On the Italian Road Again.

9-15-12 POLIGNANO A MARE, ITALIA: We did the usual over-night, red-eyed horror from EWR to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport [FCO], got off the bus just after the COD at FCO, staggered through Immigration, customs, the Avis office and to the car lot for our rental Fiat. We hooked up the Garmin and set out on the Autostrada for our 300 mile drive to the southern Adriatic coast and to our hotel, Covo dei Saraceni, in Polignano a Mare. We left FCO during morning rush, but had only moderate traffic, and made good time whizzing along in the slow lane at the speed limit of a zippy 135 km/hr. [that’s 81 mph for metriphobes] Other driver flew by us.

We drove south on the road to Naples, but turned off to cross the mountains in the center of the peninsula, getting up to 2000 ft and going through a bunch of tunnels. There are lots of wind turbines on the mountain ridges. The eastern coast is lower, flatter and the roads run near the Adriatic Sea.

We found the hotel with minimal delay and were checked in by early afternoon and set out for pizza. The old town is limestone from the ground up, including the old walls, and the ground itself. It’s filled with outdoor and seaside restaurants. The climate seems milder on this coast with eucalyptus, figs, bougainvillea, oleander, prickly-pear cactus and palm trees. Most everything shuts down for the late afternoon and opens up for the evening. At 8 PM, we were the first ones in the restaurant for dinner.


Domenico Modugno, native of Polignano a Mare, had a big hit with 'Volare' in the fifties and which still plays on the streets here. He was later a member of Parliament.

Our hotel, Covo dei Saraceni, is dressed in white on top of the limestone promontory to the left of the cove for which it's named. The cove was probably carved through the limestone by a river.

The old walled city with limestone streets, buildings, stairs, arches.

Central piazza in the old town, pretty during the day....

And jumpin' at night.