Kiwi Roaming

Gallipoli – pronounced Gall-eee-poli – is on the Salento Peninsula or the heel of Italy, still in Puglia but on the West coast and excitingly the Ionian Sea. I could dedicate a whole blog to swimming at sunset but will write a wee bit about our time in Gallipoli first.

I’ve still been suffering from the effects of the heat and found our bus ride both long and challenging with limited air-conditioning and rough roads. We had to grab some cash before checking in to pay our accommodation taxes so walked along the Main Street to find a bank cash machine (rather than a tourist one) then back to the hotel where we got our keys for the B&B we are staying at a few hundred metres away. Palazzo Vergine is a three story building with a rooftop terrace, it has 8 guest rooms on levels 1 and 2. Our ceiling is double height which is crazy given there is another floor above us still. The room is large but basic, a bed, wardrobe, table with one chair, drink fridge, bathroom and that’s about it. Below are restaurants and cafe’s and the street is busy and loud until 4am – but interestingly no ear plugs were supplied here (unlike in Bari which wasn’t nearly as loud at night).

After a siesta we headed to the rooftop to be surprised by the moody weather offshore which we worried might jeopardise our first swim. We then took a quick trip to the lovely local supermarket for water where we saw the Auckland clothing store and other creatively named shops along the Main Street. We are staying just outside the old town this time at the start of the working town of Gallipoli, and the main beach is a 700m walk through the old town. As it was our first time here we opted to walk around the sea wall to orient ourselves. The town starts with a castle which is protected by the usual rabbit warren of narrow streets designed to confuse invaders. It all sits high above the sea, there is a working port, a fishing port, many marinas with sailing boats and large yachts and others with dingy sized boats.

As we walked it was 7pm so restaurants were setting up for the evening, all offer an abundance of seafood here with lovely looking dishes on offer. It’s a limited traffic zone but there was a steady flow of cars looking for carparks, two massive carparks either side of the narrow road into the old town were already full – it was Monday night and this place was buzzing.

We were therefore surprised to see virtually nobody swimming and the beach nearly deserted. So far we have swum in the Tyrrhenian Sea in Sardinia, the Adriatic Sea in Monopoli and now the Ionian Sea in Gallipoli.

The Ionian Sea has been the best. Warm, completely clear, no waves, sandy underfoot, shallow for ages as you swim out – and did I mention warm. We loved it.

I should also mention there was a thunderstorm somewhere off in the distance so while we were swimming we could hear thunder and see the black clouds. The sun also started to set and was simply spectacular. As we got out off the water sometime around 8pm there was quite a crowd gathered above us on the sea wall – not to mention all of the restaurants with tables lining the wall had filled up. Plus people camping out on the beach to watch the sunset. Such a special experience.

Back for a quick change and out to find dinner about 9pm, we loved the hustle and bustle, old men on benches with their beers, old women on other benches watching their grandchildren playing. So many street vendors. Nobody speaks English to us here, the tourists are all Italian and the menu’s are all in Italian. We found a pub online where we thought there would be football to watch – it was downstairs with no outdoor space so we were hesitant at first. The owners 10 month old daughter Chloe won us over and was still up waving to punters at 11pm. The burgers were great and they put the France v Sweden match onto the TV for us so we ended up having 3 drinks and watched the first half there.