Hiking the Gargano

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Finally made to the Gargano area! We had been wanting to visit this area because it has a national park and mountains. Everything we heard about the place was that it quite beautiful and an interesting place to go visit. Its official name is Promontorio Garagano. It is a spur on the heel and is about 3 hours north of Brindisi.
Our good friends Vincenzo & Sara accompanied us on this trip. We stayed at the Monte Sacro Agriturismo, this is an actual working farm with rooms for guests. They also had a small ristorante on the premises. It is the equivalent of a dude ranch in the states.
The prices were a screaming deal. For three full meals and rooms, we paid 160 euro for each couple. The food was hearty country style cooking accompanied by two bottles of decent wine. It was an excellent deal.
One of our goals was to hike in the hills which we accomplished the first day we arrived. We set out to hike to the ruins of an old Benedictine Abbey located in the area. We hiked to what we thought was the abbey, but after consideration decided that that couldn’t possibly be the abbey. Looking into the hills we spotted another bigger building - so we set off to go take a look.
The terrain in the hills is quite rocky and is quite poor for cultivation so the locals use it for cows, sheep, and goats. We didn’t follow a path and just hiked cross-country. Everything went well until we walked into a patch of nettles that were hidden by tall ferns. Sara ended up with a severe reaction and had blisters. Vincenzo and I had welts while Beth didn’t have a reaction at all.
The next day we drove to Vieste that is on a promontory. It is a nice touristy seaside town. The drive there is on winding coastal road. It was a bit stressful because unbeknownst to us there was a bike rally going on. Having packs of motorcycles passing you on hairpins turns was a bit hair-raising.
We drove back through the park road. It was a sedate beautiful drive. We intend to visit this part more thoroughly in the future.

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Photos

Country road
The agriturismo is located high up in the hill above the coastline...it is very rural.

"Footing"
Is what the word hiking translates into Italian.

Stone walls
Everyhere. Could only speculate on the hours spent constructing them...no shortage of rock!

This is it?
This look like an abbey?

Break time
This "footing" stuff is supposed to be fun?

Disaster lurking
just around the corner in the form of stinging nettles...up to that point it had been a happy lark through the woods.

Headed to Vieste
The roads just begs for the top down and zipping along in...a Porche!

Headed to the Piazza
Vieste is a cool seaside town.

Old Friends
sat on the park bench like bookends. Quick...where does that line come from?

Getting ready for lunch
In the old part of Vieste...another excellent meal...fresh seafood.

What?
I can't hear you! Says Sara, "the bikes are really loud."