Alto Salento in October: Manduria

On Tuesday morning we set off for another market, this time in Manduria. Manduria is bigger than Sava but the market is not quite as good, although obviously a lot of the stalls are the same. We buy dried tomatoes, dried cherry tomatoes, capers, oregano and cheese and grapes. Oh, yes, and finally, something surprisingly rare in a place so near the sea – there’s just one man with a van selling fish. We gratefully buy some anchovies.

Reviews on Manduria are mixed and traffic and parking prove difficult but eventually I find an unexpected space just off the main square. Our first stop is at the church of San Franceso with a splendid baroque altar alcove of windows of saints, unusual and nice even though I don’t usually like baroque. 

Just across the square there is the odd Calvario made of broken pieces of ceramics and sculptures. It’s difficult to know what to make of it, but there it is. 

On the other side of the square we spot the word ‘pasticceria’ and since we are feeling a little tired and hungry we decide to have a second breakfast at Bar Pompigna – cappuccino and, finally, a pasticiotto leccese. Our mood improves for the rest of the visit, we look at the historical centre, strolling through pleasant streets, nothing special but nice. 

Before going back to the car we see that next to the San Francesco church there is a bar, 'Al retro', which offers a calice di Manduria, the local wine. The owner is happy to chat and since the Manduria amabile 18° is very good we then go to the cantina to buy some. The Antica Terra cantina is a little way out of Manduria but the owners are very friendly and nice and we are pleased with our purchases. By the time we get back to the apartment and I cook the fish and we sit down it’s almost two o’clock, a good job we had a second breakfast. The rest of the day is spent on the beach, I swim and we admire the sunset.