Four days, from the sea to the holy mountain

The Gargano is small and round, and Vieste sits on its edge: which means every trip is a spoke that leaves from the same centre and comes back in the evening. These four cover what people come for: the sea seen from the water, the forest, the hill towns and the sanctuary.

The caves by boat

From Vieste harbour the boats for the sea caves leave every morning: three hours along the southern coast, with stops for a swim in the coves and entry into those you can go inside. It is the trip to do first, because from land that coast cannot be seen.

The villages of the north coast

Peschici sits on a white spur sheer above the sea and is walked in an hour; Vico del Gargano has an intact medieval centre and a quarter they call the Civita; Rodi Garganico is a citrus town facing the sea. All three are within half an hour of Vieste, and they make one day with the Foresta Umbra in the middle.

Monte Sant'Angelo

Monte Sant'Angelo stands at eight hundred metres and is reached by an hour of climbing road. The sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel is a cave turned into a church in the fifth century, a Unesco site since 2011 as a place of Lombard power: you go down a stairway of eighty-six steps and enter the rock. Above it is the Junno quarter, with its white terraced houses.

The Tremiti

In summer the hydrofoils for the Tremiti islands leave Vieste harbour in the morning and come back in the afternoon: an hour and a quarter each way. San Domino is the island of Aleppo pines and coves, San Nicola the one with the fortified abbey. You stay in the water all day; the sea here has been a marine reserve since 1989.