Exploring the Vieste coast on foot

It’s been a while since I shared some of where we visited on our trip to Italy’s Gargano Peninsular last year - I know a whole year already! - so I thought it’s about time I shared more. On our first day’s walking we headed along the Vieste coast on a walk that was billed as following ‘the low-lying shoreline for virtually all of its route’. And it was mostly flat, though some walking and in places scrambling across rocks didn’t help my tender ankle, which I’d somehow turned walking on flat ground through the airport somewhere! But it wasn’t until much later in the day that I realised this.

Our walk started by going across the car park at the marina, which is not quite the auspicious start you imagine is it?! But as we headed towards the jetty the view improved, and I was happily snapping the flowering succulents.

It wasn’t long before we got our first view of the beach, and what a beach. Sadly though we had most of a 10.7km and four hour walk ahead of us, so no time to stop.

At the end of the beach we joined the narrow path just to the right of the wooden balustrades and followed that around the coastline. Then we got our first view of a Trabucchi, or more precisely the Trabucco San Lorenzo.

TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

Trabucchi are widespread along this stretch of coast - and our walk would take us up close to three of them. They are fantastic constructions made with Aleppo Pine which is very resistant to salt water. This local tradition dates back to the Phoenicians and consists of wooden poles in the rocks which hold a very large fishing net in the clear coastal waters.

After a brief stop, we were on our way and then we paused and looked back to where we came from - I think this view trumps that of the beach at the start of the walk.

LOOKING BACK TO TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

The views ahead of us though were equally spectacular, especially as we walked through this pined section.

At the next sandy bay our route took a turn upwards, and the plants changed too - a particularly dog-earred prickly pear caught my eye.

And with a bit of here and there-ing, and a walk along the road and climbing over the crash barrier the next trabucchi, the Trabucco Punta Lungo, was in sight, looking very similar to the one we’d already passed - but no less amazing.

TRABUCCO PUNTA LUNGO

Again we paused to admire the view, and look to see where we’d been, and where we were heading to. And to breathe in the fresh air, even now these photos bring that right back to me.

The trabucchi are essentially a small pier with a complex architectural structure, anchored to the rock, with arms jutting over the water with ropes attached to huge nets underneath. It usually took a four-person crew to manoeuvre these fishing machines, two to operate the winch, one in charge of the net and one to monitor the shoals of fish.

LOOKING BACK TO TRABUCCO SAN LORENZO

AND LOOKING AHEAD TO TRABUCCO MOLINELLA

Although we were keen to get on, it was also good to stop and admire the coastal plants, such as this creeping sour fig with its bright flowers. Not that I knew its name at the time, a more recent phone update enables me to look up the names of plants from the photos, and that’s so very welcome.

Having reached halfway - and the final trebucco on our walk - we stopped to eat our picnic lunch; we’d bought rolls, cheese and sliced meat and some fruit in the supermarket near our hotel before we set out. It was quite the lunch with quite the view, but little did we know that there’d be many more lunches with views as special over the next few days on our trip. I mean we hoped, but we didn’t know for sure.

The trabucchi are no longer actively used by the fishing industry, but they are of immense cultural and historical interest and are protected by the Gargano National Park. There are restoration projects in place and some of the trabucchi offer organised visits and fishing experiences, which is a great way to ensure their history is not forgotten.

TRABUCCO MOLINELLA

The return leg of this walk was the same but in reverse, we managed this much more quickly as we were retracing our steps, and because we’d already taken the pictures we’d wanted. But isn’t it strange how walking the same picturesque route can at times look so, so different.

Our incentive to get back was an ice cream and a beer in one of the bars we’d spotted in the town the previous evening, and to suss out a potential restaurant for that evening. As the evening went on though, my ankle started to swell a little which was a little concerning with a week’s walking ahead of me.

Maybe a night’s rest would sort it out…

See all of my posts from our self-guided walking holiday in the Gargano Peninsular. We started the walk on 18 May 2024, returning to the UK eight days later.

Post Comment Love 6 - 8 June

Hello there, and welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

I’ve been looking through my holiday snaps from our walking holiday in Italy last May - I can’t believe a whole year has gone past, so I’ve resolved to share more from that trip over the next few weeks. I’ve linked a post from the first walk of the holiday this week, and just looking at the pictures has made me appreciate the different plants we see on our travels, and the feature on my new-ish phone which identifies those I can’t!

So to celebrate that I’m including a carob tree as this week’s photo - have a good week!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

My garden in May

It’s been a glorious month in our garden, though the good weather at the start of the month took a bit of a toll on my roses, and a couple of other plants which weren’t keen on the hot spells and not much water. The roses went a bit crispy, which isn’t a good thing. Oops.

That they were in pots was a good thing as I was able to move them to a more sheltered part of the garden so they were able to recover, and they have - phew. But before we get to those, last month was all about the blossom on my crab apple tree, and well after blossom comes tiny crab apples.

It looks like it might be a bumper year for crab apples, not quite so for the peaches though - I’ve only spotted three fruits forming, but given that it had peach leaf curl, I suppose three is better than none. I’m hoping that all three manage to last the course to fruition - fingers crossed.

Both tomatoes which I bought at the Newark Garden Show last month are doing well - I’m taking no chances though and all the plants I bought at the show, and the roses and astrantia which are in ‘special measures’ are temporarily in the shelter of the trellis from the heat pump. It seems to be helping those that were suffering and these tomatoes clearly are ok with it too as they’re about to flower.

The Mottisfont rose seemed the most affected and dropped the majority of its leaves, but with a more regular watering schedule and some shelter you can see just how well it’s recovered, with plenty of new growth all over the plant.

The Gertrude Jeckyll wasn’t affected quite so much and has since gone on to flower more profusely than it has before, and more than the other one we had in our London garden did. So I’m hopeful that with plenty of dead-heading and another feed when the time’s right, we’ll have plenty of roses this year. At the moment the downside is they’re in a place where we can’t see them, but for now I’ll take that.

They’ve had a bit of a year as after the crispy leaves shock, they also got whitefly and now seem to have attracted blackfly - my year of the roses, seems to be ongoing!

But when they deliver flowers like this, even after all their tribulations you really can’t argue, can you?

Surprisingly the newest rose, which I hadn’t even potted on (I have now) was the least affected by the weather, whether that’s because of its position in the garden, I’m not sure. But I’m glad to see it thriving.

Elsewhere in the garden the peonies are getting to burst their tightly bound buds. One seems to be aiming for Olympic heights, but if it’s happy then I’m happy. My hardy fuchsias have behaved differently this year too, I have four or five bushes, and all bar one of them have grown new shoots from the base of the plants rather than sprouting new growth on the older stems. I left them for as long as I could, and until the frosts should have passed, but in the end I cut the twiggy stems back - and there were a lot, my compost bin is full of fuchsia sticks. I’ve left enough though for them to provide some structure and support to the newer and more tender growth. So far they seem to be doing ok, but are clearly smaller than they have been before.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with my ‘Chelsea Jackets’ wallflowers and seemingly take a picture every time I walk past them if the number of photos of them on my phone are anything to go by.

I’ve had some unexpected discoveries this month too, with a couple of plants throwing up some flowers when I didn’t expect them to. The first was the iris which we bought at the Newark Garden Show. I didn’t expect much from this this year, especially as it’s still in the pot it came in, but it started to show signs of a flower and it’s become as obsessive as watching the wallflowers.

This is how it started:

Above is the most recent picture I have, it’s already awesome and I know it’s going to be gorgeous once it’s out fully.

The other surprise flowering is taking place in our outside border, on a plant I thought was a kind of grass but now realise is probably a kind of yucca. I spotted it as I drove in one day, and went for a closer look.

As you can see the flowers aren’t quite there yet, and I can’t wait to see how they look in full bloom. These also look as if they’re going to be pretty spectacular, and with the lavender in front of them, and throughout the garden, almost ready to flower it’s going to be a riot of colour and scent, and bees hopefully!

I’ve potted on and tidied up the burgundy heucheras, which also looked a bit crispy around the edges. They’ve repaid this attention with some flowers, which will be the palest of pinks when they open. My daisies have also recovered from a fair bit of neglect too, which is also good news as I really thought they were a gonner.

While I don’t like to lose any plants, these were ones we bought when our previous house was on the market to dare I say tart up the garden a bit, but they’ve hung around so I would be sorry to have lost these.

This month I struck on a genius way of stopping my watering can blowing about the garden when I leave it out - I don’t know why it’s taken so long, but I realised if I threaded it over the pole of the parasol (which lives outside without the parasol) it can’t blow anywhere - and it’s easy to get to to use.

I’m so pleased with myself!

The new sign that I bought at the Devon County Show is up on the trellis and looks fab, though I did need to de-cobweb the trellis beforehand. MOH has since de-cobwebbed all of the cladding and window sills/surrounds and door steps, and let’s just say it’s not a one time job as we know the webs and fluff will be back before too long. But the sign looks good.

We also took delivery of the large pot that we bought at Grand Designs on a whim. Thankfully it works just where, and how I thought it would. As soon as we had it off the pallet I was desperate to try it where I’d imagined it. Now I have to imagine it with a standard olive tree planted in it, well until we buy one anyway - I’ve a plan to tour our local garden centres looking for one later this month!

Once it was in place MOH could see how I thought it would work, and liked it which is good news. I’ve realised I’m quite a visual person so can more easily see things in my mind than MOH can - but he trusts me, and it worked out, so that’s a result. For my larger garden design ideas I do need to work out how to get them down on paper in a way that MOH can also visualise, I think that’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but I’m sure we’ll get there.

And with more crispy plants than I’d like this month, and the fact that I’m running out of pots to put new plants in, I think the plans for our gardens will need to progress more quickly this summer. I’m sure it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and a lot of work, but first we need to finalise what we want.

I’ll leave you with two more of the plants we brought with us which are in my new extended hospital bay, alongside the garage. My bay trees weren’t looking so well either, they’d been up against the front wall over the winter taking shelter, but with their leaves yellowing they were also crying out for some attention.

I’ve pulled them out of the borders so they can get some more sun, but not so they’re in full sun and given them a double diluted feed of tomato feed. I picked off all of the yellow leaves from the bush on the left, which was looking healthier than its counterpart, and then picked off the worst of the yellow leaves from the other bush.

They’re already looking much healthier than they were, and it seems that bay trees in pots can be susceptible to yellow leaves due to a lack of nutrition, so a feed should help them. I’m hoping I spotted these before it was too late as we’ve had these for absolutely ages. They did start out the same size, and kept growing at similar speeds for many years. Then they spent one particularly bad winter on opposite sides of our London garden, and came out of that with different growth rates - so I can no longer pair them together, but that’s ok as I’ve realised that’s not quite what I want in this garden anyway!

Let’s hope the good weather - but not so good it makes my plants crispy again - continues!