A white town clinging to the rock, a sea that changes colour by the hour, a legend around every corner. Here are 14 ideas for living Vieste the way we do, because this is our home.
Vieste looks out over the Adriatic from the very tip of Gargano. The old town is a tangle of white alleys and stairways, clinging to the rock; below, the sea fades from emerald green to turquoise.
In a few minutes you go from a beach of fine sand to a cove among the pines, from a cathedral almost a thousand years old to a cave carved by the waves.
Once again this year, its beaches have earned both the Blue Flag and the paediatricians' Green Flag: clean water, and made for children. Below you'll find our 14 ideas, the same ones we share with our guests.
A warm hug from Vieste, the Villa Ulimare family
Vieste's ID card
Where
On the tip of Gargano, in Apulia, on the Adriatic Sea
Known as
The Pearl of Gargano
Patron saints
Saint George and Santa Maria di Merino
The sea
Blue Flag and paediatricians' Green Flag
The emblem
The Pizzomunno sea stack
14 ideas
From the old town to the caves
The first eight are on foot, in a stroll through the old town. The others take you out to sea, along the coast and inland.
A white rock about 25 metres high, planted in the sand. In legend, the mermaids, jealous of the love between the young fisherman Pizzomunno and the beautiful Cristalda, dragged her into the depths and turned him to stone: every hundred years, on a night of the full moon, they meet again.
Born under the Normans, it was rebuilt by order of Frederick II from 1242; the triangular plan with three pointed bastions dates from 1559. Scarred by Venetian raids and by the First World War, it still towers over the town from the rock, above the beach that bears its name; its brown stone sets it apart from the white houses. Today it belongs to the Italian Navy: it opens only on rare occasions, such as the Christmas living nativity.
Dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, it is Romanesque, from the second half of the 11th century, with a nave and two aisles; in 1981 it became a minor basilica. The bell tower collapsed in 1772 and was reborn in Baroque style, completed in 1814: you can see it from all over the old town, and from the sea too. In 1554, during Dragut's assault, the people of Vieste took refuge inside. Inside, the painted ceiling and the statue of Santa Maria di Merino, the town's patron saint.
On this stone, in July 1554, Dragut's corsairs killed thousands of the people of Vieste. Arriving with seventy galleys, driven ashore by a storm right in the middle of a feast, they took the town after days of siege; the young and the strongest were carried off on the ships as slaves. Tradition blames the betrayal on a canon, Nerbis. Its name means "bitter stone". Pause for a moment, in silence: this is the town's memory.
Over 15,000 shells from every sea in the world, in a 17th-century building that was once a storehouse and an olive press. For children, it's a treasure chest.
The “Michele Petrone” Museum tells the story of the Defensola flint mine, dug about 7,000 years ago, and of the Tomb of the Elite, discovered in 2006 beneath the Town Hall.
From the boat the old town shows itself whole: white houses clinging to the rock, the cathedral bell tower at the top, a trabucco on the rocks below. From land you will never see it like this.
Some twenty caves, carved by the sea into the white cliffs: the Grotta Campana, the Grotta Smeralda, the Grotta dei Due Occhi. You visit them by boat. Further along the coast, the Architiello di San Felice awaits you, a rock arch suspended over the bay.
For children, the fine sand and shallow water of Pizzomunno beach, San Lorenzo and Molinella. For nature lovers, the coves of Baia dei Campi, Portogreco and La Pergola, among the pines and the white rock.
From 1563 the Spanish viceroy had watchtowers built along the coast: smoke by day, fire by night, to warn of approaching pirates. Look out for them at San Felice, Gattarella and Porticello.
On feast days the whole of Vieste pours into the streets: processions and fireworks over the sea. If you're here on these days, don't miss them.
April
23
Saint George
The patron saint, celebrated with a horse race on Pizzomunno beach.
May
9
Santa Maria di Merino
The patron saint is carried in procession to her sanctuary, about 7 km away; in the evening she returns to town amid the fireworks of Marina Piccola.
June
13
Saint Anthony
The feast that opens the summer. By day the fair, with its stalls; at night the fireworks, for us locals the most beautiful of all the feasts.
September
Early
Stella Maris
Our Lady of sailors and fishermen goes in procession on the sea, followed by the boats, and flowers are thrown onto the waves. Then everyone heads to the harbour for the fish festival.
At the table
The flavours of Vieste
Pancotto, stale bread cooked with greens: the humble dish of home. Ciambotto, the fishermen's soup. Orecchiette with turnip tops, or with tomato and cacioricotta; troccoli with cuttlefish. Caciocavallo podolico, stuffed aubergines and peppers, and over everything a drizzle of Gargano's Dauno PDO extra virgin olive oil. And to finish, the traditional sweets of Vieste.
