crowded and “tourist-y” at peak times, but we think you need to see them at least once. They’re easy to find on
a map and relatively easy to get to, and maybe once you see them, they’ll whet your appetite to see what else
Puglia has to offer. Please let us know what you think, especially if you can share tips about visiting these places:
Alberobello – This village near Bari is home to the iconic “trulli” houses you’ll see in travel brochures and picture
books of Italy (and at the top of this posting). Perhaps the most “tourist-y” place in Puglia, especially because it’s
been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Alberobello can get very crowded and you will find schlocky
souvenir shops, but you have to see it at least once. Get off the main street and poke around in some of the family
food shops, look for the little restaurants in trulli houses, buy a coffee or a gelato, and find someone who speaks
a little English (better yet, try speaking some Italian out of a phrase book).
Castel del Monte – The mysterious “Castle on the Mountain” in Andria, built by Frederick II in 13th century, is
another UNESCO World Heritage Site, so it attracts a lot of attention from visitors to the region. (If you have a
pocket full of euro coins, look closely at the one-cent coin – Castel del Monte is depicted on some of them.) When
we first visited in 1985, we could drive right up to the castle and walk around inside on our own. Now, visits are
controlled to protect the site and raise money for its preservation. The entire structure is built on an octagonal
format – the eight-sided castle features eight towers, each with eight sides. Is it a fortress? A hunting lodge? A
shrine? A temple? What is the significance of its use of the octagon in its design and construction? No one knows
for certain, but your guide will present the various theories proposed over the centuries and let you to decide for
yourself.
Castellana Grotte – This town is famous for the Grotte di Castellana, the extensive complex of caves that were
first explored in detail in 1938. We were very privileged to be given a private after-hours tour and were surprised
by the vastness of the network of caves and the quality and quantity of the stalactites and stalagmites. There are
several large open areas such as the White Grotto and the Black Grotto, all connected by narrow passageways.
The caves also contain some unusual formations – we remember a Madonna and what looks like an alley of
apartments buildings with clothes drying across it. The site is open all year, and a tour takes about two hours.
Notes: The caves are popular with tour groups and for school field trips, so watch the calendar, and they may not
be for the claustrophobic.
If you’ve been to Puglia, we’d enjoy finding out where you went, what you saw, what you liked and what you didn’
t like. If you haven’t visited the region, let us know what interests you and we can post information to help you.
Please contact us by adding a comment below or going through our email, info_pugliaconnection@yahoo.com.
2008-01-30
2007
NOVEMBER 2007
Climate Change & Puglia's Tourism Future
Tourism is big business in Puglia, and summer is the region’s “hot” tourist season in more ways than one. It’s
when travelers from within and outside Italy pour onto the region’s Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches – and it’s
when temperatures soar. We’ve visited Puglia in July and August, the first time in 1985, and can say from
experience that the afternoon heat there can be unbearable.
New research about climate change is raising serious questions about Puglia’s tourism future. The New York
Times, reporting on a United Nations conference on climate change and tourism in that took place in Davos,
Switzerland, last month, quoted Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism
Organization, as warning: “The entire tourism product will be affected (because) …Every destination has a
climate-related component.” The conference’s final report stated: “The tourism industry must adapt rapidly.”
Puglia could be particularly impacted by climate changes that involve higher temperatures, wildland fire dangers,
severe droughts, drains on power supplies and other factors that would prove costly to the region. An article in
the journal Climatic Change suggests that hotter temperatures could lead some visitors to avoid warm-weather
destinations, such as Puglia, in July and August and instead plan their beach vacations in June and September.
(“The Impact of Climate on Holiday Destination Choice” by Andrea Bigano, Jacqueline M. Hamilton, Richard S.J.
Tol. Climatic Change. Dordrecht: June 2006. Volume 76, Issue 3-4. Pages 389-406.) On Nov. 17, the newspaper La
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported on speculation about risks of drought and health emergencies in southern
Mediterranean regions stemming from global warming and the potential harmful impact on summer tourism.
To address this issue, we propose a proactive “dispersal strategy” for Puglia’s tourism authorities, based on
seasonal as well as geographical factors. Seasonal dispersal means finding ways to attract visitors during the
“shoulder seasons” of spring and fall, when Puglia’s weather is temperate and visitors are fewer. Geographical
dispersal would involve promoting tourism to areas away from the beaches. Certainly, Puglia has much to offer
for visitors interested in history, archaeology, architecture food and wine, and other varied areas of interest. We
intend to examine these individually in future postings.
Some contend that the dire warnings about global warming and its potential to devastate tourism industries are
exaggerated. We don’t pretend to be experts. But our research experiences during visits to Puglia in various
seasons lead us to believe that Puglia can only benefit by expanding its tourism market seasonally and
geographically, regardless of climate-related factors. We’ll continue our discussion of tourism dispersal by
presenting alternatives to sea-and-sun vacations, and we’d be very interested in hearing from tourism officials
and private-industry tourism professionals about their thoughts on this important topic.
2007-11-26
In the Path of St. Michael the Archangel
At Puglia Connection, we are particularly interested in visiting sacred sites and shrines throughout the Region of
Puglia. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina’s shrine in San Giovanni Rotunda, near the city of Foggia, is world famous and is
said to attract millions of pilgrims each year. There are, however, other places of religious significance
throughout Puglia with which you may not be familiar. Periodically, we will introduce you to them and describe
our visits, plus offer travel tips to those interested in touring these holy places.
About a 30-minute drive from San Giovanni Rotunda, on the Gargano Promontory, is the town of Monte Sant’
Angelo, reported to be the site of at least four visits by St. Michael the Archangel, the first in 490 and the most
recent in 1656, when it is said the saint protected villagers from the plague.
In the introduction to his 1997 book “Saint Michael Shrine on the Gargano,” Father Jan Bogacki writes:
“In Apulia, on Monte Gargano, the town of Monte Sant’Angelo contains the most famous shrine of the Latin West
dedicated to the Archangel Saint Michael. Placed on top of the mountain, this singular Basilica made up of a
complex of constructions around the grotto from various eras gives evidence of a good fifteen centuries of
history. From remote times this is a place of pardon and prayer, famous in the entire Christian world. An
anonymous writer, who lived more than a thousand years ago, describes it thus: ‘The shrine of Saint Michael is
known and extolled everywhere not for the splendor of its marble, but for the prodigious events that took place
here; of modest form, it is nevertheless rich in celestial virtue because the Archangel Michael himself deigned to
set up and consecrate it, who being mindful of human frailty, came down from heaven so that men could
participate in things divine in that temple.’ ”
The site has recorded visits by a number of pilgrims who later were canonized; among them, Saint Francis of
Assisi. Seven popes are known to have made the pilgrimage to Monte Sant’Angelo, including Pope John Paul II
in 1987.
We visited Monte Sant’Angelo on a Saturday in early summer, after inspecting visitor facilities in Vieste, a resort
area on the tip of Gargano. We toured the shrine as well as “Il Castello” (The Castle) built by the Normans in the
11th century. Federico II used it as a royal palace; later the Angevins converted it into a prison, where most
notably Queen Joan I was held in captivity and then executed (one cell inside the castle has been restored to
show the way it looked at the time, complete with a model of the prisoner in chains). From the top of the mountain
one can see miles and miles of countryside.
The easiest way to reach Monte Sant’Angelo is by bus from Foggia, about a 45-minute trip. The bus terminal is
across the piazza from the city’s main railroad station. Buy your bus ticket from the newsstand inside the station.
You can also drive there, but the winding mountain roads can be tricky if you’re not accustomed to them. Parking
is overseen by gentlemen in white caps who accept tips for their service.
A side note: We were privileged yesterday to meet Padre GianMaria Digiorgio, a friar from the Sanctuary of Saint
Pio in San Giovanni Rotundo, who has brought relics of the saint to various churches in the New York-New
Jersey area for veneration during the month of November. The relics include a lock of Saint Pio’s hair and a blood-
stained bandage he used to dry blood from his Stigmata. Many people in the area have a devotion to Saint Pio,
particularly those of Pugliese heritage, so this was a very special occasion.
2007-11-05
OCTOBER 2007
New Airline Service to Puglia
If you haven’t visited the Region of Puglia within the past few years, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the
newly expanded international airport at Bari-Palese. It was designed to accommodate intercontinental flights, so
that non-stop airline service between the United States and Puglia could be established if and when demand
warrants. The airport is very welcoming to international travelers, and features signage in English, perhaps a
result of the influx of travelers to the region from the U.K. within the past decade.
The airport expansion also has sparked in an increase in intra-Europe air service serving Puglia. A number of
low-cost carriers offer frequent service to Bari from many cities throughout Europe, particularly in summer,
fueling increased demand for beach and resort accommodations.
The latest expansion in service offers new Air Italy flights between the northern Italian city of Verona and Bari,
commencing tomorrow, Oct. 29, according to a report in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, the daily newspaper
serving the regions of Puglia and next-door Basilicata. La Gazzetta reports that the new Monday-through-Friday
service consists of a 7:10 A.M. departure from Verona arriving in Bari at 8:40 with the return flight leaving Bari at
3:15 P.M. and arriving in Verona at 4:45. Airfare is 65 euros, including taxes and supplemental fees. The
inaugural flights follow by a few days the introduction of Milan-Brindisi and Verona-Brindisi service.
Although the new flights would appear to be at first intended for business travelers, they have the potential to
draw leisure travelers looking for a quick access to Puglia, especially international travelers visiting the north
who have an interest in extending a trip with a brief tour of Puglia. The newspaper also reports that expanded
service planned to begin Dec. 20 will provide vacationers from the south with access to northern Italian winter
sports venues, part of the airline’s strategy of improving air service between the northwestern and southern
regions of Italy.
2007-10-28
Welcome to the Puglia Connection Blog
Welcome to the Puglia Connection blog. We're hoping that this blog can be a starting point for creating a network
of travelers interested in learning more about the Italian region of Puglia (also called Apulia) as a tourism
destination, particularly because of its diverse cultural offerings. We also hope to generate interest in the region
among Americans of Pugliese heritage and we look forward to learning and sharing stories about your families.
We're Jeff and Randa Barrington, and we've been promoting tourism to Puglia - mainly by word of mouth - since
we started this project in 2000. That's when we visited Puglia for the second time and saw enormous potential
for using very carefully managed international tourism as a way to help preserve Puglia's precious antiquities
and diverse heritage (we've been back nearly every year since to explore the region and compile information for
travelers). If you're not familiar with Puglia, it is the region that comprises the heel of the Italian boot along the
coasts of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The region's principal cities are Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, Lecce and Taranto.
While Puglia's excellent beaches have been popular with Italians and other Europeans for many years, only
recently has there been significant awareness of Puglia's history, culture, heritage, food and wine. We've
explored most of Puglia by car and train; and we have many ideas to share about places to see, stay, eat and
shop; and we can offer practical advice and tips about planning your Puglia vacation.
A little about us: Randa's grandparents are all from Puglia, within the province of Bari - her maternal grandparents
from Palo del Colle and her paternal grandparents from Bitonto. Randa and Jeff have both studied Puglia's culture
and history extensively, and Jeff earned a master's degree in tourism development from New York University,
where his research centered on developing Puglia as a sustainable tourism destination. We formalized this
project in 2005 under the name Puglia Connection and are working to develop the website www.
pugliaconnection.com as a resource for travelers. We've explored Puglia from top to bottom, from Vieste on the
edge of the Gargano Peninsula to Marina de Leuca at the tip of Salento. We've booked trains, rented cars,
discovered numerous restaurants, hotels and sites worth visiting, worked with local guides to gather information
about the most interesting places to see in Puglia, and we're happy to share that information with anybody who is
interested in learning more about this fascinating region.
We hope that this blog will encourage you to learn more about Puglia as a tourism destination. Please send us
your comments, questions and ideas.
2007-10-20
OCTOBER 2008
Interview with Puglia’s President
The Italian news service ANSA is featuring an in-depth interview with Nichi Vendola, president of the Region of
Puglia, on its website. The wide-ranging interview covers such topics as economic policies, pollution and the
environment (including preserving and protecting historic and cultural sites that are popular among visitors),
health and sanitation issues, immigration and even the fate of the famed Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. The president’s
comments may be of interest to travelers and those who follow political and economic developments in Puglia. If
you read Italian or have access to translation software or an online program, you may be interested in what
President Vendola has to say:
http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/visualizza_fdg.html_793799796.html
Friday October 31, 2008
No Proof of Tremiti-Libya Link
Tests to determine whether there is a genealogical link between inhabitants of the Tremiti Islands in Puglia and
exiles from Libya have found no evidence of common DNA, the Italian news service ANSA reported today. The
Tremiti Islands consist of an archipelago off the coast of the Gargano Peninsula in the Province of Foggia. Once a
place where prisoners once banished, the islands are now a popular summertime resort area.
Here’s the complete text of the ANSA report:
No Libyan DNA in Italian islanders;
Gaddafi asked for tests on exile archipelago
(ANSA) – Tremiti Islands, October 27 – DNA tests requested by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to see if the
inhabitants of a tiny Italian archipelago are descended from 1,300 Libyans once exiled there have proved
negative, it was revealed Monday.
Tremiti Islands Mayor Giuseppe Calabrese said around 30 people volunteered for the tests, which were carried
out by Libyan scientists, following an appeal from the Libyan embassy in Rome. “From the results it doesn’t seem
that there are Libyan descendants among the Tremiti islanders,” he said.
Around 1,300 Libyans were exiled to the Adriatic archipelago off the coast of Puglia after 1911, when Italy first
colonised the North African country. “Many of the Libyans deported to the Tremiti Islands died relatively soon
afterwards from typhus, an illness they contracted before they arrived here, and were buried in a common grave,”
said Calabrese.
A mausoleum in their honour was built in 2004 and was inaugurated in the presence of Libyan representatives,
with whom the islanders “have a strong friendship,” he added. “I think this was an important experiment that we
had a duty to carry out,” said the mayor. “It’s essential that there is a good relationship between Libya and Italy
and I think I can say that the first friendly actions came from the Tremiti Islands.” Calabrese said he hoped that
Gadaffi would visit the archipelago soon.
Around 350 people live on the islands, which are now a national marine reserve and a popular summer tourist
resort thanks to their pristine waters. However, the archipelago has a long history as a place of exile. The Roman
Emperor Augustus (27 BC-19 AD) banished his granddaughter Julia the Younger to the Tremiti Islands after
discovering her affair with a senator, while up until 1926 political prisoners were sent here during the Fascist
regime.
In August Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Gaddafi signed a historic friendship and cooperation accord
which aims to resolve issues related to Italy’s colonial occupation of Libya. Under the $5 billion deal, Italy will
fund various projects including the Italian construction of a coastal highway linking Libya with Egypt and Tunisia,
while the claims of 20,000 Italians expelled by Gaddafi from Libya in 1970 are also addressed. On Thursday
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is set to reveal details of the accord, which must still be ratified by
parliament.
Copyright ANSA
Monday October 27, 2008
Puglia Travel Links
Information for travelers from ENIT – The Italian Government Tourist Board (www.italiantourism.com):
TRENITALIA – One hour less on Rome-Lecce route
After numerous delays and disappointments on the Rome-Lecce and Lecce-Milan routes, Trenitalia has promised
to shorten some trips, especially on the Rome-Lecce route. The Eurostar 9352 departing Lecce at 5.39 will arrive
in Rome at 10.59. The departure from Bari will be at 7 (arriving in Rome in 3 hours and 59 minutes, a competitive
time to that of an airplane). From Rome, the Eurostar 9357 will depart at 18 arriving in Bari at 21.59 and in Lecce
at 23.23. Intermediate stops will be in Bari, Foggia and Caserta.
EASYJET – New Malpensa-Brindisi connections
EasyJet has inaugurated a Malpensa-Brindisi route and is increasing the frequency of Malpensa-Bari service,
confirming the interest towards Puglia. A daily flight started October 1, whereas from October 27 there will be
three daily flights.
Saturday October 25, 2008
Vote on "Beautiful and Bad-Looking"
We recently reported on a tourism photo contest, “The Beautiful and the Bad-Looking,” sponsored by the Region of
Puglia’s official tourism website. As we noted, what makes this contest different from other travel-related photo
competitions is that the region is not just looking for photos showing the attractive side of Puglia for travelers,
visitors and residents – it’s also looking for evidence of “the ugly,” photos that “express the problems and the
damages that afflict the Apulia territory,” according to the contest rules. There are no prizes, other than seeing the
winning photos posted on the region’s tourism website.
Photos posted in “The Beautiful” category highlight many of Puglia’s most appealing attractions, such as beaches,
the sea, historic sites, flowers, fruit and olive trees, and more. “The Bad-Looking” uncovers the region’s uglier
side, including the factory smokestacks at Taranto, beach litter, tacky billboards and poorly maintained historic
areas.
Check out the photo gallery and cast your votes at
http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/concorso/gallery/en/1.
Saturday October 25, 2008
Our Condolences
This is beyond the scope of a tourism-focused blog, but we feel it is important to express our condolences to the
families of the eight members of a Brindisi-based Italian Air Force Combat Search and Rescue team who were
killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed while on a training exercise in northeastern France.
They are: Captain and Pilot Michele Cargnoni, 30, of Brescia; Lieutenant and Pilot Marco Partipilo, 29, of Bari;
Marshal Giovanni Sabatelli, 50, of Fasano (Brindisi); Marshal Carmine Briganti, 41, of Talsano (Taranto); Marshal
Giuseppe Biscotti, 37 of Grottaglie (Taranto), Marshal Massimiliano Tommasi, 34, of Calimera (Lecce); Marshal
Teodoro Baccaro, 31, of San Vito dei Normanni (Brindisi); and Captain and Pilot Stefano Bazzo, 32, of Vicenza.
As travelers, it is reassuring to know that highly trained emergency responders stand ready around the clock to
rescue us if we get ourselves into dangerous situations on land or at sea. We pay tribute to the supreme sacrifice
made by these eight very dedicated people.
Friday October 24, 2008
Contaminated Milk Found in Modugno
(ANSA) – Rome, October 16 – Three cases of Chinese dairy products contaminated by the toxic chemical
melamine have been found in Italy, Welfare Undersecretary Francesca Martini said Thursday.
Two samples of milk taken from a Chinese food shop in Modugno, near Bari, and a sample of yogurt from a similar
shop at Poggio Marino, near Naples, both tested positive for melamine, Martini said. Health police had been
checking businesses that import or distribute Chinese foods in the wake of the contaminated milk scandal that
broke in China in September, when thousands of babies fell ill and at least four died after drinking melamine-
tainted formula.
Italian health police commander Cosimo Piccinno said the levels of melamine in the samples found in Italy were
between 3 and 22 milligrams per kilogram, while the limit for acceptable levels had been set at 2.5 milligrams.
“These aren’t lethal quantities, but they are harmful,” Piccinno said, adding that the fact that the products could
have been consumed by children was of particular concern. Melamine, which is used in making plastics, makes
products appear to have a higher nutritional value. It can cause kidney stones and renal failure, particularly
among children.
Silvio Borrello, the welfare ministry’s food safety chief, stressed that there had been no reports of melamine-
related ailments from citizens. The three Italian samples brought the total number of cases in which Chinese food
has tested positive for melamine in the European Union to 26.
When news of the scandal broke the EU took steps to ban the entry of Chinese baby food containing milk powder
and to otherwise reduce consumption of Chinese milk products. Martini said all three of the contaminated
samples were “the consequence of illegal imports of Chinese food products destined for ethnic shops. The
situation is under control, but the government will stay on high alert and continue checks.”
Martini added that the government was planning to limit access points for Chinese food entering the country to
four – the ports of Genoa and Naples as well as Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino airports – to facilitate
controls. Police have checked 855 businesses that import or distribute Chinese products and have taken 127
samples, although results for only 48 samples have been processed so far.
In a separate case, Italian police on Thursday confiscated a ton of Chinese milk and 300 kilograms of Chinese
mozzarella from a warehouse in Naples thought to have entered the country illegally. Martini said tests for
melamine contamination would take 10 days.
Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said that while the Chinese community should not fear being discriminated against,
there would be “zero tolerance” against people who adulterated food. “Everyone should know that anyone who
breaks the law and tries to poison Italian consumers will be severely punished,” he said.
Around 15,000 cans of Chinese spaghetti were confiscated from a warehouse in Florence on Wednesday after
police discovered live insects inside them.
Copyright ANSA
Thursday October 16, 2008 - 02:43pm (PST) Edit | Delete | Comments: 0
Puglia’s Food & Wine at Epcot Festival
A variety of Puglia’s foods and wines are being showcased at the 13th annual Epcot International Food and Wine
Festival at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, running through Nov. 9. Among the festival’s “Special 10-Day
Experiences” is an event called “Taste of Puglia, Italy” Oct. 23 to Nov. 2, sponsored by Taste of Puglia, a real
estate agency and developer based in Brindisi. Pugliese gastronomy also can be sampled at a “Regional Feast”
on Oct. 24, from 6:30 to 9 PM. According to the festival’s promoters, “three important Mediterranean crops,
wheat, olive oil and wine…(and) almonds, figs, citrus fruits, diverse vegetables and an amply supply of seafood
make this region a gastronomic treasure.” For all the details, see http://disneyworld.disney.go.
com/wdw/parks/specialEvents?id=FoodWineExperienc....
Tuesday October 7, 2008
SEPTEMBER 2008
Sick Fish in Adriatic Sea
In the wake of our recent posting “Eat Pugliese and Live Longer?” about the healthy effects of following a Puglia-
based Mediterranean diet comes an alarming report concerning the results of tests conducted on fish caught in
the Adriatic Sea. The test results, reported in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it),
show that some species of fish have swollen livers and spleens, “significant traces of arsenic and mustard gas”
and other abnormalities. The tests were conducted by the Istitute Centrale per la Ricerca Applicata al Mare
(Central Institute for Applied Research of the Sea) in conjunction with the Ministry of the Environment. Further
research will be conducted in hopes of finding out how the fish are being sickened and how the illnesses may
affect humans.
Tuesday September 23, 2008
Puglia Suffers If Alitalia Fails
Let’s hope that Alitalia somehow pulls through its current crisis, for Puglia’s sake. Here’s why we should care:
While numerous international airlines fly into and out of Alitalia’s hubs in Rome and Milan, and several foreign
carriers offer service to Puglia’s airports from other countries, only Alitalia has in place a reliable network of
domestic routes that serve Italy’s other cities, including Bari and Brindisi. It would be difficult, not to mention
costly, for other carriers to jump in quickly to replace Alitalia on those routes. Maybe they won’t jump in at all,
given the economic factors in force right now. That would leave Puglia’s main visitor arrival points without
convenient air transportation. And given what we’ve been reporting lately about breakdowns in Italy’s inter-city
train transportation system and the high costs of gasoline and diesel fuel, this is not good news for the region’s
tourism industry. If it’s too costly or too inconvenient to travel to Puglia, as inviting as it is as a vacation
destination, visitors just won’t come.
Here’s the latest information about the Alitalia situation from the Italian news service ANSA:
Alitalia: Chances of survival slim; Nationalization impossible, economy minister says
(ANSA) – Rome, September 19 – Hopes of saving Alitalia appear to be fading rapidly and Economy Minister Giulio
Tremonti has made it clear that nationalizing the carrier is “'impossible.” In a report to the cabinet on Friday,
Tremonti said it was “senseless to even take the hypothesis of nationalization into consideration. Alitalia can no
longer benefit from any state intervention.”
The minister explained that European Union law prohibited the privatization of the airline, which over the years
has benefited from billions of euros in state subsidies, and thus the hypothesis of a public takeover of the airline
was “absurd.” (The impossibility of privatizing Alitalia was later confirmed by the EU executive transport
commissioner, Italy’s Antonio Trajani, who recalled that Rome made a commitment not to privatize the carrier in
exchange for giving the airline state funds for its restructurization in 2004.)
Tremonti made his remarks a day after a group of private Italian investors withdrew an offer to buy Alitalia’s flight
operations with the aim of creating a new national carrier. Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) bowed out after unions
representing the majority of pilots and cabin staff presented counterproposals to CAI’s rescue plan. According to
CAI, their industrial plan was the only one possible and could not be modified.
ALTERNATIVES RUNNING OUT.
Hopes for Alitalia’s survival were further damped on Friday when British Airways, Iberia of Spain and Germany’s
Lufthansa all said they had no intention of coming to the rescue. BA said it was not “even interested in taking a
stake” in the insolvent airline. Lufthansa said the Alitalia affair “does not concern us” and that, in any case, the
Italian carrier's massive debt made it “unmanageable.” The German carrier had been seen by many, including
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, as the “ideal” industrial partner for Alitalia once it was merged with Italy’s
biggest private carrier Air One as envisioned in the CAI industrial plan.
Friday also saw the cabinet hear from Berlusconi’s right hand Gianni Letta, who said flatly that no alternative
existed to CAI’s offer. The seasoned mediator, who represented the premier in talks between Alitalia unions and
investors, went on to stress the importance of explaining to Italians that it was the unions who had torpedoed the
CAI offer just as they had done with one presented this spring by Air France. It was equally important, the cabinet
secretary added, to counter allegations by the opposition that Berlusconi was also responsible for sinking the
French offer. Air France had linked its offer to its being accepted by both unions and the government and during
the election campaign which brought him back to power Berlusconi vowed that he would not allow Alitalia to fall
into foreign hands.
AVIATION AUTHORITY OPENS PROBE.
The definitive nail in Alitalia’s coffin may come from Italy’s civil aviation authority, ENAC, which said it would
begin examining Alitalia’s finances next week. Based on the results of their probe, it would then decide on
whether or not to suspend the national carrier’s license.
“We need to find out how much cash Alitalia has on hand and if the carrier has the means to keep operating,”
ENAC President Vito Riggio said on Friday. According to Riggio, probes of this kind usually take a week to 10
days. This one will begin on Monday when Alitalia’s government-appointed administrator, Augusto Fantozzi,
reports to ENAC on CAI’s decision.
In a related development, Alitalia issued a statement on Friday to confirm that it was operating regularly and that it
was still possible to book tickets. The statement was in response to press reports that ticket sales and
reservations had been suspended.
Copyright ANSA
Friday September 19, 2008
Eat Pugliese and Live Longer?
One of the joys of visiting Puglia is eating the simple regional cuisine, based on fish, pasta, olive oil, and fresh
fruits and vegetables – cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet. Stay away from tourist traps and fast-food outlets
and it’s easy to find small restaurants, many of them family owned and operated, serving simple and inexpensive
meals in the traditional Pugliese style. One of our favorites is Alle Due Corti, tucked away on a side street in the
Old City of Lecce (www.alleduecorti.com). Rosalba De Carlo and her family prepare traditional dishes of the
Salento Peninsula. Here are just a few examples from this week’s menu:
Primi (first plate) – Ricchitelle cule rape (orecchiette pasta with turnip tops) and fave nette cu le cicureddhe
(mashed beans typical of Salento with chicory and olive oil).
Secondi (second plate) – Agnellu te li signuri (lamb cooked in a pan with flour, onions and white wine), purpu a
pignatu (octopus cooked in our special clay pot) and calamari ripieni (fresh squid stuffed with bread, capers,
garlic and pecorino cheese).
Dessert – Lo spumone leccese (special stuffed ice cream of Salento), crostate Alle Due Corti® (sweet tart stuffed
with special Alle Due Corti jams and marmalades) and torta pasticciotto (typical cake of Salento stuffed with
cream).
As Rosalba and her family notes on their website, “Upon entering Alle Due Corti you will feel at once the domestic
atmosphere of the restaurant. The history, culture and traditions of Salento all meet together at the table. Along
with the traditional dishes always present in our menu, you will find original and very delicious courses.
Salentine cuisine, poor or rich, always has pleasant surprises.”
And now, researchers are finding even more evidence that the Mediterranean diet can keep you healthy and
maybe even prolong your life. Here’s the full report from the Italian news service ANSA:
Med diet “lengthens life”: Not just heart and cancer, but other aging ills “prevented”
(ANSA) Sticking closely to the Mediterranean diet can lengthen life spans by warding off the full array of illnesses
linked to ageing and western lifestyle habits, Italian researchers say.
The fish, fruit, pasta, vegetable and olive oil-rich diet cuts mortality from heart disease by 9%, cancer deaths by
6% and the incidence of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases by 13%, a University of Florence team said. The
Florence study is the first time such claims have been made for all age-related diseases and not just heart
problems and cancer. The team, led by Francesco Sofi, drew their conclusions after examining 12 recent studies
on diet and health involving 1.5 million people.
Sofi’s team, whose study has been published in the British Medical Journal, gave each individual points
according to how closely they stuck to the diet. Overall, they found that deaths from all causes fell by 9% in
people who did not stray from the traditional Italian diet.
Saturday September 13, 2008
Toll Superhighway to Link Bari and Lecce?
The mayor of Brindisi has proposed construction of a toll superhighway to connect the cities of Bari and Lecce in
hopes of reducing congestion on existing roadways, which become clogged with traffic during peak travel
periods. Mayor Domenico Mennitti recommends that public funds pay for 20% of the construction costs of the
highway, which would also improve access to his city, with the remainder of the money to be in the form of an
investment by a private operator in return for a share of toll revenues.
Friday September 12, 2008
More Trouble on the Rails
Two days after the Lecce-Milan Eurostar train fiasco we reported on earlier this week, there was more trouble on
the rails in Puglia, when a Eurostar “high-speed” train from Rome and bound for Lecce took more than nine hours
to reach its destination. Actually, three separate trains were required to complete the trip after repeated
breakdowns and delays. “An amazing journey,” one passenger told La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it). A protest against poor Eurostar service in Puglia is planned for Saturday at the
Lecce train station.
Friday September 12, 2008
Bad News for Train Riders
The newspaper headline says it all: “16-Hour Nightmare on the Eurostar.” La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it) reports on an “adventure” that lasted 16 hours for the 400 passengers aboard a
Eurostar high-speed train that departed Lecce and was bound for Milan. A series of technical problems, including
malfunctioning doors, a lack of air conditioning the cars and a locomotive that wouldn’t budge, forced the long
delays, which ended when the passengers were transferred to other trains, buses and taxis to complete the trek
to Milan.
While this is an isolated incident, it doesn’t help Puglia’s efforts to attract long-haul visitors from within Italy and
elsewhere in Europe. Reliable high-speed train service is a key element in the region’s tourism infrastructure,
and any bad publicity about traveling to and from Puglia will tarnish the region’s reputation at a time when it is
working to establish itself as a quality tourism destination.
Monday September 8, 2008
Take a Look at Our New Passa Parola Page
Despite our ongoing technical problems, we're adding content to this site as quickly as we can. Today, we
launched the beginning of what we hope will be a very interesting feature, our Passa Parola page. Passa parola
literally means passing the word. It's a place where Puglia natives and visitors can pass the word among one
another to share what you have discovered, learned and enjoyed and maybe even what surprised you. (Just for
fun, do you know where this photo was taken?) We hope to attract your contributions. Just e-mail us at
info_pugliaconnection@yahoo.com. Thanks
Saturday September 6, 2008
AUGUST 2008
Visitors Beware: Limited Traffic Areas
A warning to travelers from the Italian Government Tourist Board:
Limited traffic areas have been created in most of the historical centers of Italian cities. This measure has been
taken to increase pedestrian areas, commercial activities, and reduce pollution to preserve historical sites. In
these limited traffic areas only authorized vehicles are allowed to drive, such as: buses, police cars,
ambulances, etc. Residents have access as well. All of the authorized vehicles have their license plate
registered with the Municipal Police.
If a vehicle crosses a limited traffic area, cameras will take a picture of the license plate. The photo is
automatically sent back to a computer of the Municipal Police and if the license plate is not registered a violation
ticket is generated and sent to the owner of the vehicle. The limited traffic areas are clearly indicated with a sign
marked with a white circle with red borders (see picture), stating the hours in which the area is restricted.
Please note: Due to the law and the authority that is held by the local Municipal Police, the Italian Government
Tourist Board cannot act as an intermediary in settling disputes over traffic violations.
Wednesday August 13, 2008
A Tourism Photo Contest with a Twist
Here’s an interesting contest to have some fun with this summer. The Region of Puglia’s official tourism website,
www.viaggiareinpuglia.it, is sponsoring a photo competition called Puglia Foto Grand-Prix –“Il Bello e il Brutto”
(loosely translated as “The Beautiful” and the Ugly”) for residents and visitors alike. What makes this contest
different from other travel-related photo competitions is that the region is not just looking for “the beautiful,”
photos showing the attractive side of Puglia for travelers, visitors and residents – it’s also looking for evidence
of “the ugly,” photos that “express the problems and the damages that afflict the Apulia territory,” according to the
contest rules.
While there certainly are plenty of things that can be photographed to display the region’s charms – just look at
the ancient relics of past civilizations, the art and architecture, the castles, the cathedrals, the religious sites, the
historic quarters of many cities and towns, the beaches, the countryside, the food and wine, and the people. But
sadly, there also is much to photograph to meet the criteria of “ugly.” Garbage, dog waste, graffiti and ugly
buildings are just a few of the environmental eyesores that can be found in many places throughout Puglia.
Please don’t misunderstand us: we think that the most beautiful places in Puglia could rival any that are found
elsewhere in the world. In recent years, since we began documenting what we’ve found there, regional and local
officials have done a good job of cleaning up many areas. But there is still work to be done. Apparently, the
region’s tourism officials agree and are using a contest format to learn what residents and visitors alike find
attractive and unattractive. It’s going to be very interesting to see the photos when they are posted and then to
see what the region does with the “evidence” it’s collecting.
The contest is open to everyone (free registration is required) and involves photos taken with digital cameras and
mobile phones from July 26 to Sept. 27. There are no prizes, other than seeing the winning photos posted on the
region’s tourism website. You can find all the rules and requirements for entries on the contest’s English-
language site, http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/concorso/en/1.
Wednesday August 6, 2008
JULY 2008
Military to Patrol 3 Cities in Puglia
(ANSA) – Rome, July 29 – The government on Tuesday launched a scheme that will deploy 3,000 troops in major
Italian cities to help police the streets. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa
unveiled the six-month pilot scheme, which will start on Monday. They said the Army, Air Force, Navy and
Carabinieri would work alongside police.
Two thousand troops will be placed at the disposal of 16 mayors to guard black spots and immigration holding
centers in cities ranging from Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Siracusa and Trapani in Sicily to Catanzarao and Crotone
in Calabria, Bari, Brindisi and Foggia in Puglia, Modena and Bologna in Emilia-Romagna, Cagliari in Sardinia and
Turin in Piedmont – as well as Rome, Milan and Naples. Some units will watch “sensitive” sites in Rome, Milan
and Naples – 51 in the capital, 20 in Milan and one in Naples. This would free up police for regular crime fighting,
Maroni said. The remaining 1,000 will patrol the streets of Bari, Catania, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Padua,
Rome, Turin and Verona. Rome will have the most soldiers on the streets, 195, followed by Milan with 170 and
Naples with 150.
Troop patrol numbers will be 90 in Bari, 80 in Turin, 50 in Palermo, 45 in Padua and 45 in Verona. Patrol troops
will be dressed in fatigues and will carry only small arms while those guarding sensitive sites will have body
armor and machine guns, Maroni said. City prefects will set rules of engagement at regular meetings on public
order.
“'It’s a useful initiative,” Maroni said. “After six months, we will make an evaluation to see whether it has worked
and should be extended to other cities.”
“This is not a militarization of cities but a clear response to the perceived demand for greater security,” La Russa
said.
General Giovanni Ridino, Army commander for ground operations, said Italian troops had picked up valuable
experience in policing dangerous streets while on missions abroad. “A soldier who has been in Afghanistan or
Lebanon won’t have any problems,” he said. “Troops on foreign missions already carry out patrols. With a few
adjustments they will be able to face any situation.”
The center-left opposition continued to depict the deployment as a stunt to meet an alleged crime and immigration
emergency which was not borne out by statistics. They predicted it would backfire by scaring tourists off while
doing little to deter criminals.
Marco Minniti, the shadow interior minister of the Democratic Party, said: “It’s an image-boosting operation that
risks turning into a boomerang. It will make Italy look like a country in the grip of an uncontrolled security
emergency.”
“Paratroopers guarding the centers of the major tourist cities aren't exactly a great calling card for a country at
the height of the tourist season,” said Antonio Di Pietro of the Italy of Values Party; in statistical terms, “we’ll have
one soldier for every 10 municipalities, doing nothing except going to the bar with a policeman. It’s a joke. And to
cap it all it’s only a provisional measure.”
2008-07-30
Driving in Puglia
Although Puglia has a decent public transportation system of trains and buses, the network appears to be
designed principally to meet the needs of working people, commuters and students. While major cities and even
some smaller towns are easily accessible by public transportation, most of the places that would be of interest to
travelers are more easily accessible by car.
Renting a car in Puglia is easy if you arrive at the new international airport at Bari-Palese. About a half-dozen car
rental counters are located on the main concourse near the arrivals area of the terminal. We have booked rental
cars both by reserving in advance and on the day we arrived and have used two companies: Maggiore (which
affiliated with National) and Europcar. Both companies provided us with excellent service, clean new cars and
decent prices, with full insurance coverage and no hidden mark-ups. Company representatives speak English
and other languages. Parking is right outside the terminal, so it’s very convenient to pick up and drop off cars.
(The morning flight from Bari to Rome for connecting flights to the U.S. departs at 7 A.M., before the car rental
counters open for business, so keys and paperwork are simply placed in mail slots in roll-down doors. We were a
bit hesitant about this, but within three days we received confirmation by mail that everything was in order.)
A note about fuel prices: Gasoline and diesel both cost about 1.55 euros per liter, which roughly converts to about
$10 per gallon at the current painful exchange rate. We found service stations open at all hours of the day and
night throughout Puglia, especially on routes traveled by visitors.
If you plan to drive in Puglia, be sure to familiarize yourself with European road signs ahead of time. The symbols
used are different from those in the U.S. and there are no translations for signs using words (for example, “Senso
Unico” means “One Way” and the direction is indicated by an arrow; “Passo Carrabile,” usually posted on garage
doors and on the gates to driveways, translates to “Keep Clear”). No parking, restricted parking, no entry, no
passing and other rules are indicated by bars, crosses in circles, arrows and other symbols. And ignorance of the
signage is no excuse if you break any traffic laws.
Navigating Puglia by car can be challenging. In some places, the signage is excellent and traveling from place to
place is easy. But elsewhere signs can be confusing, misleading or even missing. For example, we had trouble
figuring out how to get from the Salice Salentino wine region to Brindisi, although it looks easy on a road map.
Even with signs, we drove in circles, wound up on dead-end streets, and went back and forth for more than hour
before we found, only by accident, a sign pointing us to the autostrada. And that was in the daylight.
2008-07-19
Alberobello
Our next stop is the historic section of Alberobello, home of the unusual trulli houses. As with Castel de Monte,
there’s no shortage of information available via a quick search of the Internet. We’ve been here before, but today
we’re hoping to meet new people. We had success on our first try. Looking for a shaded place to get out of the hot
sun, we enter Enoteca Tholos ad Alberobello, a small shop with shelves filled with Pugliese wines, pastas and
other local specialties (http://www.trullodelgusto.it/). Here, we meet Luigi Minerva, the owner and a sommelier
who provides tastings for tour groups, many from America. We taste a Pugliese rose that’s new to us, so
enjoyable that we buy a bottle to take back to our hotel.
Interestingly, although it’s high season for tourism here in Puglia, both Castel del Monte and Alberobello appear to
be largely devoid of tourists. For the most part, we had the castle to ourselves, and when we stopped in the
shops and snack bars of Alberobello we were the only people there, the only exception being a family of Germans
who were in one snack bar with us. Asking around, very subjectively, people here tell us the dearth of visitors
could be due to the extreme heat (it’s been 100 degrees or above all week, with oppressive humidity) and high
costs, especially for Americans (for example, a fast-food meal that costs $4 back home costs over $11 here).
More reports to come.
2008-07-18
Castel del Monte
We are at Castel del Monte, Emperor Frederick II’s mysterious 12th century castle on the mountain in Andria. We
arrived from Santo Spirito in about 45 minutes using a network of roads weaving through the towns of Terlizzi and
Ruvo di Puglia, following a series of signs that directed us to the site.
Castel del Monte is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so certain controls are in place to preserve and protect the
structure and its surroundings. During our first visit in 1985, we recall being able to drive up to the castle, park
our car and go inside to explore the castle on our own. Now, we park our car in a secure parking area (fee: 4
euros per car) and are transported by bus uphill to the castle (admission: 3 euros per person).
Much has been written here and elsewhere about what makes the eight-sided Castel del Monte so interesting to
visit, centered mainly on the question of its intended purpose (just do an Internet search for “Castel del Monte”
and you’ll find plenty of information). What makes our latest visit even more interesting is an exhibit of scenic
photos taken throughout Puglia. It makes us realize how rich and diverse this region is, and how much exploring
we’ve yet to do.
2008-07-17
Our Trip to Puglia, 2008
We have arrived in Puglia for a week-long visit with family and friends and to conduct more research to enhance
our website. This is a perfect time to send us questions about any aspect of travel to Puglia because we expect to
be with tourism industry people for the entire week and they can help us answer your questions. (One note before
we can go any further: we’re finding that Internet access here can be spotty, so we’re guessing that there are
going to be gaps between when our blog postings are written and when we can post them.)
At this moment, we are in the coastal town of Santo Spirito, situated on the Adriatic Sea just outside Bari. It’s just
after sunset on Sunday evening. We’re on the rooftop terrace of our cousin’s house facing the sea, overlooking
the main street that runs along the water. The traffic is building as the weekend and Sunday visitors to the beach
pack up and head home. Today was sunny, hot and humid, but it’s getting cooler now with a light breeze. Through
the haze to the north we can see, just barely, the outline of the mountains on the Gargano Promontory. (Santo
Spirito’s beach is not sandy, but rather it is made up of large, slippery rocks. Sunbathers place large mats on the
rocks and stretch out on them to get a tan. Going into the water barefoot can be dangerous, so most of the bathers
wear rubber shoes.)
As night falls in Santo Spirito, we listen as our neighbors to the right celebrate a child’s birthday, singing “Tante
auguri a te” to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” Red brake lights illuminate the couples, families and groups of friends
taking one last stroll, or passegiatta, before returning home; others sit atop the concrete wall that separates the
street and sidewalk from the rocky waterfront. Babies cry, kids and adults laugh and shout to one another,
mopeds weave their way through the long line of cars slowly heading out of town, but we can still hear the sound
of the surf splashing against the rocks. It’s a typical early summer Sunday evening in a seaside town in Puglia.
What we’re seeing and hearing is probably being seen and heard tonight in every other seaside town in the
region. It’s fun to lean on the railing up here and absorb it all before we go downstairs and join them.
By 10:30, the traffic is gone and the sound of the small waves is interrupted only by a few passing mopeds and an
occasional couple in conversation. The brightly lit pizzeria and coffee bar down the street are still open and
attracting customers.
During the past weekend in Rome, we caught up with Puglia tour guide Maurizio Cafagno, a member of the
Associazione Guide Turistiche della Regione Puglia (see the link the Associazione elsewhere on our site).
Maurizio is an expert tour guide for the old city of Bari, particularly the Basilica di San Nicola, and leads visitors
on tours to areas around Bari, such as Castel del Monte. We first met Maurizio in 2002, when he guided us
through the old city of Bari while we were researching the city’s history. He reports that Puglia is now drawing
more international visitors in the “shoulder seasons” of spring and fall, and that his busiest time as a guide is
from March to June, a big change from just a few years ago.
It looks like the sun-worshiper tourists are starting to arrive in Puglia. Just as our flight from Rome was landing
this afternoon, packed airliners were arriving from Spain and the Netherlands. (The ground crews did an amazing
job of handling all the baggage from the simultaneous flights.) This is the beginning of the high season for beach
and resort tourism in Puglia. We’re glad to be back.
July 8, 2008
The Numbers Are In
The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT, www.istat.it) has just reported final tourism arrival numbers for
2007. For the year, Puglia attracted 2,189,973 visitors from within Italy and 410,960 from outside the country. (Just
for comparison, the Region of Lazio, in which Rome is located, attracted 3,867,175 Italian tourists and 6,952,266
foreign tourists in 2007.)
According to ISTAT, here’s where Puglia’s visitors stayed last year, by type of accommodations:
• 5-star-plus, 5-star and 4-star hotels – 990,272
• 3-star hotels and “tourist residence hotels” – 956,965
• 2-star and 1-star hotels – 131,688
• Campgrounds and tourist villages – 286,974
• Leased lodgings – 109,816
• Agriturismos – 48,567
July 1, 2008
JUNE 2008
Summertime Train Delays Ahead
Just as the summer tourism season gets underway, the Italian state railroad – Le Ferrovie dello Stato – has
announced plans for track work and other improvements during the next few months that are expected to cause
delays and “inconveniences” to travelers and affect “the quality and punctuality of the service,” as reported in La
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it). The work is necessary for maintenance and
“infrastructural and technological development,” the railroad said. For example, train service between Bari and
Lecce will experience delays from July 1 to July 15, and on the Taranto-Brindisi, Barletta-Spinazzola and
Rocchetta-Gioia del Colle lines will be suspended from July 28 to August 30. Bus service will be provided on
routes affected by the work. The railroad said the projects were planned for the summer to avoid service
interruptions during other seasons, when it would adversely affect significant numbers of commuters and
students who depend on the trains to reach their jobs and schools.
2008-06-28
Traveling from Bari to San Giovanni Rotondo
We’ve been asked for information regarding the best way to travel from Bari to San Giovanni Rotondo, the
location of sacred sites related to Saint Padre Pio.
Traveling from Bari is easiest and fastest by train. Regular railroad service is provided from the central train
station in Bari to the central station in Foggia. Bus service is then provided from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo
as well as to Monte Sant’Angelo, Manfredonia, Vieste and other points of interest on the Gargano Promontory.
When you arrive in Foggia by train, simply purchase a bus ticket at the newsstand inside the rail terminal and
then walk across the piazza to the bus pickup area. Your ticket will be checked by a conductor aboard the bus. If
there’s a bit of a wait before your bus departs, you may wish to take a short walk along Viale XXVI Maggio, where
there are shops and cafes.
There also is scheduled and charter bus service (some of the latter sponsored by church groups) from Bari to
Foggia and San Giovanni Rotondo. Check the official Puglia tourism website, http://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it, for
the latest information about schedules and ticket prices. The website also has information and hotels and
restaurants in the area (also see our April 25 blog posting from some ideas). If you have other suggestions for
people traveling to San Giovanni Rotondo, please share them on this blog. Grazie e buon viaggio!
2008-06-22
MAY 2008
Fake Tickets to See the Pope in Salento
A warning for travelers: The Puglia-based newspaper La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (www.
lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it) reports the sale of counterfeit tickets to see Pope Benedict XVI during his planned
June 14 visit to the tourist community of Leuca, at the tip of Salento in the Province of Lecce. The Diocese of
Ugento-Santa Maria di Leuca cautions that legitimate tickets for use during the papal visit are being distributed
only by local parishes free of charge, and that they have a magnetic strip that will be checked at access points.
The fake tickets have been sold for as much as 20 euros apiece, perhaps by swindlers dressed as priests or
displaying phony identification documents. Sales of the fake tickets have been reported in the communities of
Felline, Castiglione and Ruffano.
2008-05-21
Visit the Official Puglia Tourism Website
If you haven’t already done so, check out the official Region of Puglia tourism web portal, http://www.
viaggiareinpuglia.it/. It is available in English, Italian and German, and it’s loaded with information about places
to see, tours, accommodations and other information that’s valuable for visitors. It’s very well organized and
easy to navigate.
2008-05-20
Puglia’s Tourism Future
For anyone thinking about the future of the tourism industry, the current issue of The Economist (www.economist.
com) is a must read. In an editorial titled “Asia, beware Benidorm” and in an in-depth feature article headlined
“Briefing – Travel and tourism: A new itinerary,” the publication cautions emerging international visitor
destinations about heeding the lessons – the successes and, even more important in our view, the mistakes –of
the past as nations, regions and communities succumbed to the attractiveness (on the surface, at least) of mass
tourism as the answer to economic problems. “Booming tourism in emerging economies promises huge
benefits,” the editorial states. “But not if it copies the mistakes of mature markets.”
Which brings us to Puglia. Consider this: Many “hot-weather” destinations draw vacationers by the millions for
their “sun, sand and sea,” as the tourist brochures promise. And many destinations are home to religious sites
that attract millions of pilgrims and other religion-oriented visitors. Puglia now finds itself in the unusual position
of being a magnet to travelers drawn to both types of destinations. The region’s Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches
and resorts have been hosting hordes of sun-seeking summertime vacationers from cooler climates for decades;
that’s not news and Puglia’s tourism industry has developed (and is still developing) the infrastructure to
accommodate them.
At the same time, the attention being focused lately on Saint Pio is attracting visitors by the hundreds and
thousands to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo on Puglia’s Gargano Promontory (see our earlier blogs) and
authorities are even predicting that that town may eclipse Lourdes in France as a pilgrimage destination. An April
25, 2008, article in The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), headlined “San Giovanni Rotondo Journal: Italian
Saint Stirs Up a Mix of Faith and Commerce,” quotes a Puglia tourism official as saying, “This is an opportunity
we have to turn religious tourism into mass tourism.” While the revenues generated by these visitors is, of
course, welcome in an area that has long suffered from economic deprivation, we believe it is essential that
Puglia’s tourism officials take a step back and really think about the potential impact of “mass tourism” on the
region.
Traditionally, Puglia’s beaches and seaside resorts have meant that tourists pour into those areas by the
hundreds of thousands in July and August, but leave them empty for much of the rest of the year. Now, in addition
to the “sun worshipers,” the region is attracting vast number of worshipers of a different kind. And as the summer
“high season” approaches, our tourist guide contacts in Puglia report that they are already busy hosting groups of
visitors interested in seeing Puglia’s religious, historical and artistic sites.
This is all good news for the region, but its public- and private-sector tourism interests now face the challenge of
accommodating all these visitors. Puglia’s tourism infrastructure has improved greatly over the past few years,
especially its magnificently expanded airport at Bari-Palese, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can
withstand a surge in tourist arrivals without even more investment in the development of visitor facilities.
The condition of the region’s physical infrastructure is even more questionable; for example, tourists consume
large quantities of water and Puglia has been suffering chronic water shortages. Where will new water supplies
come from? And what about wear and tear on Puglia’s cultural sites? The unique qualities of the UNESCO World
Heritage Sites (http://whc.unesco.org) of Alberobello’s trulli homes and the Castel del Monte in Andria have long
been attracting large numbers of visitors, but these precious antiquities need protecting before irreversible
damage is done.
The tourism industry uses the term “carrying capacity” to assess the ability of a destination to host visitors and to
determine at what point the drawbacks of growing numbers of tourist arrivals may begin to outweigh the benefits.
Has anyone yet determined what is Puglia’s “carrying capacity”? Puglia has a rich and diverse culture. Its foods,
wines, history, art and architecture are enjoyed by thousands of visitors every year. It has even gained a
reputation as “the next Tuscany” as foreign investors purchase properties and generate new development.
If you are as concerned about Puglia’s tourism future as we are, we urge you read the editorial and the feature
article in the latest issue of The Economist, and consider how the Puglia of today is already being affected by
current trends in international tourism and what the Puglia of tomorrow may look like. Mass tourism is not
necessarily a bad thing, and Puglia’s economy desperately needs new sources of revenue. Mass tourism
generates huge revenues in taxes and visitor spending on hotels, meals, tours, souvenirs and other goods. Mass
tourism provides jobs (albeit frequently low paying) for many people. But consider what has happened elsewhere.
As the editorial states, “The question planners in these new markets should ask themselves is where they want
tourism to be in 20 years….Mass tourism needs mass development.” Puglia is a wonderful place to visit, and we
hope its wonders will be there for many generations of visitors.
2008-05-18
Padre Pio 'Set to Beat Lourdes' ?
An update from the Italian news service ANSA. More to come on the impact of this situation in a later posting:
Unveiled body will bring in nine times more people, mag says
(ANSA) - Rome, May 7 - Padre Pio's shrine has become a bigger attraction than Lourdes now that the saint's body
has been put on show, according to an Italian business magazine.
The recent unveiling of the Franciscan friar's body will spark a nine-fold surge in the number of visitors to the
southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, Economy reports in its latest edition. The forecast nine million total will
make the town near Foggia the world's second most popular destination for religious tourists behind the Vatican,
Economy said. Lourdes will drop to third spot with its usual annual figure of eight million visitors.
The magazine put the annual turnover of the Padre Pio shrine at some 120 million euros including revenue from
souvenirs, two periodicals and a satellite TV station - plus pilgrims' offerings. Padre Pio, the monk known for
Crucifixion-like marks on his hands, was initially scheduled to remain on show for just a couple of months after
his body was unveiled two weeks ago. But the period was extended due to demands from millions of admirers.
Padre Pio will now remain in his glass-sided coffin until September 2009 to give pilgrims a chance to see and
venerate his remains for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Thousands of people flocked to see the body on April 24 as Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno,
beamed the event live across the country. Almost 100 journalists from the international press covered the
unveiling. Padre Pio's body was exhumed by Capuchin friars in March in surprisingly good condition with the
saint's beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible. The body is now mainly hidden from view under a monk's
habit, shoes and a lifelike silicon mask of the saint's face made by London-based specialist company Gems
Studio. The body will be returned next September to the crypt of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San
Giovanni Rotondo, next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
The saint's massive worldwide following is said to include many famous names, including Sophia Loren, the late
writer Graham Greene, Republic of Ireland football player Damien Duff (who reportedly played with a relic of the
saint in one of his boots) and Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of European Champions AC Milan, who prays to the saint
during matches. A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics pray to the Padre Pio than to
Jesus or Mary.
The saint, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, was born in 1887 and died in 1968. His devotees believe
he bore the wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for at least 50 years. By the time of his
death, he was credited by his fellow friars with having performed more than a thousand miraculous cures and
other miracles - one of them for the future Pope John Paul II. The late pope was the driving force behind his
canonisation, which took place in record time in 2002. This officially made him San Pio, but almost everyone still
uses his former name. Other alleged gifts were the ability to be in two places at the same time and emit the scent
of fresh flowers.
Forgione was shunned by church officialdom for much of his life amid suspicions of fraud and even accusations
of impropriety with female followers. He was only belatedly recognised, largely because of his towering stature
among the faithful. However, even after his death there have been accusations that he was a fraud. A new book
suggested last year that he may have used carbolic acid to create his Christ-like wounds.
Copyright ANSA
2008-05-08
Stone Age Cave Risks Collapse
Disturbing news about a treasure in the Gargano area of Puglia. Article courtesy of the Italian news service ANSA:
Archaeologists appeal for funding for Cro- Magnon settlement
(ANSA) - Rignano Garganico, April 30 - Southern Italy's Paglicci Cave, one of the most important Stone Age sites
in Europe, may soon collapse, archaeologists warned on Wednesday.
The Paleolithic settlement in Puglia's Gargano peninsula is one of the few Italian caves with wall paintings and is
thought to have been continually inhabited by early man between 200,000 and 11,000 years ago.
Archaeologists have so far retrieved 45,000 objects from the cave including Cro-Magnon human skeletons, tools
and animal bones.
President of the Paglicci Study Centre, Vincenzo Pazienza, made an urgent appeal to incoming premier Silvio
Berlusconi and Puglia region president Nichi Vendola for funds to secure the cave after a section of its exterior
wall collapsed on Tuesday.
''It's extremely important to safeguard the cave for research to proceed: if the wall collapses completely it will
obstruct the entrance to the grotto,'' he said.
His plea was backed by Annamaria Ronchitelli of Siena University, who leads a team that has worked in the cave
for the last 40 years.
''If we're going to continue excavations in the cave, the structure needs to be safe and and we need to guarantee
that the archaeologists will be unharmed,'' she said.
The Paglicci Cave is set in a valley between rocky mountains on one side and plains on the other, which experts
believe made it a strategic setting for early man in terms hunting and protection from the elements.
Paintings on the cave walls include horses, stylized figures and a series of 'positive' and 'negative' handprints -
created both by covering the palm with colour and by spraying colour around bare hands placed on the wall.
Images of goats, cows, a serpent, a nest full of eggs and a hunting scene showing a horse and deer surrounded
by arrows carved onto animal bones have also been discovered.
So far archaeologists have found two Cro-Magnon skeletons in the cave: a boy aged around 13 wearing a
headdress, bracelet and anklet made from deer teeth, who died around 24,000 years ago, and a woman aged
between 18 and 20 wearing a diadem of deer teeth and who died some 23,000 years ago.
Copyright ANSA
2008-05-02 12
APRIL 2008
Wine Excursion in Boston
We just returned from a brief trip to Boston that included an excursion in search of Pugliese wines that we cannot
find at home in New York. We found three:
1. Tormaresca NePriCa (2006), named for the three grapes in the blend, which are negroamaro (40%,), primitivo
(30%) and cabernet sauvignon (30%). The label describes the "ruby red wine" as a "harmonious blend with
flavors of dark fruit, chocolate, and hints of licorice with a balanced acidity." ($9.99)
2. Copertino Riserva (2001), named for the small town in Salento where it is created from negroamaro (95%) and
malvasia nera (5%) grapes. The label says the wine "is aged for a minimum of two years prior to release. Robust
and generous dry wine, becomes refined and elegant with ageing." ($12.99)
3. Rocca Bella (2006) negroamaro. The label says the wine "has a deep red violet colour with purple edges. The
palate is sweet fruited and spiced with intense flavours leading to a soft apple finish." ($8.99)
We hope that our next trip to Puglia can include visits to at least some of the wineries whose products we're
enjoying here in the States. As we learn more about these wines and their makers, we'll share that information on
this site. In the meantime, if you have any favorite Pugliese wines, please let us know about them.
2008-04-28
St. Pio Follow-Up Report
A follow-up report from the Italian news service ANSA (see yesterday's blog posting for the original report):
Pilgrims queue for Padre Pio
Popular saint's body will remain on display until 2009
(ANSA) - San Giovanni Rotondo, April 24 - Some 800,000 people have already booked to visit the body of stigmata-
bearing Italian saint Padre Pio, which went on display in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo on Thursday.
Local bishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio said plans to keep the body on show for a few months have been
extended due to the huge demand.
Padre Pio will now remain in his glass-sided coffin until September 2009 to give pilgrims a chance to see and
venerate his remains for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Around 15,000 people turned up in the town to attend a service given by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of
the Vatican's saints department, and to see the the saint's body unveiled.
''What we see is a dead body, no longer animated by the breath of God. But Padre Pio is not simply a corpse: he
lives on in communion with Jesus resurrected,'' Martins said in his homily, describing the monk as ''the saint of
the people''.
Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno, beamed events live across the country, and almost 100
journalists from the international press also attended the service.
Padre Pio's body was exhumed by Capuchin friars in March in ''surprisingly good condition'' with the saint's
beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible.
As he went on show today, the body was mainly hidden from view under a monk's habit, shoes and a lifelike
silicon mask of the saint's face made by London-based specialist company Gems Studio.
The body will be returned next year to the crypt of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo,
next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
Copyright ANSA
2008-04-25
If You're Planning to Visit Gargano...
Yesterday, we reported that we are gathering information that would be of interest to those planning to travel to
the sacred sites of San Giovanni Rotondo and Monte Sant'Angelo in the Gargano area of Puglia, in the Province of
Foggia. Here is very useful information from our colleague, Emanuela D'Andria, a professional tour guide and
member of the Associazione Guide Turistiche della Regione Puglia:
Beautiful and typical places where to stay and where to eat:
1. Villa Scapone, along the wonderful Gargano coast (Mattinata-Vieste) - tel. 0884.55.92.84 - www.villascapone.it
2. Ristorante "Il Grottino", Corso V. Emanuele, 179 - Monte Sant'Angelo - tel. 0884.56.11.32
3. Ristorante "Osteria degli Archi", Via Ripe, 2 - Vieste - tel. 0884.70.51.99
2008-04-25
Body of Saint Pio To Be Displayed
Report from ANSA, the Italian news service:
San Giovanni Rotondo, April 23 (ANSA) - All Italy will be watching the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo on
Thursday when the body of stigmata-bearing Italian saint Padre Pio goes on show to the public.
Italian state broadcaster RAI's first channel, RAI Uno, will show events live across the country as the saint's body
is displayed for pilgrims to see and venerate for the first time since he died 40 years ago.
Coaches of the faithful are already arriving in the small hill-top town in anticipation of tomorrow's service, which
will be attended by an estimated 50,000 people.
The saint's massive worldwide following is said to include many famous names, including Sophia Loren, the late
writer Graham Greene, Republic of Ireland football player Damien Duff (who reportedly played with a relic of the
saint in one of his boots) and Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of European Champions AC Milan.
''For me the saint is the man who came closest to God. He helps me with my job but above all in the challenges of
daily life,'' Ancelotti said on Wednesday, admitting that he prays to Padre Pio from the bench.
Final preparations are under way on the body, which was exhumed in March in ''surprisingly good condition'' with
the saint's beard, nails, knees and hands clearly visible.
The Capuchin friars in charge of the public display are still deciding whether Padre Pio's face will be covered by
a wax mask sent from Madame Tussauds Museum in London.
Among the crowd at tomorrow's service will be the two people who were reportedly cured by Padre Pio's
heavenly intercession, sealing the mystic monk's fast-track to sainthood.
Consilia De Martino claims to have been cured of a lymphatic duct injury at the age of 45 after she prayed to
Padre Pio and felt invisible hands ''stitching'' inside her body.
Doctor's son Matteo Pio Colella, now 13, was allegedly cured of multiple organ failure brought on by acute
meningitis when he was seven after his mother prayed incessantly to the saint.
Matteo woke from a coma saying ''a priest'' had held his hand throughout his ordeal.
Padre Pio's body will be on display for several months before it is returned to the tomb in the crypt of the Santa
Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo, next to the friary where Padre Pio lived for most of his life.
The saint's huge popularity - even among young people - can be seen with a video on interactive Internet site
YouTube, where a clip of Padre Pio giving his final Mass in September 1968 has been viewed by almost 45,000
people in the last year.
The video, which is in Latin, has also been given four out of five stars by viewers, who have left comments
thanking Padre Pio for support received during periods of illness or hardship.
A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics pray to the saint than to Jesus or Mary.
The saint, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, was born in 1887 and died in 1968. His devotees believe
he bore the wounds of the crucified Christ on his hands, feet and side for at least 50 years.
By the time of his death, he was credited by his fellow friars with having performed more than a thousand
miraculous cures and other miracles - one of them for the future Pope John Paul II.
The late pope was the driving force behind his canonisation, which took place in record time in 2002.
This officially made him San Pio, but almost everyone still uses his former name.
Other alleged gifts were the ability to be in two places at the same time and emit the scent of fresh flowers.
Forgione was shunned by church officialdom for much of his life and only belatedly recognised because of his
towering stature among the faithful.
However, even after his death there have been accusations that he was a fraud.
A new book suggested last year that he may have used carbolic acid to create his Christ-like wounds.
He has huge followings across the world, particularly in Australia and Ireland, and his shrine near Foggia draws
close to one million pilgrims a year, generating millions of euros for the local economy.
Copyright ANSA
2008-04-24
Gathering Information for Travelers
We are in the process of gathering information that we believe will be useful for travelers to Puglia, with
emphasis on historical and cultural sites. Please watch our blog for updates about places to see, where to stay
and how to go from place to place. We have been asked in particular for more information about visiting religious
sites, especially San Giovanni Rotondo and Monte Sant'Angelo. We posted brief overviews of both locations in
previous blogs and we will work to compile more information that can help travelers visit these significant sites.
If you are looking for particular information, please post a comment on this blog or send us an e-mail and we will
do our best to answer your questions. Thank you and buon viaggio.
2008-04-24
Hotel-Car Rental Package in Puglia
With the strong euro taking away much of the purchasing power of American travelers, we try to watch for good
values in trips to Puglia. We found what looks like a good land-only package, meaning airfare is not included,
from the tour operator TourCrafters.
The package, Apulia Discovery and Relax, includes eight nights at the four-star Corte Altavilla hotel in
Conversano, daily breakfast, eight-day car rental, and daily hotel service charges and taxes, priced from $549 per
person, double occupancy. It is available through Dec. 31, 2008.
Conversano is centrally located in the Province of Bari and easily accessible by car to sites throughout Puglia. It
features a variety of accommodations from double rooms to suites for four people.
For information about this package, see the company website at http://www.tourcrafters.com/sales/apulia_549.
htm.
2008-04-06
Wine Tasting & Tourism, Puglia Style
We are always pleased when we see Puglia receive positive coverage in U.S. news media. While once barely
known to most Americans, Puglia in the past few years has been getting noticed in mainstream media and
earning a reputation for its excellence as a tourism destination. This time, we would like to talk about how
Pugliese wines are doing their part.
We were introduced to the wines of Puglia during a visit in 2000; as we recall, our first samples were all
primitivos (reputedly related to zinfandels). We liked the way these wines tasted and when we returned home we
started looking for, and asking for, Pugliese wines in wine shops and restaurants. At first, we could find only a
few bottles, mostly Salice Salentinos from the Province of Lecce, usually priced around $10 per bottle. Since
then, we have been finding more and bottles of wines made from primitivo grapes as well as Puglia-grown
varieties such as negroamaro and malvasia nera.
On a recent visit to San Diego, California, we were pleasantly surprised to find, at a casual pizza grill, a new (to
us, at least) selection of wines from the Tormaresca vineyards (http://www.tormaresca.it). We sampled a 2005
negroamaro-cabernet and a 2005 chardonnay that we enjoyed very much. According to their website, Tormaresca
is operated by the Antinori family at two estates: one, Bocca di Lupo, is near Castel del Monte (Bari) and the other,
Masseria Maime, is near San Pietro Vernotico (Brindisi).
Which brings us to the latest good news out of Puglia. The wine column by Robert Parker in the latest issue of
Business Week (April 7, 2008, www.businessweek.com) features a selection of excellent but inexpensive wines
from Puglia: Botromagno 2005 primitivo, Castello Monaci 2006 primitivo piluna, Tormaresca 2004 primitivo
torcicoda and Agricole Vallone 2003 Salice Salentino Vereto (the latter is the most expensive at $21 a bottle).
Helping to ignite interest in Pugliese wines is an organization devoted to blending tourism and a fondness for
good wines, Il Movimento Turismo del Vino (www.mtvpuglia.it), whose Puglia headquarters is in Bari. Its regional
president, Vittoria Cisonno, has done much to spotlight the quality of Pugliese wines and promote the region as a
destination for those who enjoy learning about wine-making at small, mostly family-owned vineyards and
wineries.
More to come on this topic in a future posting, but we want to call your attention to the Business Week article
while it is still current. As always, we welcome your comments, suggestions and questions.
2008-04-03
FEBRUARY 2008
Direct Flights from NYC to Bari
The Italian airline Eurofly has announced plans to begin weekly direct service between New York City and Bari,
via Bologna, beginning May 15 and continuing through September 12. The move was prompted by requests from
Puglia's tourism and airport officials based on expectations of developing more tourism traffic to the region out of
an important U.S. cultural and heritage market. Flights from New York City (out of JFK Airport) are scheduled to
depart each Thursday at 8:50 P.M. with return service each Friday at 2:20 P.M. The agreement reportedly
stipulates that Eurofly's "punctuality, regularity and quality of the service" will be monitored closely. Public- and
private-sector tourism interests in Puglia have been invited to develop marketing and promotions tied to the new
air service.
2008-02-27
JANUARY 2008
Yeah, They're Touristy, But...
We just read an interesting book, “Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer,” by Chuck
Thompson (2007, www.henryholt.com, $15). It’s billed as “a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect
locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel.” The
author is critical, for good reason, of writers of travel articles and tourist brochures who, for whatever reason,
fail to tell potential visitors the whole truth about destinations. Along with most people who have done any
traveling, we’ve fallen victim to exaggerations in travel brochures, guidebooks and tourist office press releases.
That’s one reason why we’re here. Our goal is to first, get you interested in traveling to Puglia and, second, to
make your visit as enjoyable and hassle-free as we can. We’ve been there numerous times, have seen most of it,
and have no reason not to tell the truth. If we make mistakes (for example, maybe a restaurant we really liked isn’
t open anymore, or has changed owners and now the food is horrible), we’ll do our best to correct them. Just let
us know.
With that said, we genuinely like Puglia, but not everything there is perfect – in fact, we conducted research a few
years ago at the request of several tourism offices to assess the region as a destination for Americans,
particularly those interested in history and cultural preservation. We were asked to travel throughout the region
and compile a list of what we liked and what we didn’t. What we liked most was the variety of things to see and
do; what we didn’t like was garbage and a tourism infrastructure radically in need of improvement. Since then,
we’ve seen some major improvements, most notably the Bari airport. Signage is better, but is it still easy to get
lost or confused, especially when driving (we took a wrong turn off the “superstrada” and wound up in bumper-to-
bumper rush-hour traffic in an industrial section of Bari, not one of the highlights of our trip. Only by following the
setting sun – no kidding – were we able to find our way back to the highway.). Do your research before you go and
you can avoid unpleasant surprises.
Many Americans, particularly those whose families live in the region, have visited Puglia over and over again.
Many others, however, have not yet had that opportunity, but are planning to visit “someday.” Our first visit to
Puglia took place in 1985, and we knew nothing of the region when we arrived. Our family members in Bari
became our informal tour guides, and they were happy to introduce their American cousins to Puglia’s heritage
and history – and food. Now, every time we travel around Puglia, we revisit our favorite sites and find new
places to go.
Here are three places close to the city of Bari that we think first-time visitors will want to visit. Warning: They can
be crowded and “tourist-y” at peak times, but we think you need to see them at least once. They’re easy to find on
a map and relatively easy to get to, and maybe once you see them, they’ll whet your appetite to see what else
Puglia has to offer. Please let us know what you think, especially if you can share tips about visiting these places:
Alberobello – This village near Bari is home to the iconic “trulli” houses you’ll see in travel brochures and picture
books of Italy (and at the top of this posting). Perhaps the most “tourist-y” place in Puglia, especially because it’s
been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Alberobello can get very crowded and you will find schlocky
souvenir shops, but you have to see it at least once. Get off the main street and poke around in some of the family
food shops, look for the little restaurants in trulli houses, buy a coffee or a gelato, and find someone who speaks
a little English (better yet, try speaking some Italian out of a phrase book).
Castel del Monte – The mysterious “Castle on the Mountain” in Andria, built by Frederick II in 13th century, is
another UNESCO World Heritage Site, so it attracts a lot of attention from visitors to the region. (If you have a
pocket full of euro coins, look closely at the one-cent coin – Castel del Monte is depicted on some of them.) When
we first visited in 1985, we could drive right up to the castle and walk around inside on our own. Now, visits are
controlled to protect the site and raise money for its preservation. The entire structure is built on an octagonal
format – the eight-sided castle features eight towers, each with eight sides. Is it a fortress? A hunting lodge? A
shrine? A temple? What is the significance of its use of the octagon in its design and construction? No one knows
for certain, but your guide will present the various theories proposed over the centuries and let you to decide for
yourself.
Castellana Grotte – This town is famous for the Grotte di Castellana, the extensive complex of caves that were
first explored in detail in 1938. We were very privileged to be given a private after-hours tour and were surprised
by the vastness of the network of caves and the quality and quantity of the stalactites and stalagmites. There are
several large open areas such as the White Grotto and the Black Grotto, all connected by narrow passageways.
The caves also contain some unusual formations – we remember a Madonna and what looks like an alley of
apartments buildings with clothes drying across it. The site is open all year, and a tour takes about two hours.
Notes: The caves are popular with tour groups and for school field trips, so watch the calendar, and they may not
be for the claustrophobic.
If you’ve been to Puglia, we’d enjoy finding out where you went, what you saw, what you liked and what you didn’
t like. If you haven’t visited the region, let us know what interests you and we can post information to help you.
Please contact us by adding a comment below or going through our email, info_pugliaconnection@yahoo.com.
2008-01-30
2007
NOVEMBER 2007
Climate Change & Puglia's Tourism Future
Tourism is big business in Puglia, and summer is the region’s “hot” tourist season in more ways than one. It’s
when travelers from within and outside Italy pour onto the region’s Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches – and it’s
when temperatures soar. We’ve visited Puglia in July and August, the first time in 1985, and can say from
experience that the afternoon heat there can be unbearable.
New research about climate change is raising serious questions about Puglia’s tourism future. The New York
Times, reporting on a United Nations conference on climate change and tourism in that took place in Davos,
Switzerland, last month, quoted Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism
Organization, as warning: “The entire tourism product will be affected (because) …Every destination has a
climate-related component.” The conference’s final report stated: “The tourism industry must adapt rapidly.”
Puglia could be particularly impacted by climate changes that involve higher temperatures, wildland fire dangers,
severe droughts, drains on power supplies and other factors that would prove costly to the region. An article in
the journal Climatic Change suggests that hotter temperatures could lead some visitors to avoid warm-weather
destinations, such as Puglia, in July and August and instead plan their beach vacations in June and September.
(“The Impact of Climate on Holiday Destination Choice” by Andrea Bigano, Jacqueline M. Hamilton, Richard S.J.
Tol. Climatic Change. Dordrecht: June 2006. Volume 76, Issue 3-4. Pages 389-406.) On Nov. 17, the newspaper La
Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported on speculation about risks of drought and health emergencies in southern
Mediterranean regions stemming from global warming and the potential harmful impact on summer tourism.
To address this issue, we propose a proactive “dispersal strategy” for Puglia’s tourism authorities, based on
seasonal as well as geographical factors. Seasonal dispersal means finding ways to attract visitors during the
“shoulder seasons” of spring and fall, when Puglia’s weather is temperate and visitors are fewer. Geographical
dispersal would involve promoting tourism to areas away from the beaches. Certainly, Puglia has much to offer
for visitors interested in history, archaeology, architecture food and wine, and other varied areas of interest. We
intend to examine these individually in future postings.
Some contend that the dire warnings about global warming and its potential to devastate tourism industries are
exaggerated. We don’t pretend to be experts. But our research experiences during visits to Puglia in various
seasons lead us to believe that Puglia can only benefit by expanding its tourism market seasonally and
geographically, regardless of climate-related factors. We’ll continue our discussion of tourism dispersal by
presenting alternatives to sea-and-sun vacations, and we’d be very interested in hearing from tourism officials
and private-industry tourism professionals about their thoughts on this important topic.
2007-11-26
In the Path of St. Michael the Archangel
At Puglia Connection, we are particularly interested in visiting sacred sites and shrines throughout the Region of
Puglia. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina’s shrine in San Giovanni Rotunda, near the city of Foggia, is world famous and is
said to attract millions of pilgrims each year. There are, however, other places of religious significance
throughout Puglia with which you may not be familiar. Periodically, we will introduce you to them and describe
our visits, plus offer travel tips to those interested in touring these holy places.
About a 30-minute drive from San Giovanni Rotunda, on the Gargano Promontory, is the town of Monte Sant’
Angelo, reported to be the site of at least four visits by St. Michael the Archangel, the first in 490 and the most
recent in 1656, when it is said the saint protected villagers from the plague.
In the introduction to his 1997 book “Saint Michael Shrine on the Gargano,” Father Jan Bogacki writes:
“In Apulia, on Monte Gargano, the town of Monte Sant’Angelo contains the most famous shrine of the Latin West
dedicated to the Archangel Saint Michael. Placed on top of the mountain, this singular Basilica made up of a
complex of constructions around the grotto from various eras gives evidence of a good fifteen centuries of
history. From remote times this is a place of pardon and prayer, famous in the entire Christian world. An
anonymous writer, who lived more than a thousand years ago, describes it thus: ‘The shrine of Saint Michael is
known and extolled everywhere not for the splendor of its marble, but for the prodigious events that took place
here; of modest form, it is nevertheless rich in celestial virtue because the Archangel Michael himself deigned to
set up and consecrate it, who being mindful of human frailty, came down from heaven so that men could
participate in things divine in that temple.’ ”
The site has recorded visits by a number of pilgrims who later were canonized; among them, Saint Francis of
Assisi. Seven popes are known to have made the pilgrimage to Monte Sant’Angelo, including Pope John Paul II
in 1987.
We visited Monte Sant’Angelo on a Saturday in early summer, after inspecting visitor facilities in Vieste, a resort
area on the tip of Gargano. We toured the shrine as well as “Il Castello” (The Castle) built by the Normans in the
11th century. Federico II used it as a royal palace; later the Angevins converted it into a prison, where most
notably Queen Joan I was held in captivity and then executed (one cell inside the castle has been restored to
show the way it looked at the time, complete with a model of the prisoner in chains). From the top of the mountain
one can see miles and miles of countryside.
The easiest way to reach Monte Sant’Angelo is by bus from Foggia, about a 45-minute trip. The bus terminal is
across the piazza from the city’s main railroad station. Buy your bus ticket from the newsstand inside the station.
You can also drive there, but the winding mountain roads can be tricky if you’re not accustomed to them. Parking
is overseen by gentlemen in white caps who accept tips for their service.
A side note: We were privileged yesterday to meet Padre GianMaria Digiorgio, a friar from the Sanctuary of Saint
Pio in San Giovanni Rotundo, who has brought relics of the saint to various churches in the New York-New
Jersey area for veneration during the month of November. The relics include a lock of Saint Pio’s hair and a blood-
stained bandage he used to dry blood from his Stigmata. Many people in the area have a devotion to Saint Pio,
particularly those of Pugliese heritage, so this was a very special occasion.
2007-11-05
OCTOBER 2007
New Airline Service to Puglia
If you haven’t visited the Region of Puglia within the past few years, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the
newly expanded international airport at Bari-Palese. It was designed to accommodate intercontinental flights, so
that non-stop airline service between the United States and Puglia could be established if and when demand
warrants. The airport is very welcoming to international travelers, and features signage in English, perhaps a
result of the influx of travelers to the region from the U.K. within the past decade.
The airport expansion also has sparked in an increase in intra-Europe air service serving Puglia. A number of
low-cost carriers offer frequent service to Bari from many cities throughout Europe, particularly in summer,
fueling increased demand for beach and resort accommodations.
The latest expansion in service offers new Air Italy flights between the northern Italian city of Verona and Bari,
commencing tomorrow, Oct. 29, according to a report in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, the daily newspaper
serving the regions of Puglia and next-door Basilicata. La Gazzetta reports that the new Monday-through-Friday
service consists of a 7:10 A.M. departure from Verona arriving in Bari at 8:40 with the return flight leaving Bari at
3:15 P.M. and arriving in Verona at 4:45. Airfare is 65 euros, including taxes and supplemental fees. The
inaugural flights follow by a few days the introduction of Milan-Brindisi and Verona-Brindisi service.
Although the new flights would appear to be at first intended for business travelers, they have the potential to
draw leisure travelers looking for a quick access to Puglia, especially international travelers visiting the north
who have an interest in extending a trip with a brief tour of Puglia. The newspaper also reports that expanded
service planned to begin Dec. 20 will provide vacationers from the south with access to northern Italian winter
sports venues, part of the airline’s strategy of improving air service between the northwestern and southern
regions of Italy.
2007-10-28
Welcome to the Puglia Connection Blog
Welcome to the Puglia Connection blog. We're hoping that this blog can be a starting point for creating a network
of travelers interested in learning more about the Italian region of Puglia (also called Apulia) as a tourism
destination, particularly because of its diverse cultural offerings. We also hope to generate interest in the region
among Americans of Pugliese heritage and we look forward to learning and sharing stories about your families.
We're Jeff and Randa Barrington, and we've been promoting tourism to Puglia - mainly by word of mouth - since
we started this project in 2000. That's when we visited Puglia for the second time and saw enormous potential
for using very carefully managed international tourism as a way to help preserve Puglia's precious antiquities
and diverse heritage (we've been back nearly every year since to explore the region and compile information for
travelers). If you're not familiar with Puglia, it is the region that comprises the heel of the Italian boot along the
coasts of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The region's principal cities are Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, Lecce and Taranto.
While Puglia's excellent beaches have been popular with Italians and other Europeans for many years, only
recently has there been significant awareness of Puglia's history, culture, heritage, food and wine. We've
explored most of Puglia by car and train; and we have many ideas to share about places to see, stay, eat and
shop; and we can offer practical advice and tips about planning your Puglia vacation.
A little about us: Randa's grandparents are all from Puglia, within the province of Bari - her maternal grandparents
from Palo del Colle and her paternal grandparents from Bitonto. Randa and Jeff have both studied Puglia's culture
and history extensively, and Jeff earned a master's degree in tourism development from New York University,
where his research centered on developing Puglia as a sustainable tourism destination. We formalized this
project in 2005 under the name Puglia Connection and are working to develop the website www.
pugliaconnection.com as a resource for travelers. We've explored Puglia from top to bottom, from Vieste on the
edge of the Gargano Peninsula to Marina de Leuca at the tip of Salento. We've booked trains, rented cars,
discovered numerous restaurants, hotels and sites worth visiting, worked with local guides to gather information
about the most interesting places to see in Puglia, and we're happy to share that information with anybody who is
interested in learning more about this fascinating region.
We hope that this blog will encourage you to learn more about Puglia as a tourism destination. Please send us
your comments, questions and ideas.
2007-10-20
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