Gargano

• GARGANO (within 180 km)A stretch of coast shaped by Mount Gargano that dominates the Adriatic and makes this corner of Puglia unique in the world. Also known as the spur of Italy, the Gargano offers breathtaking views, enchanting beaches and bays, pure nature, forests, pine forests and original villages.

  Foggia (100 km away)

  Church of Sant’Agostino

  from which you enter Underground Foggia: Urban hypogea

  St. John of God

  Belvedere Palace

  Church of San Tommaso, Santa Chiara and dell’Addolorata

  Municipal Villa

  Umberto Giorndano Theater (neoclassical)

  Passo del Corvo, a few km from Foggia, a Neolithic settlement dating back to 6,000 years ago

  Itinerary Between Ancient Forests and Places of Faith: San Marco in Lamis – San Giovanni Rotondo – Monte Sant’Angelo – Foresta Umbra – Siponto (tour of about 45 km)

  San marco in Lamis

  Along the “Via Sacra Langobardorum”, forerunner of the Via Francigena, the two Franciscan monasteries of San Matteo and Santa Maria di Stignano are located close to the town.

  Paleontological Museum and Dinosaur Park

San Giovanni Rotondo

The city of San Giovanni Rotondo was founded in 1095 on the ruins of a pre-existing village of the fourth century BC; visible signs of this village remain, such as some tombs and a circular baptistery (the epithet “Rotondo” derives from this) which, according to tradition, was formerly intended for the cult of the god Janus, two-faced god, and was later consecrated in San Giovanni Battista.

From a medieval farmhouse it has become a center of world ecumenical pilgrimage, since a Capuchin fairy who arrived from Petralcina worked in an extraordinary way for 52 years, until he was proclaimed a saint in 2002.

Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (new shell-shaped church designed by Renzo Piano with stone arches and polychrome stained glass windows, altar and cross by Arnaldo Pomodoro).

Monte Sant’Angelo

Basilica of San Michele and Grotto of the same name

Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano

Ancient hermitages carved into the rock

Umbra Forest

Ancient heart of the Gargano National Park, consisting of a millenary forest (11,000 ha and 15 equipped paths) of very tall beech trees and various botanical species, including most varieties of spontaneous orchids

Siponto

Leg of the Via Sacra

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and crypt

Abbey of San Leonardo, home of the Teutonic knights

Coast to Coast itinerary between stacks and Trabucchi: Manfredonia – Mattinata – Vieste – Peschici – San Menaio – Vico del Gargano – Rodi Garganico – Varano and Lesina lakes – Sannicandro Garganico (130 km tour)

Manfredonia

Swabian Angevin Aragonese Castle

On Mount Saraceno, a protohistoric necropolis with 500 tomes carved into the rock

Morning

Vignanotica Bay – Bay of Campi and Bay of Manacore

Vieste

Arco di San Felice, a particular phenomenon of marine erosion

Federico II Castle

Cathedral

Old town and Malacological Museum (shell museum)

Pizzomunno beach

By sea, the visit to the caves resulting from karst phenomena, but also the corrosive action of sea water and wind has made an important contribution (the broken cave, the two Eyes, the Rotonda cave, the Pipistrelli, the Serpente, the Viola and the Smeralda).

Peschici

Between Vieste and Peschici, the trabucchi are a typical presence of the coast of Peschici, which has seven of them. The only trabbuchists still alive and capable of building a trebuchet reside in Peschici and belong to the Ottaviano and Fasanella families. The trebuchets have a very complex architecture, made of wooden poles that are intertwined with wires and pulleys: they are a very effective tool, especially on the Gargano coast, for catching passing fish. Their method is simple and consists in immersing in the sea a large sack net supported by several antennas; on these a lookout is positioned which from above is able to see the arrival of the school of fish and at its signal the people present on the trebuchet begin to turn a wheel that through a dense and complex network of wires and pulleys raises the bag of the net from the sea and imprison the school of fish. This fishing has been practiced for a long time and takes advantage of the migrations of the schools of fish from the north to the south of the Adriatic. Today several trabucchi have become characteristic restaurants where you can taste freshly caught fish.

San Menaio

Four magnificent beaches and the imposing forest of Aleppo pines

Vico del Gargano

Between Rodi, Ischitella and Vico: terraced gardens planted with citrus groves (Orange Blonde and Lemon Feminello PGI); in May, the flowering period, it is possible to perceive the intense scent of orange blossom (orange blossom) from all over the coast

Castle and walls

Palazzo della Bella

Rhodes Gargano

The Vuccolo, the etymology of the name derives from the Lombard verb “vucculare” which means “to shout”, “to call”. It owes its name to the typical (until recently) custom of the commoners to call (vucculare) their husbands from the terraces intent on working the nets at “Mer’i varc” (“sea of ​​boats”).

Chépe abbasce (Upside down) District It is characterized by narrow alleys with intricate paths, steep stairways, arches, hidden squares and panoramic terraces. [48] The narrow alleys and the layout of the houses responded to the dual need to shelter from the strong winter winds, but also to be able to see the sea. The neighborhood, in fact, was mainly inhabited by fishermen.

Small stacks enrich the stretch of coast on which the town stands. The largest and best known is the one called “del Cane” (or “del Leone”) because of its particular shape that reminds, in fact, a dog or a lion that watches over the town from the dangers of the sea

Varano and Lesina lakes

Ornithological paradises, coastal lakes that the sandy dunes separate from the sea

Ethnographic museum house of the fisherman in Lesina

Sannicandro Garganico

Dolina Pozzatina, a karst amphitheater that sinks for over 100 m

Pian della Macina cave, with a “forest” of stalactites and stalagmites

Mother Church of Santa Maria del Borgo

Multicolored Seabed Itinerary: Le Tremiti – Protected Marine Reserve

The Trèmiti or Diomedèe islands are an archipelago of the Adriatic Sea, 22 km north of the Gargano promontory and 45 km east of Termoli (Molise coast).

St. Nicholas

Towers, walls and cloisters have centuries of history and legends to tell: the death of diomedes, the exile of Giulia, grandson of Emperor Augustus, the Cistercians in the 13th century, the penal colony under the Bourbons, the confinement of the anti-fascists.

Church of Santa Maria a Mare

Medieval and Renaissance cloister

Steep panoramic path to reach the Greek tombs

San Domino

Strolling in the shade of the Aleppo pines you will come across various suggestive bays (of Sale- delle Roselle – delle Viole) up to the Hermit Chapel

Cala del Diamante and the Pagliai (white pyramidal monoliths)

Diving in Punta di Ponente: wreck of a Roman ship and, at night, in Grotta delle Rondinele

Capraia

Uninhabited island, with deserted coves and caper plants

Cala Pietre di Fucile – Cala dei Turchi

Golosa Daunia itinerary: San Severo – Lucera – Troia – Bovino – Ascoli Satriano (tour of about 90 km)

San Severo

Historic center and walls with 7 access gates

Cathedral – sanctuary of Maria SS del Soccorso – San Nicola – San Severino

Palazzo dei Celestini

Lucera

Roman amphitheater

Federico II Castle

Walls – Swabian Angevin fortress – Torre della Leonessa

Sanctuary of San Francesco Antonio Fasani – Cathedral of the Assumption

Fiorelli Civic Museum, with a collection of Greco-Roman and medieval coins

Roman Augustan amphitheater

Troy

Cathedral of Santa Maria dell’Assunta with its eleven-segmented rose window

Cathedral Treasury Museum (4 sections: silverware, gilded bronzes, ivories, volumes and parchments, liturgical vestments and exultet – 11th century miniatures)

Easter rites:

Procession of the Kiss on Easter Sunday (in the square in front of the Cathedral Basilica, where the meeting of the statues of the Risen Christ and the Madonna takes place which culminates with the suggestive scene of the Kiss, which is in fact a reverential bow of Jesus to his Mother. The two statues start from opposite points of the historic center of Troia, the Madonna is carried by the arm from the church of San Domenico while, on the opposite side, the statue of the Risen Christ leaves from the church of San Francesco, both decorated for the occasion. two statues are approached and then portrayed twice: the third time, the statue of the Risen Christ is made to bow for the Kiss to the feet of the Madonna)

Penitential procession of the Chains. Hooded figures, with chains tied to their bare feet, walk the streets of the medieval center with a heavy cross on their shoulders. The group of the so-called “Chains” visits all the oldest churches praying in each of them. The members have handed down this task from father to son since 1701 (Good Friday morning).

Bovine

Ducal Castle

800 stone portals of noble palaces

Historical cavalcade in costume in honor of Maria SS di Valleverde (29 August)

Cantine Cerrato (ancient Roman cisterns, connected with the water supply of the city, perhaps settling basins at the arrival of the aqueduct)

Ascoli Satriano

Remains of a Roman villa in the locality of Faragola

Archaeological park of the Dauni with sanctuary of the sixth century BC