Monopoli and Finally, Back to the Ocean!!

We packed up our bags from our trullo in Locorotondo, loaded up the car, set the GPS and headed off to the east coast of Puglia.  We really enjoyed our time in our little smurf huts and were ready to see the ocean.  And see the ocean we did!  The town of Monopoli was amazingly beautiful.  It was a windy day but the sun was shining and there was magic around every corner.

The walkway runs from the waterfront right around to the right and I can't say enough about the colour of the water and the sheer beauty of this place.  People were friendly (and this hasn't been the case all over Italy) and there was just regular folks mixed in with all of the tourists.  In the main square where we parked there were benches everywhere and they were filled with men.  Only men, no women.  They were all talking at once (except for these four) and it was clear that the plaza was the men's domain.  This has been true in small towns and big cities throughout our travels.

The man below seemed entranced with his work.  This is right beside the docks where all of the fishing boats come in.  He was working at taking the floats off of this net and was more than happy to have his photo taken.

It was very busy along the sea wall and the music and dancing just added to the already festive feel to this place.  I missed the dancer that was with them but she was working hard to get the tourists involved and before we left there was a regular hoe-down going on.

We sauntered for more than a couple of hours, had lunch and then headed on to our air bnb in Polignano A Mare.  We were hoping it was half as beautiful as Monopoli.