Polignano A Mare

I have returned from my vacation in Italy, where I stayed in the Adriatic seaside town of Polignano a Mare.  Located in the southeastern region of Apulia (a.k.a. Puglia), Polignano is definitely "off the beaten path", so to speak.  But even while being relatively obscure, the town is connected to one of the world's best-known songs.  In 1958, a native of Polignano named Domenico Modugno wrote (with his friend Franco Migliacci) and recorded a tune called Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu, which became world-famous under its alternate title Volare.

As we tourists approached our hotel, we were greeted by a statue of Modugno.

The hotel was located on the top of a cliff overlooking a small cove.  The other side likewise was a cliff, with the old section of town built right on top of it.

After walking over to the old section, we got this view of the hotel.

Here's another view of our hotel, from a different direction.

Between the two facing cliffs is a beach.

Here's another section of the cliff on which our hotel sits.

The old section of Polignano includes this narrow pedestrian alley.

Also in the old section is the town hall.

A kilometer or so to the northwest of our hotel is this old abandoned trullo home, with the Adriatic in the background.

The plants at the base of the trullo are prickly pear cactus.  In the Apulia/Puglia region, both the prickly pear and the trulli are ubiquitous.  While most of the trulli around Polignano appear to be uninhabited, we also saw some that were incorporated into, or grouped to form, modern homes.  In fact, there is an entire town built around refurbished trulli, which will be the subject of a future post.