Parco Nazionale del Gargano
One of Italy's largest national parks, a place of sweeping coast and deep, ancient forests, sits on the spur of southern Italy in Puglia, jutting out into…
Must-see attractions in Promontorio del Gargano
- Santuario di San Michele
Over the centuries this sanctuary has expanded to incorporate a large complex of religious buildings that overlay its original shrine. The double-arched…
- Tomba di Rotari
A short flight of stairs opposite the Santuario di San Michele leads to a 12th-century baptistry with a deep sunken basin for total immersion. You enter…
- Cathedral
Built by the Normans on the ruins of a Vesta temple, this 11th-century 'co-cathedral' (so called because its bishopric is shared with another) is in…
- Castello di Peschici
Peschici's medieval hilltop castle stands sentinel over the town's port, and inside there is a fascinating Museum of Torture with life-sized replicas of…
- Roman Amphitheatre
Dating to the last (Augustan) days of the Roman Republic, Lucera's amphitheatre was built for gladiatorial combat and accommodated up to 18,000 people…
- Museum & Nature Centre
There is a small centro visitatori (visitors centre) in the middle of Foresta Umbra that houses a museum and nature centre with fossils, photographs, and…
- Castle
At the highest point of Monte Sant'Angelo is this rugged fastness, first built by Orso I, who later became Doge of Venice, in the 9th century. One 10th…
- Cathedral
On the former site of Lucera’s Great Mosque (itself built by the Saracens over an existing church as a symbol of conquest) Puglia’s only Gothic cathedral…
- La Salata
This palaeo-Christian graveyard dating from the 4th to 6th centuries AD is 9km out of town. Inside the cave, tier upon tier of narrow tombs are cut into…
- Castle
Frederick II’s enormous castle shows just what a big fish Lucera once was in the Puglian pond. Built in 1233, it’s set on a rocky hillock surrounded by a…
- Chiesa di San Francesco
Dominated by a huge rose window, the Gothic Chiesa di San Francesco, contemporaneous with Lucera's cathedral, incorporates recycled materials from Lucera…
- Museo Malacologico
This esoteric shell museum has four rooms of fossils and molluscs, some enormous and all beautifully patterned and coloured. Note the seasonal opening…
- Chianca Amara
Vieste's most gruesome sight is this worn and polished stone where thousands were beheaded when Turks sacked Vieste in the 16th century.