best place to stay in Gargano: Pizzicato B&B

Apulia fascinates me particularly. Maybe because part of my origins go back to there, maybe because whenever I go there I always find sun and sea, or maybe because I go there since I was a child, or maybe because all the Apulian I know are wonderful people… or maybe it is for the passion I have for the whole Southern Italy… I mean, I could list a hundred or more reasons why I love Puglia!

The fact is that it is good for me to go there, each time I visit a different piece of the region and I’m never disappointed.
Thanks to the project #BloggerHouse of Pizzicato Eco Bed & Breakfast, the best place to stay in Gargano, we spent three wonderful days exploring the beauty of this region.

Vieste

The best place to stay in Gargano: Pizzicato eco B&B

Pizzicato eco B&B was the “base camp”, the most original B&B we have ever happened to see.
Each room (which would be more appropriate to call small apartments) has its own theme: strawberry, chocolate, coffee, lemon… We stayed in the Chocolate room, and entering in there was a hard blow for my good will about the diet every time! But in the end, who thinks about the diet during a travel?

So I admired the chocolate-themed paintings , and I smelled the Chocolate fragrance – ecologic! – that filled the air during your stay.
All rooms are equipped with kitchen, sofa, closet, even radio CD!
And I found really useful and convenient the idea of the cabinet bed. I had never seen one (live!), much less tried, one before, but I have to admit that its comfort was beyond all my expectations.

Breakfast is served in the Pizzicato cafe, a ten minute walk from the b&b: a full breakfast, handmade and… delicious! I ate the most delicious homemade croissants I’ve ever tried. Never mind those with Nutella cream, which you can also found at your house, and devour croissants with “Visciole” cherries, or apricot jam!
There is nothing to do, when things are done well, with love and experience, you can see and taste the difference. You can feel it in everything: the taste, the smell, the way people who make them and those who eat them talk about it. At Pizzicato, both the cafe and the B&B, love and experience are not only perceived, are breathed.

The breakfast at Pizzicato CafèVico del Gargano
Vico is an excellent starting point to visit Gargano, a fifteen-minute drive from the sea, ten minutes from Umbra Forest.
I do not want to talk about what to see here: Vico is to be seen.
Walking through the narrow streets and small squares, and that is true for the whole of Puglia, is not just a walk: it’s an experience.
An experience that smells of forgotten things, of white glimpses, of pebbles and traditions.

I found , turning in a narrow downhill, geese and roosters walking free. When I approached the geese they started running in their cage, and the funniest thing was seeing the roosters reporting them to the ranks! Then I hid, and they came out again. In a desperate attempt to photograph them, I got closer again, and they again run inside the cages. This game has lasted at least fifteen minutes, I felt just like a little girl! A little girl who lived in long past times…

Also, a little later, we passed an elderly gentleman who walked leaning on two crutches. He was trying to bring two empty cardboard boxes , pushing them a bit further with each step he took. How can you avoid asking him if he needed help, facing those scenes? And so we did, bringing those boxes for him up to his house, under his directions, which we couldn’t understand because he was talking a strong dialect.
But sometimes “karma” doesn’t work properly: in fact, to help him, we got drenched with the flash flood that exploded a few minutes later, while we were in the Castle. Sheltering in the courtyard of the castle, with its white walls, wooden benches and ivy climbing the walls, however, has its own charm. So sometimes not all evil comes to harm. Let’s say karma worked half.

Where (and what) to eat
I already spoke of Pizzicato cafe, but it never hurts to say it one more time: just go for it! It’s also ranked in the “Gambero Rosso” guide among the best cafes in Foggia’s province.
Here don’t miss the “Sospiri”, typicial sweets of Vico: little cakes covered with icing and filled with cream or chocolate… pure poetry for the senses at the first bite. AfterI tried the first one I couldn’t resist and I brought home a whole pound of them!

For lunch or dinner, I recommend the cellar restaurant “Il Trappeto”. A restaurant housed in an old oil mill, of the suggestive atmosphere. It seems to eat inside a cave, and the tables are made from the stone wheels which were used to crush the olives and get the oil out of them! The choice of wines is very big, and they serve a delicious “Paposcia Vichese”: a traditional “focaccia” (a some kind of pizza) of Vico, certified by the “Slow Food Presidium”, with pecorino cheese and olive oil. Simple and tasty ingredients with intense but not annoying flavor.

For a fast, or even to-go pizza, there is “Pizzeria Tony”, 160 feet from the B&B. Easy to get to, also here you can eat both pizza and Paposcia (but I recommend you try the one at Trappeto). A simple and familiar business, great for a quick dinner.

Last but not least, the Jazz bar. A snack bar that serves, at lunch, main courses, second courses and sides at great prices. Right portions and good taste: a must-try if you get to Vico for lunch time!

Still you wonder why I love Apulia?