This time we're in Puglia, right down south on the heel of Italy. Join us as we tour this
region and our first stop here Polignano a Mare and this beautiful cliff top town.
On Italy's southern adriatic coast, Polignano is most famous for Cala Porto beach bordered by
an impressive roman bridge, combined with its ancient cliff top dwellings. The scenery and
architecture are stunning and it's a great place to start our puglia travel series.
We're walking around the old town part, now. It's about ten past eight in the morning hence why it's pretty quiet
but the sun's already getting hot and there are people about. The famous beach that you saw, well
if you want to get space on that you've got to be up before 8 and be on it because it gets rammed.
If you do decide to stay in the old town area then this is the kind of streets you'll be
walking around to get to your accommodation. We're here pretty early in the morning so it's nice
and quiet, but it's quite easy to get lost on the cobbled streets that are beautiful, and then every
now and then you come across a really amazing viewing platform out over the ocean, really nice.
Cliff edge accommodation or restaurants will set you back a small fortune with
Grotta Palazzes coming in at around 300 euros a person for dinner at this famous cave restaurant.
If you want to get into the water and experience an up-close and personal view of the cliffs then
there are plenty of boat tours and pedal hire. Check out tripadvisor for the best one for you.
Ewww, like i know it's August, so it's peak season as it is busy here, mostly italian tourists.
But like they do seem to have an issue with bin collection here like pretty much every bin
i've seen around town is chock-a-block full of like crap, rubbish. So yeah sort out!
Some amazing places to eat in this town as well, ranging from a pizza slice, right up to you know
michelin star, real high-end stuff. A couple of meals that we've had already obviously italian but
the ingredients are so fresh. Everything tastes really amazing really vibrant flavors, lovely
gelatos everywhere, gelateria everywhere and the ice cream is so good.
We really encourage you to get up early one morning and walk around the old town like this
it's so different to later in the day. There are a number of little cute cafes in the courtyards and
even a few local craft shops seem to have already set up stall. It's truly the best time of day.
We've been going to a place called millennium cafe for our gelatos and it's been excellent.
I've been having a strasiatella flavour which is like a chocolate chip, Simon had
some other unpronounceable one which is like a kind of chocolate brownie but it's so good.
Domenico Modugno was born in polignano,
you may well remember his famous song volare. He is now immortalized with a statue on the seafront
and everyone comes to sing the song in front of his memorial.
No I'm not doing it, huh, why? It's embarrassing.
{Singing} Volare do dobe do.... Volare do dobe do... something like that anyway!
This place behind me, Pescaria it's open from midday to midnight
and it has a bit of a reputation in Italy, i think there's three or four branches around the country
but this is the original we believe. And they're famous for doing big seafood sandwiches. I've got
my eye on a raw tuna and burrata one with some pesto drizzle, dizzled over the top which looks
delicious. I think they do an octopus one as well. Every time we've walked by there's been a massive
queue so we plan on coming down here around midday just as they open and beat the queues.
11.45am and already a massive queue!
So we're in the queue and just waiting now probably about 15, 20 people in front of us
look like maybe opened a little bit early but the next problem is going to be trying to
let them know what we want to order in italian, because we don't speak italian, so we'll see.
So he just managed to order we've gone for like a panini
with raw tuna burrata the pesto one which looks gorgeous. Our number is 79 so we're hearing
listening out for cetanto nove i think is the italian version.
We've got it ,79 it's looking good. I like the turtle bread roll, turtle shell bread roll,
so let's go find somewhere to eat it.
This is what it looks like inside
some huge tomato slices big old dollop of burrata and then i said 100 grams of the
tuna tartare looks pretty messy to eat but i'm going to go for it.
It's like a big hamburger you might want to hold that under there,
it's going to go everywhere. I'm just going to just take a bite.
mmmmmm
oh wow
The burrata is so creamy you can really get that kind of hit of pesto, tomatoes are fresh
and the tuna is like so soft really delicious,
wow delicious!
We're staying about the 10 minute walk out of the town because we've got a car. In the town
centre there is nowhere to park your car, so it's kind of awkward at least here we've got some off
street parking which has been a bit of a godsend really, because otherwise you'll just be driving
around for hours trying to find a parking space. But the 10 minute walk into town is quite nice and
yeah once you're there you don't have the cars to worry about and you're sort of free to roam
around. Having said that there is a train station in town that you can catch to the
major towns on the coast like we're in Brindisi or Bari. So if you plan on just staying here then
probably recommend taking the train and not bothering with a car. There are some really cute
options to stay in town, airbnb is quite big here as well but yeah budget wise you're talking like
anything from maybe £120 up to yeah maybe even a £1000 a night here.
A lot of the streets were closed off and pedestrianized whilst we were there.
In the early afternoon the town starts to come alive with a sea
of people making their way to the beach or for some lunchtime snacks.
There is a great deal of choice and usually the places with the longest
lines are the most popular and probably the best.
So i've got a pomodoro classico, what was it, pomodoro mozzarella el clasico or something
like that. So it's like i think it's deep fried mozzarella, looks a little bit like a british
pasty, actually. It's pretty hot at the moment so we'll give it a second and then we'll try some.
Molten lava, mozzarella and tomato. It's like a beating heart!
It's like really stringy mozzarella but you can taste the tomato it's
really nice so that was just two euros. It's an afternoon snack i suppose that people
seem to buy here. There was quite a queue so we thoughts we'd give it a go. It's nice, try it!
August is the busiest and warmest month and the sun keeps shining long into the evening.
If you're looking for a fancy sit-down meal for dinner you best research this and book in advance
to avoid disappointment. Expect to pay upwards of a hundred euros for a three-course meal with
a bottle of wine included, it's a pretty expensive town to stay in. Equally a more rustic meal can
be found in many bars willing to serve you a beer and a delicious pizza for around 15 euros.
Really taste the tomatoes and the cheese
After dark the vibe in the town changes and it's time for good food drinks in the
outdoor bars and strolling around the markets that have sprung up in the late afternoon
this is the busiest time of day when all the locals and families are out and about
but there's a real party atmosphere that goes on late into the night
For us it was time for one last gelato!
Delicious, i have this stracciatella flavor which is like a chocolate chip,
vanilla ice cream. Proper gelato really thick super creamy delicious!
Next time we'll take the 15-minute train ride to the surprisingly large
fishing village of Monopoli. It's less touristy and with
cheaper prices it could be a budget alternative to staying in Polignano.
Lots more to come from our mammoth Puglia travel series. Remember to subscribe for more videos
like this, thanks for watching, see you next time happy travels from the memoryseekers.