MONOPOLI ITALY
Monopoli is a wondrous place, an unmissable city on the Adriatic Sea on any southern Italy itinerary.
Close enough to anywhere you want to go to allow for day trips, it is also an amazing town all on its own. The architecture is quintessential Italian with narrow streets and laundry draped balconies. It is a walkable city with weathered stone buildings and lavish greenery. I love the combination of the sea, palm trees, succulents, and flowers provided the scenery my desert-dwelling life had been craving. We stayed there five nights and took several day trips using it as a home base. To this day, it’s the place in Italy I miss most.
Monopoli is a tourist must see not only for the fisherman you’ll see at the harbor and the espressos you’ll have in the piazzas, but also the practicality of a city where you can go rent a car and buy a toothbrush. Farther from the heart of the heart of the city is good shopping and a decent size city.
Monopoli has excellent cuisine, a gorgeous harbor, and quite possibly my favorite piazza in all of Italy–Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi. We stayed at the hotel Palazzo Indelli, in the heart of this piazza where our window opened out to the plaza. The bar in our hotel had a menu full of various spritz options; I was in heaven. The bartender who helped us drink our way through the menu wore a different fashion-forward outfit everyday, proving once again that Italian style, even away from large cities, is impeccable. Although I knew this, it was still an unexpected delight to see the innate, impeccable style of a local we came to know.
Every day we would have aperitifs as we people-watched, discussed the plan for the next day, and enjoyed la dolce vita.
My most cherished moment in Monopoli was on a Sunday afternoon, when, as with many small towns in Italy, there is not a whole lot open or to do. This quiet time is perfect because that is the best way to embrace Italian culture. The best memories of Monopoli were the simple things, meals, morning runs on the beach, coffee, wine, and strolling around the city.
This Sunday was a rainy, chilly day. While to most people this would be upsetting, to me this was magical. We had traveled in October which means that when we got to Italy it was warm and sunny, the end of summer. A few days into the trip it slowly turned to fall and this particular day it was full-fledged Italian autumn. The sky was gray and it was drizzling off and on. There are few things in life that make me happier than sitting in the rain enjoying a drink by the ocean. The rain has this calming effect that seems to make everyone slow down. As the sun started to set on this Sunday afternoon it really started to pour.
Luckily for us our favorite local wine bar opened at 5pm, Tuttapposto. Our five-minute walk from the hotel had us soaked by the time we got there. The owner greeted us with a huge smile. He is an older Italian gentleman who doesn’t speak a lick of English but is the warmest and friendliest soul. We got the best seat in the house, the small seats in the stone window that overlooked the sea.
When you are outside this window on the water this is THE VIEW.
It’s the iconic view of the sea with fishing boats that you see on every postcard and google review. The pub started to fill up and the owner turned up the disco music, clearly his absolute favorite from his younger years. He chatted, sang, and danced his way between tables. We had our favorite aperitifs–wine and taralli (a Puglian cracker that puts any other carb snack to shame).
I tasted a lot of wine in Monopoli, just like everywhere in Italy. Table wine in Italy is delicious, cheap, and the best way to discover different grapes. At our favorite wine bar I had no internet service to google anything about grapes and stumbled upon my favorite wine, susumaniello. Perhaps it’s my favorite because it is a delicious grape, or perhaps it is my favorite because it reminds me of Monopoli, does it really matter?
After my five days in Monopoli it was time to head to the next city. I was ready for a more metropolitan feel and a faster pace. But looking to the future, I still look at properties in Monopoli hoping for an early retirement.
