The Pizzomunno and the sea caves of the Gargano
On the easternmost tip of the Gargano promontory, the "spur" of the Italian boot, Vieste is the main seaside resort of the area and one of the most beautiful towns on the Adriatic. Its white old town stands on a rocky headland overlooking the sea, crowned by the Swabian castle and the Romanesque cathedral, with steep lanes and stairways leading down to the water.
Its symbol is the Pizzomunno, a white limestone monolith about 25 metres high, which rises at the foot of the town on the long Spiaggia del Castello. A local legend tells of a young fisherman, Pizzomunno, who loved a girl named Cristalda; jealous mermaids dragged her to the bottom of the sea, and the young man turned to stone from grief; every hundred years, on the night of the summer solstice, the two lovers are said to meet again. The coast around Vieste is a sequence of white cliffs, coves and beaches and dozens of sea caves, such as the Grotta dei Due Occhi, the Grotta Sfondata and the Grotta Campana, which can be explored on boat trips. Along the coast there are also the "trabucchi", ancient fishing machines of wood suspended over the sea. Vieste is part of the Gargano National Park.
Tip: the boat tour of the caves leaves from the port in the morning; the Umbrian Forest, the great beech forest of the Gargano, is a short drive inland.
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