Puglia, Italy: Monopoli Part One Galatina Part Two

by Renee · Published May 2, 2025 · Updated May 4, 2025

Monopoli was simply beautiful. Our apartment was located in the winding streets of the old village and our balcony faced the beautiful church of St Leonardo. We spent three nights in Monopoli, our first stop in this region. I already wrote about the night that we arrived.

We got a good night sleep post the traumatic train ride from Barcelona, and the beauty of Italy swayed Paige to not leave me.

We spent our first full day in Monopoli roaming around zig zag streets of the old town. We wondered into the Cattedrale Maria Santissima della Madia,
walked through the Porto Antico, aka the old port, with it’s iconic colorful blue boats (we saw them last night and just as beautiful in the dark).

Even though Monopoli is not known for its beaches, we checked out two of them and both were quite beautiful.

The food did not disappoint and we mostly ate fresh seafood and homemade pasta and had some grilled octopus for lunch. We had a famous fish stew which reminded us of bouillabaisse.

Yesterday we took a five minute train to Polignano a Mare to check out the beach since it is known as one of the most beautiful in Italy. We got to watch two young boys jump off one of the cliffs. We also checked out the famous cave restaurant Grotto Palazeese, which we thought about having lunch. The fixed price of the lunch would’ve been close to $500 so we opted for an $11 lunch from a focaccia hotspot. We got some typical Puglia street food and loved it. Yesterday was May 1 and is the European holiday that is like Labor Day in the United States and.polignano was packed with so many people, and we got back to Monopoli, the sleepy little town that we spent the past previous two nights was also packed with many people celebrating the holiday. We were entertained by a marching band that started and ended at St Leonardo. We were both very happy that we got to see this town before it got super busy with the holiday crowd.

Before dinner last night, we toured the Castello di Carlo V fortress which had a Picasso and Ronato Gutusso art exhibit on display.

This morning we took the train back to Bari where we rented a cute tiny Fiat and drove to Galatina, which is a tiny town almost at the bottom of the heel of Italy. It was only about a 2 Hour drive and we had plenty of time to get some food and check out the old town. It is very different than Monopoli, it is very small and very very authentic and our host does not speak English so it is kind of fun to try to communicate with her. We were able to get the most amazing pastry fresh out of the oven called pasticchiotto and it was originated in this town. The restaurant was right next to the Basilica of Saint Catherine, and it was a good way to pass the time until it opened at 4 o’clock.

Saint Catherine was is an amazing Basilica, very plain on the outside, but you walk in and it is filled with frescoes on every wall, arch and column. Pictures do not do it justice. It was painted by GIOACCHINO TOMA, and it has never been restored, very hard to believe.

Our evening continued with a Musica cultura visual art storiella bonsai. The musical artist from the area wrote a book about how his music made him feel. It was being read with his music playing in the background and an artist was sketching the “feeling”. We were invited to join when we walked by earlier. They were very surprised when we showed up and in Italian they thanked the two people from the United States who went to their show and they were proud lol.

We ended the evening with a typical Galatina dinner at Nonna Lillia.

We plan to drive the coast tomorrow.