The coast and the trabucchi

A trabucco is a fishing machine of poles, ropes and winches, built on a rock spur and reaching out over the sea: from the land a square net is lowered between two arms up to twenty metres long, and when the fish pass over it it is hauled up with the winch. It existed to fish without going out in a boat, on days when the sea was too rough.

There are about forty of them on the Gargano, between Peschici, Vieste, Mattinata and the coast towards Manfredonia, and some are more than two centuries old. Since 1992 the national park has protected them as heritage, because nearly all were falling apart; many have been rebuilt by the families who owned them, and some still work.

The coast to see

The most spectacular stretch runs from Vieste southwards: you drive the coast road to Mattinata, which rises and falls along the cliffs, and every few kilometres a viewpoint opens. The coves are reached on foot by steep paths or by boat; Vignanotica has a ten minute walk from the car park, the Baia delle Zagare can only be seen from above or from the water.

The Pizzomunno

On the beach in front of the castle of Vieste stands the Pizzomunno, a white limestone monolith twenty-five metres high, left standing while the rest of the cliff retreated. The local legend tells of a fisherman and a girl, the sirens and a curse: it is the town's postcard, and at sunset it takes on a colour worth stopping for.

Many trabucchi are now restaurants too, and you eat sitting over the water among the poles; there are few covers and they must be booked. Others remain what they were and are only looked at, which is free and sometimes better.