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Visit Around Peschici on the Gargano: |
SEA CAVES TOUR
Every day (with optimal meteorological conditions) from Peschici's arbour, at 9.00 a.m., comfortable boats depart for the visit to the sea caves of the coast of the Gargano.
These are one of the classic excursions for the visitor, here you can discover the extraordinary beauty of our territory: The conformation of the white cliff, how it falls into the sea, the postcard inlets and the very beautiful sea caves.
The trip is pleasant: After a first part up to lunch time, the boat stops in the famous bay of St. Felice. The Bay of S. Felice, boxed among two backs sprinkled of thick and perfumed pineta, is one of the most suggestive bays.
To make it special there is the Architiello (little arch), a cliff broadly perforated, which stands at the bay entrance like a portentous arc of triumph.
The legend wants that it was built from the sea Nymphs and from the Triton to welcome in the month of July Neptune, king of the sea, on a tour with his bride Anfitrite, and to honor him.
There is the possibility of diving and having lunch; Then the boat leaves again to complete the tour and takes the rout for the return, arriving back to the arbour at around 4.00 p.m
Trip to Monte Sant'Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo of "Padre Pio"
This excursion is easily doable in a day, departing soon in the morning. Take and follow the road (state road 89, dir. Vieste) towards the “Umbra Forest” (20 km), to the alternative of I untie to the center of the forest him it continues with the indication for Mountain Sant”Angelo, 30 kms., situated to an altitude to around 800 mt. from l.m. it is the center Garganico più I load of history and of traditions and it owes his development at the end of the V century, when, according to the tradition, the archangel Michael appeared in a cave. The Longobardis, that dominated in southern Italy in that period, did their national sanctuary of it.
Shortly it became famous in all the Christianity and a forced destination, not only for the pilgrims from all Europe, but also for the Crusaders in departure for Jerusalem, for Popes and Sovereigns. You access the Sanctuary going down a long and ample stairway. The doors of entry are made out of bronze and they were fused to Constantinople in 1076, on behalf of the noble Pantaleone from Amalfi. The altars and the images that decorate them, are graven in the same rock of the cave. On the central altar, instead, the white and marvelous marmoreal statue of Andrew Sansovino towers and, on the presbytery, the graven Episcopalian desk on stone of the XII century.
After the forenoon devoted to the Archangel's town, you can towards to the near city of "Padre Pio" - St. Giovanni Rotondo. Absorbed in the green of the National Park of the Gargano and leaned on the high ground of the hills behind the Bald Mountain (Monte Calvo), the city of St. Giovanni is set to the center of a beautiful natural scenery. Going to back in time, to discover the origins of this commune, we go up again to the year Thousand. St. Giovanni was founded on the ruins of a preexisting village of the IV century A. C.; of this suburb the visible signs that remain are some graves and a circular baptistery, anciently destined to the cult of Giano, and subsequently consecrated to St. Giovanni.
The city lives other events, up to when in 1916, a young Father Pious (Padre Pio) comes. Since then to today, the name of the city will indissolubly be tied to that of the Monk of Pietralcina, who has renewed the faith message spreading it in the whole Catholic universe. He devoted his life to the service of the Church, promoting the birth of the prayer groups and realising caritative works, first of all the hospital "House Relief of the Suffering", from himself Father Pious defined "Temple of Prayer and Science".
Inaugurated on May 5 th 1956, the hospital has been being for one decade recognized Institute of Recovery and Care of scientific character and it has over thousand bed places.
The historical centre of St. Giovanni is a separeted part of the city, for who is used to frequent it for the sacred places tied to the cult of Father Pious.
The archipelago of the Tremiti "the islands of the Park"
The excursion to the Tremiti is a must tour for the tourist on vacation in Peschici. From the dock every morning at 09.00 the ships depart with direct line for the islands; the route takes one and half hour; the return is expected at about 5.30 p.m..
Known since antiquity as “Islands Diomedee”, these islands are tied to the legend of the mythical Greek hero Diomede, who lands on the coasts of Gargano and chooses this territory as his dwelling.
The archipelago of Tremiti is composed of four islets: St. Domino, the biggest in dimension and population, is covered by a thick Aleppo pinewood and by a flourishing Mediterranean woodland. The natural cavities of the islet can be visited with some trips organized by the local fishermen or renting a raft: The cave of the "Violas”, the cave of the “Sea Ox” and the one of the “Small Swallows” are the most famous.
The island of St. Nicola constitutes the historical and administrative center of the archipelago. To see there is the Abbey with the still intact surrounding, which makes the island a true monument above the sea.
The little island of Capraia is situated at North of St. Nicola. It is wild and uninhabited; the rock is covered by a vegetation of thistles, capers and artemisia bushes.
The islet Crepaccio, not bigger than a rock-cliff, differentiates from the others for its yellowish color of the clayey nature of the ground: There is not vegetation here.
To the visitor, the color of the crystalline sea will remain engraved. If he/she has time and ability, he or she will be able to swim in the backdrops of the islands and admire the unique sea habitat of this "legendary" archipelago.
The National Park of Gargano - The "Umbra Forest"
On December 6th 1991 the national Park of Gargano was founded.
A park is not created or invented: it is simply recognized that a particular territory has particular needy characteristics of guardianship.
And the Gargano has a lot of reasons to be safeguarded. It represents in fact, an extraordinary mosaic of biological and environmental situations assembled in a narrow territory.
In this biological island, surrounded from the sea and from the plain of the Tavoliere, a tall degree of biodiversity is present: on this 0,7% of the national territory there is around the 33% of the Italian vegetable kinds and 170 of the 237 kinds of nesting birds in Italy reproduce themselves there. This exceptional wealth originates from the variety of the echo-systems that follow each other, which make the "Italian boot's spur" of a vocated territory to be a National Park.
A lot of the 2.000 vegetable species of Gargano are endemic (exclusive) of the territory and very rare.
An unique particularity in Italy is represented by the presence of the Beech tree at very low (less than 300 m.) shares. This arboreal kind is favorite from the particular climate of Gargano that assures abundant precipitations in the late spring.
The Beech tree is the heart of the Umbra Forest, but there as elsewhere, next to it there are Lindens, Maples, Turkey Oaks, Holms, Hornbeams, Elms, Rates... these kinds are very often characterized by an out of the ordinary growth (macrosomatism) and many specimens have several centuries: it is the case of a lot of Rates and Beechs of the forest and the known Holm of the Capuchins Convent in Vico.
Numerous are also the brushwoods species: Cyclamens, violas, hollies, hawthorns, wild apple trees, ivy... Endemic plants of Gargano are, among the others, the Scabiosa of Dallaporta, the Inula Candida, the Garganic Campanula, the Cisto of Clusio. Remarkable the presence of Orchids: they are almost 100 species.
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