Mattinata, the wild orchids and the abbey of Monte Sacro

Today, I'm going to narrate a wonderful day spent hiking Monte Sacro, nearby Mattinata, one of the nicest village of Gargano.





Gargano has the highest degree of biodiversity in Italy. 

This part of Apulia is made by mountains and hills which fall into the Adriatic sea. 





Gargano is visited by Italians and foreigners who actually love practising sports such as biking, trekking, running, swimming and canoeing.

Neither cars nor factories are around. Therefore, air is not poisoned by any kind of pollution. 

Additionally, Mattinata is pretty much isolated: the closest towns are both Manfredonia and Monte Sant'Angelo, which are far about 20 km. 

Heading to Mattinata I leave at my back Manfredonia. I see Monte Sant'Angelo on the left. 

Before arriving at the tunnel which leads to Mattinata, I turn on the left because of works in progress held in the tunnel itself. 

This is a panoramic road. Like a snake it climbs on Monte Saraceno.

After few kilometres, I notice Mattinata, a bunch of white houses laid on a green carpet of olive trees.

I'm currently on the top of Monte Saraceno, which takes its name by a Saracen settlement dating back to the 10th century A.D.

I have already been here, moreover, it's a little bit late so I prefer to avoid to stop by. I look forward to arrive at Monte Sacro.

In order to reach Monte Sacro, you take the third exits for Mattinata. 

There are a lot of signals for Monte Sacro, so it'd be difficult to miss it.

I decide to take a break, and go to cheer up Carlo, a schoolmate who actually runs the only pharmacy (farmacia Sansone) present in Mattinata.

His pharmacy hosts a permanent exhibition of archaeological items of Daunians. 

Among them, you notice a stele dauna. It's free entry and I'd strongly recommend you to view it.




"Mind to park within the Monte Sacro B&B. Just to avoid that someone opens your car seeking for money" Carlo warns.

I say goodbye and resume my trip.

Monte Sacro is set 874 metres above the sea, one of the highest mountain of Gargano.

I keep driving, slowly though.

After 15 minutes, I come across a shepherd who's watching a pack goat. 






Goats look sinister, probably due to their horns. Humans have ever since symbolised Satan with a goat face with two barbed horns.   

Nevertheless, they have a humble sight.

"Excuse me, sir. Could you please tell me where to park my car in a safe place? You know, I'd like to view the ancient abbey of Monte Saraceno?". I address him. 

"Yes, sure. Follow me by car" he says.

He gets on his car. We move 200 metres further.

He says "I'll accompany you on foot for a little while as I have to go to see one of my cows which has given birth yesterday night".

I'm glad to have his company. 

He seems a nice guy.








"You know" He says "I make caciocavalli, in case you are interested".

I'd have liked to buy one as they must be delicious. 



However, I haven't brought enough cash, so I have to renounce his proposal.

While hiking I recognize few kinds of orchids.

They look great, and smell really good.



Mattinata is getting famous in Europe because of the wild orchids.

"English, Russians, Swisses and others come here to admire orchids" the shepherd says.






In 2014, Angela Rossini and Giovanni Quitadamo have published a book called Orchidee spontanee del Parco Nazionale del Gargano (edited by Grenzi).

The book is meant to illustrate the wide range of orchids which flourish here.

Mattinata hosts 60 of the 88 species of orchids which blossom in Gargano. 

According to the mentioned book, the National park of Gargano is leader in Europe in this green parade.

This record testify the uniqueness of this environment.

I keep climbing for almost 1,5 kilometres. I hear just birds twittering and leaves falling down. There is no noise.

I begin to feel the strain. This is a good exercise, though. 

To give you an idea around the effort required, keep in mind that the difference in height from the starting point till the peak is around 250 metres.

After 30 minutes, I arrive at a level ground. 

I keep walking. 



Suddenly, from the bush a magnificent building reveals itself as a dream, something unreal.




This is one of the best example of Romanico Pugliese architecture.

The abbey of Monte Sacro was ruled by the monastic order of Benedettini. the Abbey reached its best led by Gregorio, a monk of great culture who has written De hominum deificatione. 

The abbey had one of the richest library of the Apulia medieval. 

Its archive was moved to Siponto, then destroyed by the Ottomans in 1620. 





Most probably the abbey had had a scriptorium too.  

The incredible thing is that the abbey was built on a preexisting pagan temple dedicated to Zeus Dodoneus.








In fact, Monte Sacro was previously called Monte Dodoneo.

Frankly, it's sad to see this wonderful abbey neglected and partly destroyed.

Hopefully, in the future this magic place will resuscitate, like it happened for the abbey of Pulsano and the one of San Leonardo.

I feel reinvigorated after this astonishing tour.

It's 1 pm. It's still early.

Therefore, I descend the mountain, and go straight to the beach to swim.

There a lots of nice beaches on the coast. 

I decide to head to the port, where is located a Roman villa, used to store olive oil and wine.

The sea is wonderful in Mattinata.

Gargano is a continent on small scale. 

Come here, you won't be disappointed.

Ps.
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Pugnochiuso, homage to Oliver Rackham

Today I’m going to narrate you about an amazing place named Pugnochiuso, located in Gargano, north of Apulia.

I have been there one week on holiday.

Pugnochiuso represents for me the ideal place where to reinvigorating myself.

No cars around, an immense biodiversity, a green emerald sea. 

What else shall I ask for?!?

I know Pugnochiuso quite well as I have been working there for three years, just in summertime. It was a  seasonal job.

I was a shuttle driver.

I was paid to take tourists up and down the resort.

The air of Pugnochiuso is so balmy, so healthy due to the combination of pine trees and sea.

Each night I went to sleep, I used to leave the window opened because I enjoyed to wake up the next morning by the whistle of birds.

Indeed, I am fond of bird listening.

In the afternoon, I used to rest on the beach, or alternatively, reading my books.

While reading The Economist (March 14^th-20^th 2015), I have discovered the outstanding story of Oliver Rackham, an English plant pathologist and woodland archaeologist, who died in February 2015.

Oliver Rackham had helped in 1962 to save from destruction the Hayley Wood in Cambridgeshire, in UK.

He found out that the Hayley Wood had been there for at least 700 years.

The latest battle undertaken by Sir Oliver Rackham was against the trees being shipped around the world, taking their pathogens with them.

As outcome, the England’s elms had almost disappeared.

Beside that, horse chestnuts and alders are affected a lot in UK.    

We must not forget his lesson: love trees and plants, from which our life relies on.

Talking about plants, Pugnochiuso has a huge number of caper plants.

Eating capers with tomatoes and tuna drives me crazy!

I guess, I have collected around 6 kilos of capers.

I like to give a jar of capers to my family as well as to my friends.

Therefore, I have carried on in Pugnochiuso mainly eating what that place offered me: mussels and octopus.

Why? Because it reminds me the life during the Paleolithic, when human beings sustain themselves by hunting game and collecting fruits and roots.

The bay of Pugnochiuso is plentyful of fish and mussels.

Pugnochiuso resort has been created by Enrico Mattei, the glorious CEO of ENI.

It's common opinion that he was brutally killed by those who hated him and his strategies of buying oil directly from Middle-Eastern countries, by-passing the seven sisters.

Enrico Mattei fell in love with the Pugnochiuso bay.

Since more than a decade, Pugnochiuso is owned by Marcegaglia, of which the core business is steel.

I have heard that Marcegaglia would like to sell Pugnochiuso.

Well, I hope it will take place soon, because Pugnochiuso strongly needs to be re-launched in order to have more and more people enjoying this corner of Paradise on earth. 

Vieste, pearl of Gargano

Last week, the American web site BuzzFeed has published an article highlighting the 36 most beautiful Italian locations.

Well, among those there was Vieste, a picturesque town located in the hearth of Gargano.

I have been many times in Vieste.

I know it pretty well.

From my point of view, the way from Mattinata to Vieste is just astonishing, with so many beaches, small and big, crowdy and solitary.

There is the Mergoli beach with faraglioni in Mattinatella, soon after Mattinata, heading to Vieste.

Then, you find Vignanotica.

After Vignanotica, there is Pugnochiuso, an amazing place where you may admire the Portopiatto beach.

A couple of miles after Pugnochiuso, there is Porto Greco, another amazing beach.

I have been in Vieste to investigate about Mimmo Sesta, one of the heroes of tunnel 29 in Berlin, during the “cold war”.

Mimmo Sesta was born in Vieste.

The territory of Vieste has been inhabitated since the Paleolithic.

A couple of miles from Vieste, It has been discovered one of the biggest flint mine in Europe, the Defensola mine, which dates back to 5000 BC.

Vieste was looted by Venetians in 1239.

However, the major disaster occurred in 1554, with the Turkish, led by Dragut Rais.

Thousands of inhabitants have been beheaded on chianca amara (rock of sorrow).









Vieste is one of the tourist capital of Apulia.

I strongly recommend you to visit la perla del Gargano, at anytime, except on August, because it's just so crowdy.

You better visit it on May, June or even September.

Once there, do not forget to visit the old ghetto, located in Via Giudeca.

An alchemy: Paccheri with artichokes and salmon

Yesterday evening I invited Franckie and Ryan for dinner.

When I invite people at home and I cook for them, I like to cook something special.

Yesterday, I combined ingredients which apparently do not work together.

Tonight, I am going to cook paccheri (pasta), of course, with tomatoes, artichokes and salmon.

You might probably say: “artichoke and salmon together? What a weird combination!”

Well, let us see.

The bitterness of the artichoke combined with the fragrance of salmon is something you have to taste.

Therefore, I am going to show you how to make it, step by step.

Then, if you do not want to cook it, invite me. You buy all the ingredients required and I’ll cook for you. No problem at all.

My Mum has always cooked for her family.

So, I took from her the passion of cooking for other people.

From my point of view, cooking is an alchemy.

From this perspective, I see myself as an alchemist.

In other words, I like to make experiments with food.

Now, I am going to show you how to make this healthy and tasty meal.

It is very easy.

First of all, take a piece of garlic with some onion. Chop it.

Put it in an a pan.

Poor in the pan 6 spoons (2 spoons for each person) of extra-virgin olive oil.

Better if the olive oil is Apulian, bought from an Apulian producer. Buying olive oil from a shop is strictly forbidden. I’m joking…

Put in the pan 10 fresh tomatoes, the ciliegino (cherry) ones.

Keep it cooking for 20 minutes, at a very low fire.

One of the secret of cooking is slowness.

By the way, women love seeing men cooking for them.

Cooking is a powerful act of seduction (seduction comes from the Latin se ducere, which means “bring s.o. to yourself”).

Let’s come back to the meal.

Beside the soffritto, clean the artichokes and put them in a pan with some water.

Let them boil for roughly 20 minutes as well.

In this way, the artichokes will turn tender.

After that, move the artichokes to the other pan. 

Do not throw away the water of artichokes.

Cut a slim piece of ginger, chop it and add it.

Let them cook all together for 15 minutes.

Poor every 5/10 minutes some of the greenish water released previously by the artichokes.

Finally, chop the salmon and put it in the big pan.

Let it cook all together just for 5 minutes.

Paccheri take around 14 minutes to be ready.

Then, when the meal will be ready, on your table, the doors to the Paradise will get opened.

Buon appetito.

Umbra forest, kingdom of biodiversity

This time I want to go trekking in that marvelous place which is the Umbra forest.

Carlo, a friend of mine, want to join me. The day before we deal to meet up at 9:00.

I pick him up and head straight to the Umbra forest, which is located in Gargano, north of Apulia.

The forest is roughly 40 miles from Manfredonia, where I am temporarily based.

The scenarios changes very quick. The landscape is beautiful.

So, we get close and close to the forest.

We are entering a new dimension.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, Gargano was an island, fully covered by forest.

Indeed, Gargano is pretty much different from the rest of Apulia.

Once in the forest, I have the feeling that I am at different latitude. 

We have left behind a valley of prickly pears (Manfredonia) to enter a dark forest, where trees are huge and moss covers anything.

I come across a family from Bergamo while trekking. The man proudly shows us a porcine mushroom he collected earlier.

I hear some German tourists trekking.

Germans have always been fond of Gargano.

Two German botanists have recently discovered a plant which was supposed to be extinct for more than one hundred years.

The forest offers a wide range of nature trails for those who wishe to go both trekking and biking.

Nevertheless, If you want to take it easy and simply contemplate, bird watching may be the best activity to do here.

Centuries-old beeches trees are very common here. Additionally, I find around maples, ashes and linden trees.

In terms of plants, I see hollies, anemones and mezereons.

The main animals who populate the Umbra forest are local roe deers, wild cats, boars and stone martens.

In terms of birds, the main ones are woodcocks and wood-pigeons.

At 5 pm I am exhausted. Therefore, I end up on a wooden bench.

I feel high though. it is like to smoke a dope. What a wired sensation.

It must be the reinvigorating influence of mother earth...


Post Scriptum
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Manfredonia, a seatown with royal roots

Few days ago I went to Manfredonia.

An old friend of mine would have got married the day after, so I participated in his stag party.

Therefore, we went to the Casbah, a nice disco pub in Siponto, one mile far from Manfredonia.

Manfredonia takes its name by the King who founded it: Manfred King of Sicily, son of Friedrick II of Hohenstaufen.

It is a sea town. It has one of the biggest fishing fleet in Italy: 250 fishing boats.

It is probably the most vibrant city within the province of Foggia.

If you take a walk along Corso Manfredi, you will find people walking and chatting at any time.

If you go to Manfredonia, I highly recommend you to visit the MAD (Archeological Museum of Daunia), which is hosted within the Swabian-Angevin castle.

The Museum hosts few interesting exhibitions, the most important one concerns the stele daune

The Daunians originally came from  a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the Illyrians. 

Around Manfredonia, there are two churches, brilliant examples of the Romanico Pugliese art.

The Romanico Pugliese is the synthesis of Romanic art which took place in Europe, combined with Arabic and Byzantine arts. 

For this reason, Apulia may rightly be considered the “European bridge to the Middle East”.

The first church is Santa Maria Maggiore di Siponto, cathedral of the ancient Siponto.

Completed in the 12^th century, It is considered the first example of Romanico Pugliese.

This church has typical elements of Arabic and Armenian arts.

The second church is the S. Leonard’s abbey, built up in the 12^th century, probably by the Templar Order.

Within the church, you can see cross paintings, which recall the Knights of the Teutonic Order (German medieval military order) which ruled the abbey from 1261 till 1475.

The most fascinating elements of the church are two gnomon holes.

So, Every year, a unique astronomical phenomenon occurs on the 21^st of June (summer solstice) and on the 22^nd of September (autumnal equinox).

In the summer solstice, at 12:58, when the sun reachs the zenit, the light goes through a gnomon hole, painting on the ground a flower of eleven petals.

According to the Cabala, 11 symbolizes strenght and light, both the qualities are obviously referred to God.

In the autumnal equinox, the sun light goes through a second gnomon, painting an almond, which according to the Christian tradition symobilzes the Virgin Mary.

Currently, works in progress are being carried out. So if you wish to visit it, I'd suggest you to e-mail to s.leonardo.manfredonia@iricostruttori.com

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Blessings