A Better Day Today

Today started out late. Slept in until almost 10AM. Met Tom downstairs and, armed with a map and the GPSr we headed out to see what we could see in Parco Nazionale del Gargano, which is located on that little spur that sticks out on the back of the boot. The weather wasn't as good as it was on Saturday, but the rain held itself to light sprinkles off and on during the afternoon. First stop was at a town called Manfredonia where we toured an old fortress. Wish I could read more Italian, because there were some interesting headstones(?) on display in the main gallery. Most showed a pair of hands on the front and other scenes on the back. Many had a little head or decoration on the top. Another exhibit was depicting the women of the time. There was lots of jewelry and pottery. The clothing did not look like what I expected it to. Don't know what I expected, but what was on display wasn't it. Some of the pottery and sculptures looked more Mayan that what I would expect to find in Italy. Enjoyed a walk around town, but was woefully under-dressed in my blue jeans, hiking boots and Red Dirt shirt, for walking around an Italian town on a Sunday afternoon after church. Going to have to remember that everyone dresses up to showoff on Sundays. Back on the road and the scenery began to change from butt-ugly to spectacular. The road went from sea level to just over 2000 feet, in places, and back down to sea level again, several times. We had to take the windy 3.5 mile, up over the mountain, high road as the 1.4 mile tunnel was closed for some reason. The peninsula has lots of olive orchards/groves(?). You can see little stands out in front of some of the farms selling their own olio extra vergine d'oliva. The way the trees are grown is something to see. The trees are planted about 20 feet apart, which doesn't seem unusual, but with these being grown on the sides of mountains makes it makes the spacing more difficult. Each row of olive trees has its own stoned terrace that separates it from the rows above/below. I know that olive trees are extremely long lived, which may explain why all of the terraces are stacked dry stone walls. Must have taken hundreds of years to build them. When the road got back down the sea, we started to see lots of campgrounds and bungalows. Plan on doing some of that this summer. There are also some beautiful hotels/resorts right down on the water in some secluded coves with nice looking beaches. May have to do some of that this summer too. It had been raining a bit harder and had noticed that the roads were a bit slick, so I was driving a bit slower -- car still has 3-1/2 good sides & I wanted to keep it that way. We came to a line of cars and had to wait for about 5-minutes before we started around the live of campers (caravans to Brits) and buses. When we made it around everyone, we found two cars both with the left front fenders totally destroyed. Looks like one or both were a bit to the left of center and kind of had a semi-head on. The two cars were setting 90 degrees to the direction of travel, blocking everything but a narrow path on the shoulder that cars could sneak past. As we proceeded on around the peninsula, we started to see more limestone rocks. I know that the whole area is limestone, but before it was more of a loose strata where as out on the east end, it became more compact and whiter. We stopped to look at this square building overlooking the sea and saw a rock that had been worn away by the sea to form a natural bridge jutting out into the water. Just after we left here, we saw a car that had spun out and smacked the wall with the right front end, then a car that had slid off the shoulder, next a car getting pulled up onto a tow truck and another car that had missed a turn and ran almost head on into that limestone I was describing earlier. Didn't look like anyone was hurt, but it was a tough 5 miles on cars. Found some really nice beaches, about 3 miles of nice beaches. The beaches extend right up to these extremely white, limestone cliffs that the town of Vieste sits atop of. Looked like the type of town that is going to be packed during the summer with all of the tourists. Lots of hotels, campgrounds, bars and pizzerias. Another place to visit this summer. The road up the north side of the peninsula had some scenery reminiscent of the Oregon coast in the high cliffs and narrow beaches. Only differences were the towns perched on the tops of the cliffs. The land flattened out as we headed back inland towards Foggia. Still lots of olive trees, but more wheat and vineyards, but then what more do you need. Bread, oil and wine? Gotta love it. *See related photos in photo album.*