Why Peschici

Everyone asks us “How did you decide on Peschici?”

We had a couple of business requirements for this trip and one of them was to complete the documents for my Italian citizenship. That required a trip to Atripalda, Avellino, Campania, Italy and visit with the local registrar. The question was where to we go from there.Two years ago our travels had taken us to Sui Dui Golfi on the Sorrento peninsula, in Atripalda we were only 164 kilometers (about 2 hours) from the Adriatic and we wanted to explore Puglia, go east young man.

A second part of business was to visit Radicondili and see the home of Il Campo cooking school in Tuscany, so driving time for the 3rd leg of our trip was a consideration.

Peschici is a town on the spur of the Italian boot, the Gargano Promontory. It is situated on the eastern most tip of the peninsula nestled into the Foresta Umbra. On the map it looked like a good place to use as a base to visit Monte Sant’Angelo (the grotto of Archangel Michael) and the Padre Pio shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo Padre Pio. Then take a longer day trip south to Castel del Monte, Alberobello (to see the Trulli).

It looked good on the map, and the town is beautiful, the drive into and out of Peschici has some spectacular views, but it is challenging. Generally driving the Italian countryside and smaller towns does not concern me, but the blind curves and switchbacks here more than doubled driving time compared to distance. Then thinking about the drive made each excursion and return a major effort. This reduced our travels, but we did discover da Celestina Ristorante, and if you like the beach, see the pictures on the Peschici post.