Puglia - Part 2

I left out Ostuni, the hilltop town closest to where we were staying. It's known as the "white" town for obvious reasons. After the first day's circuit of Alberobello, Ceglie Messapica and Ostuni, on the second day we headed south to Lecce, supposedly known as the Florence of the south. It's another interesting place but difficult for the tourist because everything, including the sights, close between 12:30 and 4 or 5 in the afternoon. For us, the shops were nothing special. Anyway, we saw enough of Lecce in the morning to let us add Otronto, further south, after lunch. And that was a lucky thing because it allowed us to see the incomparable mosaic floor of Otronto's cathedral along with its very nice old town.

On the last day we aimed to go north to quickly see Polignano a Mare, a fishing/resort town south of Bari on the Adriatic coast, bypass Bari and go on to near Andria for the Castel del Monte, then to Trani on the coast for its seaside cathedral (which R.W. Apple thought was the best-situated in Italy) and its old town and finish in a B&B near the Bari airport. It all went well, thanks to the guidance from Google maps, on which we were heavily dependent during this trip.
 

Ostuni on the hilltop

Nice selection of festive pasta

Church in Lecce with fabulous stone carving details.

Roman ampihteater in center of Lecce. Tourist office in upper part.

Vestiges of Puglian lunch in Lecce

   

Portion of 12th century mosaic floor of Otranto cathedral

Pews on mosaic floor

Greek myth figure on Otranto cathedral floor - now degraded and bowdlerized into corporate logo

Beach in Polignano a Mare

  

Raw assortment in Trani restaurant, including our first raw mussels, local bearded mussels. All were excellent.

Micro-thin sliced zuchinni and eggplant. Filet of mullets in back.

Castel del Monte near Andria. An impressive building

The seaside cathedral of Trani. Photo is notable for balance of Emma at left corner and accordion player at right corner of main structure.

This shows it better.