Castle Del Monte

Not many people visit the south of Italy. One of the places i visited was Castel Del Monte. It means mountain castle. It's actually perched on a hill top surrounded by a valley below in the middle of nowhere. It's absolutely a scenic. U have to view this place in the evening. The castle is situation in the Pulia region. The Castle has been declared a UNESCO Heritage site. It is maintained by the Italian government. There's a 3 Euro entrace charge into the castle.

The story goes that King Frederick II von Hohenstaufen in 1240 AD ordered Richard of Montefuscolo, the governor of Capitanata, to prepare the necessary materials for the construction of a castle near the Church (since disappeared) of Sancta Maria de Monte. Poor fellow never lived to visit the completed castle . Castel del Monte is a unique masterpiece of medieval military architecture. Its form is perfect, its design a harmonious blend of cultural elements from Classical antiquity. After Frederick's death, it slowly fell into great disrepair. The mosaics and statues that have decorated the interior, were looted.

My friend Gianni who is owns a Crane for Hire business brought me there. He looks like a Mafia hitman but really a nice family guy. The castle is about 100 kms from Bari. As drive by along the road, on the left and right bank, there's large privately owned vineyards.U actually see the winery built next to the family homes. Wine making are practically family owned business.The wines from the south of Italy are quite good. If u go to shop for Italian wines, please look for "Castel Del Monte" brand.

The castle itself is unique as it is an octagonal shaped castle. It's quite a small castle. It has a coutyard in the middle of the castle.A few small rooms upstairs. There's a small fire place. The far right picture is actually where the castle guards with thier bows will stand. It's quite a small opening The Castel del Monte still is admired, more than 750 years after its construction.

If you are ever in the south of Italy in the region of Puglia, don't forget to visit this unique castle.

Festival - St. Michel

In Palese/ Santo Spirito, during the summer there's a festival known as Festival St Michel ArcAngelo, or the festival of St Michael the Arc Angel. St Michel is local Patron Saint of Palese. It's a religious festival for the catholic community. Every municipality or local area in Italy has a patron saint, these festivals are traditions which dates back hundreds of years.

The streets & the participating churches are brightly lit up by decorative street lights. There's a carnival like atmosphere. A lot of the people come out to watch the parade. Roads are usually closed to traffic

The processing bearing the statue of St. Michael is led by a chatolic priest of the local diocese. The procession is led by a group of musicians forming a marching band. Local goverment officials and the police also are part of the official procession. Whenever you are in Italy, do your best to join the local festival.

Santo Spirito

San Spirito is adjedcent to Palese, practically next door neighboors. Much more livelierplace,it has a small commercial center with cafes, clothing shops, banks, hair salon, pizza parlours, optical shops, grastonomia, etc.

There a marina with leisure boats, yatchs and small fishing boats. The fishermen sells their catches along the marina. In the summer, you can catch the beautiful sunset almost every evening.

There's quite a few restaurants along the coast line. This is my favorite, the Lavela, the building itself is quite unique. It's one of a many decent restaurants in the area. Most of the restaurants serve good food. I truly enjoyed italian seafood & pasta dishes. some of the business only operate 6 months during the summer/fall. After that they close before reopening for the next summer.

Palese

This is the suburban area of Bari Municipality. Palese is along the southeast coastline of the Italian peninsula. It's primarily a residential area.This place comes alive during the summer. Full of apartments for rents (please don't compare to Monaco, she a poorer cousin mate). It's a favorite with the locals and europeans, primarily because its economical to holidays in the south of Italy.

Summer is really hot, temperatures can raise up to 45 Deg C. Lots of eateries consisting of stand up cafes, pizza parlours and some good restaurants. People holiday here for the sun and beach (which is not much). The coastline is primarily made up of rocks, beaches are closer to Bari. There's not much of scenic places unless you travel Lecce which 200kms away. Rome is about 350kms and Milan about 1000kms.

The scenic coastlines along Palese. Its a small community on the outskits of Bari city which is about 20kms away. Pretty good roads to the city. There's a train station in Palese which is within walking distance. Sunday/Festival days travel by rail, please confirm as services are few & sometimes non existent.

Most roads are narrow, so be careful when u drive & don't drive the italian way, please, not good for your health.

An Italian Life

From June 2007 to May 2008, i had the pleasure of residing & working in Italy. I walked on the land of the great Roman Empire, where Ceaser's Chariots roared like the Lion, the Gladiators thrilled the Collaseau and Nero's violin burned the Empire.It is a beautiful but contradicting country. There's the North & then there's the South, sounds like US back in the civil war.

This story is about the landscape of the places i have been & the people whom i made friends. Italians prefer to be recognized from which region they are from. There are the Roman decendants(Northern Provinces) and the Southerners whose forefathers came from Albania, Greek, and modern day Eastern Europe) and not forgetting the Gypsies (known as Roma(Romanians).

I worked & resided in the region of Puglia, which is south east of Italy, facing the Adriatic sea. You could almost see Greece during the summer from the coastline @ Bari. Bari is largest municipality in the region of Puglia. Best time to visit the south of Italy is late spring to early summer (the crowds are less and still you can get a tan). The tourist start to come in end May/early July for the summer holidays.

I will show places on the south Italy rarely seen in tourist brochures. In my next blog, i will take you to places i have been. They stopped using the Lira as the official currency, it's the Euro now.