Puglia Cycling – Monopoli

We are starting a week’s cycling holiday in Puglia, the heel of Italy.

Today we arrived in Monopoli a sleepy fishing town on the Adriatic coast. The weather is pleasant and overcast but not enough spots from the rain to stop us dining al fresco on octopus and squid.

The old walled town has a fishing harbour and a maze of streets designed only for feet, bicycles and the trusty Fiat cinquecento.

Around virtually every corner is a glorious baroque church, some with domes, some with towers. The cathedral itself was apparently built from the beams of the miraculous raft that came across the sea carrying the Madonna in 1117. Inside we saw the restored paintings showing the arrival of the icon on the raft, the procession of the beams, and building the roof with them:

Obviously getting a shipment of wood was a big deal here. They even have a piece of one of them on show:

The crumbling Norman church with its miraculous roof beams was completely rebuilt in 1772 thanks to Bishop Sacchi. We like the big ammonites on either side on the front.

Inside it is a magnificent monument to marble!

There was a typical Italian thunderstorm and downpour followed by a rainbow over the Adriatic,

We found another church which was altogether more macabre with mummies of priests from the  1700s!

We wandered around the now sluiced stone streets admiring the pretty views and Charles V’s castle on the front.

Our cycling adventure starts tomorrow and it’s cherry season !