Vieste: old lanes and fishing structures

Why go

Vieste is the easternmost town on the Gargano promontory and lies inside the national park, halfway between Peschici and the coast of Mattinata. Its old centre sits on a rocky spur above the sea: narrow lanes, tightly packed houses, the castle and the cathedral, and finally piazzetta Petrone, which opens like a balcony over the coast. A single walk is enough to see how the town grew in close contact with the water that surrounds it on several sides.

Beyond the walls, the variety of the landscape is the strongest reason to come. The coast alternates long beaches with high cliffs and sea caves, while on the beach below the castle rises Pizzomunno, a limestone monolith about twenty-six metres tall that has become the emblem of the town. Along the rocks the trabucchi still stand, large wooden fishing machines that the municipality presents as part of its own history.

Vieste works well as a base for the eastern Gargano: from here you can reach the Foresta Umbra, the bays towards Mattinata and, in the warmer months, the Tremiti Islands. Give it at least two days, one for the town and one for the sea.

Sources: Regione Puglia — Vieste, AI Smart · Vieste — fonte istituzionale · Italia.it — Gargano · Città di Vieste — I trabucchi

History

The municipality places Vieste among the oldest towns of Daunia and recalls a long sequence of rulers: Byzantines, Lombards, Normans. In 1176 Pope Alexander III set sail from here to meet Frederick Barbarossa in Venice. In 1239 the town was sacked by the Venetians, who also damaged the cathedral; the following year Frederick II began rebuilding it and strengthened the walls. Vieste was a bishop's seat from 993 to 1817.

The castle, which towers over the medieval quarter, dates from the second half of the eleventh century, when the Norman Robert Drengot was count of Vieste. It has a triangular plan with spear-shaped bastions that enclose older towers; the earthquake of 1646 brought part of it down. The Ministry of Culture's entry notes that it now belongs to the Italian Navy and cannot always be visited.

The harshest chapter came in July 1554, when the corsair Dragut Rais besieged the town with a fleet of seventy galleys. After a week of resistance Vieste was sacked and a great many inhabitants were killed or enslaved. Tradition links the massacre to a stone in the old town, the Chianca Amara, which can still be seen. Watchtowers were built along the coast afterwards. Modern tourism arrived in the 1960s with the Pugnochiuso holiday village.

Sources: Città di Vieste — I trabucchi · Città di Vieste — Castello Svevo Aragonese · Ministero della Cultura — Castello di Vieste · Città di Vieste — La Chianca Amara

What to see

The co-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in the second half of the eleventh century a short walk from the castle, keeps its Apulian Romanesque layout with three naves, while the bell tower is late Baroque. Take time over the capitals, carved with leaves, vines and animals such as horses, birds and a dragon, and look up at the painted wooden ceiling added in the eighteenth century, which frames three large canvases.

The Michele Petrone Museum, in the former Capuchin friary, brings together two stories: amphorae and anchors for life at sea, and finds from the Neolithic flint mines of the Defensola, with the pots, tools and oil lamps of the miners. The Malacological Museum displays some 13,500 shells gathered around the world; the municipality suggests allowing a couple of hours for it.

By the sea you can admire the lighthouse on the islet of Sant'Eufemia, which can only be seen from outside, and Pizzomunno, tied to the legend of the fisherman turned to stone and his beloved Cristalda. Outside town, the La Salata necropolis, cut into a large rock hollow facing the sea, is described by the municipality as the oldest evidence of Christianity on the Gargano.

Sources: Città di Vieste — Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta · Città di Vieste — Museo Michele Petrone · Città di Vieste — Faro di Vieste · Città di Vieste — Necropoli La Salata · Città di Vieste — Museo Malacologico · Città di Vieste — I trabucchi

Food and wine

The municipality describes the cooking of Vieste as simple and rooted in local produce, with plenty of room for flour in bread and home-made pasta. From the sea come the «caparrun» salad of boiled murex and small shellfish dressed with oil, garlic, parsley and lemon, marinated raw anchovies, stuffed cuttlefish simmered in the sauce later used for troccoli pasta, and «ciambotto», a soup of mixed fish. From the countryside come acquasale with eggs, pancotto with wild greens, broad beans with chicory and orecchiette with tomato and cacioricotta.

Around the town you will find products that tell the story of the promontory. Caciocavallo podolico del Gargano is made from the milk of grazing Podolica cows, scarce and available only in certain months, which gives it a strongly aromatic character. The citrus grown between Rodi, Vico and Ischitella, including the Arancia del Gargano and the Limone Femminello del Gargano, has earned protected geographical indication status. The promontory's extra virgin olive oil, from the Ogliarola garganica variety, falls under the Dauno PDO with the Gargano mention, and the Vieste area is among the olive-growing zones listed by the park.

Sources: Città di Vieste — I trabucchi · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Caciocavallo podolico · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Agrumi dell’oasi agrumaria · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Olio extravergine di oliva

Things to do

The most striking way to discover the coast is from the water. The municipality notes that some forty kilometres of caves line the shore between Mattinata and Vieste, with more than twenty caverns that can only be reached by boat and names such as Campana Grande or Due Occhi. If you prefer to walk, the park's coastal paths lead south, such as the route of about two kilometres that runs from Mergoli down to the bay of Vignanotica through pine woods.

Meeting the people who keep the trabucchi alive explains traditional fishing: platforms, long arms, winches and nets needed a team and a lookout who watched the bait. The association La Rinascita dei Trabucchi Storici, founded in Vieste in 2012, works to restore them and also runs activities outside the summer season.

For long-distance walkers there is the Pilgrims' Way, about forty kilometres from Vieste to Monte Sant'Angelo marked by the park and revived since 1995 as a pilgrimage on foot to the sanctuary of St Michael. Inland, the Foresta Umbra offers rest areas, forest trails and a visitor centre with a relief model of the promontory.

Sources: Città di Vieste — I trabucchi · La Rinascita dei Trabucchi Storici — associazione e attività · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Via dei pellegrini · Parco nazionale del Gargano — I sentieri della costa · Città di Vieste — La Foresta Umbra

When to go

Spring and autumn are the best seasons if you want to focus on the town, its museums and walks, with soft light and quieter streets. Summer is the time for the sea, the caves and the crossings to the Tremiti Islands, which the park lists as seasonal links from the port of Vieste between June and September.

A few dates in the religious calendar offer another reason to choose your period. On 9 May, the patronal feast, crowds of residents walk out to the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Merino, built on the remains of a Roman villa outside town. At the end of September, ahead of the feast of St Michael on the 29th, the pilgrimage on foot to Monte Sant'Angelo sets off in the evening from Vieste cathedral and crosses woods and farmland through the night.

If you travel out of season, look out for the activities the historic trabucchi association runs between September and May. Always check the current year's dates with the organisers before you leave.

Sources: Città di Vieste — Santuario Santa Maria di Merino · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Via dei pellegrini · La Rinascita dei Trabucchi Storici — associazione e attività · Area marina protetta Isole Tremiti — Come arrivare

Getting there and around

The main rail hub is Foggia station, run by RFI, where national and regional trains stop. From San Severo the Ferrovie del Gargano line crosses the promontory to Peschici Calenella, an electrified single-track railway about seventy-four kilometres long; the same company runs an intercity bus network between the towns of the Gargano as part of the regional Cotrap consortium.

If you fly, the nearest airports are Gino Lisa in Foggia and Bari airport, which Trenitalia lists as reachable by regional trains and by Ferrotramviaria. In summer, ferries for the Tremiti Islands also leave from the port of Vieste.

The old town is best explored on foot, with climbs, stairways and narrow lanes. Beaches, bays and trailheads are spread along many kilometres of coast, and public transport thins out out of season: plan your transfers ahead and check current routes and timetables on the transport companies' websites.

Sources: RFI — Stazione di Foggia · Ferrovie del Gargano — La rete ferroviaria · Ferrovie del Gargano — La rete autobus · Aeroporti di Puglia — Aeroporto di Foggia Gino Lisa · Trenitalia — Regionale Puglia, servizi e collegamenti · Area marina protetta Isole Tremiti — Come arrivare

Where to stay

Vieste has the largest choice of accommodation on the Gargano: the municipality counts around a hundred hotels and holiday villages, plus holiday homes and campsites spread along the coast. The right choice depends on the kind of trip. Staying in or near the old town lets you take the evening stroll on foot and reach museums and viewpoints without a car; a holiday village or campsite on the coast puts you closer to beaches and bays, at the cost of a few more transfers.

The Info Point on piazza Kennedy hands out material on services, itineraries and events as well as on accommodation in Vieste and across the Gargano, and is a good place to get your bearings.

For a meal in the centre, Al Vicoletto, at via F. A. Nobile 1, offers family cooking with fish, pasta, caciocavallo and paposcia. It is an editorial reference, not an Apulica partnership: choose one dish and ask what it says about the area, without assuming an origin for every ingredient that has not been shown.

Sources: Città di Vieste — I trabucchi · Città di Vieste — Info Point Vieste · Al Vicoletto — cucina e contatti ufficiali

Nearby

A few kilometres from town, the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Merino stands on the remains of a Roman villa inhabited until the tenth century; the central part of the church dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the site keeps the memory of St Marinus, a hermit monk killed here in 988. To the south the coast continues towards Mattinata, with bays that can be reached along the park's paths.

Inland, the Foresta Umbra, part of which lies within the municipality of Vieste, covers more than ten thousand hectares between roughly 270 and 830 metres above sea level, with Turkey oak woods lower down and beech forests higher up. It is the ideal counterpoint to a few days by the sea.

Peschici, on its cliff to the north-west, lets you compare two towns on the same coast. Monte Sant'Angelo, which you can also reach on foot along the Pilgrims' Way, leads to the sanctuary of St Michael and the landscape of pilgrimage. Finally, the Tremiti Islands deserve a full day or a dedicated stay rather than a dash between two swims.

Sources: Città di Vieste — Santuario Santa Maria di Merino · Città di Vieste — La Foresta Umbra · Parco nazionale del Gargano — I sentieri della costa · Parco nazionale del Gargano — Via dei pellegrini · Area marina protetta Isole Tremiti — Come arrivare