Polignano a Mare

Commence stunning pictures of sea, sun and sky. Puglia became one disgustingly beautiful scene after another. Even the B&Bs showed a kind of charm that we couldn't quite put into words. 

Our next stop took us to the town of Polignano a Mare, a short train ride down the coast from Bari.  On an average day, the city is home to 16,000 people but in the summer the population swells to well beyond that. The city itself is built into the cliffs, yielding beautiful whitewashed stone buildings with shops, bars and restaurants tucked in against the wind. Piazzas and secret squares wait to be found.

But if you turn down the end of a street, you're confronted with a sharp drop and the blue, blue sea greets you below. 

And if you linger a hundred steps beyond the old town, a tiny beach seems to have made its way into the hearts of both locals and tourists alike. Just look for the aqueduct, walk down the stairs and look for the hordes.

Our particular weekend in Polignano happened to coincide with a feat of sporting madness, the Red Bull World Cliff Diving Series Championships. If you've seen this on TV, men and women dive from platforms atop cliffs, bridges, bungee platforms across the world. It looks impressive and a little bit scary. But then you see the platforms from up close: both on the beach and from the town and the fear is real. The bottom platform weighs in at 21 metres above sea level; the top one at 27 metres. I couldn't even:

Fortunately or unfortunately, we weren't in town to watch the finals. Seeing the extremely limited space on the beach, I can't imagine what that would have even been like. But to be honest, even seeing the platforms gave me an intense sense of vertigo. I feared I would be the one in the audience who'd have to be dragged out due to fainting. 

Instead we blissed out with a day trip to nearby Monopoli and the city's beaches before returning to Polignano old town and al fresco margarita-ing at La Casa de Mojito .

And it didn't hurt that our evenings here faded into the sunset in most spectacular fashion.

 

I could think of worse places to be.