Polignano a Mare Travel Guide

After visiting the local market, you have second half of day to explore the Polignano a Mare’s charming old town. On the corner of Via Martiri Dogali and Via Pompeo Samelli you will find excellent Deli which helps you to recharge your batteries. Across the street (Pompeo Samelli) you see the entrance to the Castello (or what has left from it). Turn left and you find Chiesa del Purgatorio, 18th century Baroque Church of Purgatory. Follow the narrow medieval street and turn right at the end of it. Next cobblestone lane brings you to the heart of the old town. Here, at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, you will find the main church in the Vecchio Polignano (the old Polignano) – the Matrice Church, dated 1628.

Narrow lane brings you to a seaside square with restaurant, gelateria and fantastic seascape. It’s a great please to wonder the old town’s beautiful alleys, admiring the historic buildings. The town is also famous for its caves, and some of the caves are so deep that they reach down to the center of the town. The famous Palazzese Grotto can be reached from the sea and from land, via a staircase inside the famous restaurant of the same name. The other grottos that can be visited by boat are Grotta Ardito, Grotta Stalattitica and Grotta della Foca.
The signs of human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic age have been found in these caves.

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Little and Cozy, along the main road of the old Polignano.
We where there twice in two years, and always ate good fish at very reasonable price (cheaper than in northern Italy, as always..)
Great for a romantic dinner.

Favorite Dish: A wonderful dish of fresh seafood.... everything very fresh and nothing cooked

Polignano a Mare holds market on Thursday when hundreds of trucks from entire province of Bari come here.

Come early because the market ends sharply around noon.

What to buy: You can buy almost everything you need here – cloths, footwear, household items, food etc.

What to pay: Everything is new (it is not a flea market), cheap and good quality.

And how the town got its name? There are several stories about it. As the first goes, the tiny city was built by the Greeks, and named Polymnianum which means place "constructed on high".
Other scholars claim that Pompeo Sarnelli, the Bishop of Bisceglie from 1692 to 1724, built the first permanent village nearby, at Caio Marino. And here he constructed a tower, which he later named "Polimnia" (the name of a muse). Now the main street in Polignano a Mare bears the bishop’s name.

Other historians affirm that it was indeed a Greek colony but it was named "Maganza" then "Apenestae". Others say that it was called "Neapolis Peucetorum." What is certain is that coins were found here with the gilded "NEAP" on them.

Meanwhile marine colony grew up, the so-called Neapolis was renamed Polis-nea (new city), later Polineanum, followed by Polignano and now Polignano a Mare.

Even in Italy not many people knows that Domenico Modugno was born in Polignano a Mare, pearl on the rocks of coast of Puglia.Who is Domenio Modugno?! did you ever heard an Italian melody on a man flying into the blu painted of blu?..well,he is that man.it was fashion and exotic at that time to tell you were from Sicily,and when once"Mimmo" Modugno came in Polignano two drunk locals ,in order to punish him because he lied on his origin,took him from his legs,upsidedown,and leaned him out from a balcony...but this is a sort of legend no many people knows.

Unique Suggestions: Anyway,when he became old and rich he used to come back to his hometown and he begin to tell the truth on his origin,but who did care anymore during the eighties of Reagan and italian christian democracy?

Fun Alternatives: About Domenico Mister Volare Modugno,Just wanna say that according to me however the most famous song is not the best,he wrote a lot of songs and there are more than twenty masterpiece between them.If you ever come in Italy it has to be a must to buy a compilation of the best of Domenico Modugno,there are some cheap and complete.

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Favorite thing: a nice town in a wonderful position.. You wonder along narrow and white streets, and suddenly you are in a very little square that opens directly over the sea, that you can see from a balcony under your feet..

Fondest memory: the warm spring evenings... eating sitting outside.. promise of the incoming summer!