Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
From May to September,
Pugliairbus
( 080 580 03 58; pugliairbus.aeroportidipuglia.it)
runs a
service to the Gargano, including Vieste, from Bari airport (€20, 3½ hours, four daily).
WORTH A TRIP
LUCERA
Lovely Lucera has one of Puglia's most impressive castles and a handsome old town centre with mel-
low sand-coloured brick- and stonework, and chic shops lining wide, shiny stone streets. Founded by
the Romans in the 4th century BC, it was abandoned by the 13th century. Following excommunication
by Pope Gregory IX, Frederick II decided to bolster his support base in Puglia by importing 20,000
Sicilian Arabs, simultaneously diminishing the headache Arab bandits were causing him in Sicily. It
was an extraordinary move by the Christian monarch, even more so because Frederick allowed Lu-
cera's new Muslim inhabitants the freedom to build mosques and practise their religion a mere 290km
from Rome. History, however, was less kind; when the town was taken by the rabidly Christian
Angevins in 1269, every Muslim who failed to convert was slaughtered.
Frederick II's enormous
castle
( 9am-2pm year-round & 3-7pm Apr-Sep) , shows just
what a big fish Lucera once was in the Puglian pond. Built in 1233, it's 14km northwest of the town
on a rocky hillock surrounded by a perfect 1km pentagonal wall, guarded by 24 towers.
On the site of Lucera's Great Mosque, Puglia's only Gothic
cathedral
( 8am-noon & 4-7pm
May-Sep, 8am-noon & 5-8pm Oct-Apr) was built in 1301 by Charles II of Anjou. The altar was once
the castle banqueting table.
Dominated by a huge rose window, the contemporaneous Gothic
Chiesa di San Francesco
(
8am-noon & 4-7pm) incorporates recycled materials from Lucera's 1st-century-BC
Roman amphi-
theatre
(
9am-2pm & 3.15-6.45pm Tue-Sun Apr-Sep)
. The amphitheatre was built for
gladiatorial combat and accommodated up to 18,000 people.
The
tourist office
(
0881 52 27 62;
9am-2pm & 3-8pm Tue-Sun Apr-Sep, 9am-2pm Oct-
Mar) is near the cathedral.
Ferrovie del Gargano trains run to Lucera from Foggia (€1.50, 20 minutes, three daily) which is on
the east coast train line between Bari and Pescara.
Monte Sant'Angelo
POP 13,300 / ELEV 796M
One of Europe's most important pilgrimage sites, this isolated mountaintop has an ex-
traordinary atmosphere. Pilgrims have been coming here for centuries - and so have the
hustlers, pushing everything from religious kitsch to parking spaces.
The object of devotion is the Santuario di San Michele. Here, in AD 490, St Michael
the Archangel is said to have appeared in a grotto to the bishop of Siponto. He left behind
his scarlet cloak and instructions not to consecrate the site as he had already done so.
