Puglia in September 2023 Grottaglie

The highlights of the car journey between Vieste and Grottaglie are the ever-winding and ever-panoramic road between Vieste and Mattinata, this time enlivened by being stuck behind a coach, but if it’s not a coach it’s a camper, a caravan or a lorry, followed by the now traditional stop at the market in Manfredonia where we stock up on literally kilos of fantastic local fruit at about 1 euro per kilo: plums, peaches, grapes and the local cicorie plus an octopus. We also make an unscheduled and useless stop out side a panetteria in Margherita di Savoia where I buy some overpriced focaccia which is so difficult to chew I almost pull a muscle in my jaw. Well, that’s what it feels like. 

The stop for lunch is at the Mongolfiera centro commerciale near Molfetta, where we’ve been several times. There are a few trees near the dog playground (didn’t playgrounds used to be for children?) where you’re not supposed to park but people do. We compromise, since the car is parked but there’s one of us in the car. During the drive from Margherita di Savoia we chewed through the ’focaccia’ which I suppose at least took my mind off the drive, so for lunch we’ve got some leftover paposcia from our meal in Vieste the evening before which has survived remarkably well and despite being cold is still easy to chew, tasty and filling. At the Vesuvio bar in the shopping centre we have a caffè + cornetto for one euro, make use of the bathroom facilities and proceed to Grottaglie through the Valle d’Itria.

It's an easy journey but by the time we arrive in Grottaglie we are still tired and it takes a while to find the Airbnb. New but with a slightly neglected feel to it. It’s also very hot and muggy. It’s about five thirty before we’re ready to head into Grottaglie, rain and storms are threatening and Andrea is clearly not in the mood. But we’re unlikely to come by Grottaglie again so I’m curious and insist. There’s free parking just below the Quartiere delle Ceramiche (if you don’t count one euro to the ‘parcheggiatore abusivo’). The average of the ceramic shops could be described as very interesting but we stop longer in three in particular. Pinca, where we chat about ceramics in general, a very friendly man, I’m tempted to buy jug, reasonably priced considering everything is handmade but in the end the fear of it breaking before I get home prevails, a shop further up which looks like a fairy tale 

and that of Francesco Fasano the other side of the road. Francesco is not just a person who makes ceramics, he’s an artist who’s passionate about what he does. Nobody else would have taken the time to demonstrate his magnificent creations which play magic with colour and light at such great length on a raining evening to two people  who clearly from how they are dressed would never have the budget to buy anything he makes. This is the link to his website and if you’re the sort of person who does have the budget and a large white painted wall crying out for help, take a look. His lamps are absolutely spectacular.

We leave awed. Now it’s nearly supper time, plus looking at any other ceramics after seeing his isn’t quite the same, so we head to the historical centre of Grottaglie. It’s spitting rain and there’s nobody about. We have a few ideas about where to eat, but Andrea isn’t very in the mood for some and others are fully booked and I haven’t eaten much since breakfast and am tired and start to lose patience. So, after a look at the historical centre, very quiet at the time of the evening because it’s too early for a Saturday night out in Puglia, and in particular of the outside of the Duomo 

(there’s a mass in progress inside) we decide to go back to the Airbnb , getting a bit lost in the dark and losing patience even more. I produce pasta and we crash out. But I’m pleased we’ve seen Grottaglie.