In short. Monopoli is a working fishing port on the Adriatic with a baroque old town behind its sea walls and thirteen kilometres of coast either side — sandy coves, hidden inlets and rock. It is twenty minutes from Polignano and forty from Bari, and it is the one town on this coast that carries on being itself in August.
The name is Greek and means “single city”. What it actually is now is a port with a town behind it: fishing boats colouring the water, old walls holding back the sea, and lanes of white houses and baroque churches behind them.
The old town and the port
Walking the centre of Monopoli means baroque churches next to white houses with flowering balconies. The building that dominates it is the Cathedral of Maria Santissima della Madia, and the Castle of Charles V stands out over the water at the edge of the old town.
The port is the working heart of the place. Boats come in and the day’s catch is sold straight off them — not as a performance for visitors, but because that is how fish gets sold here. The sea walls along the front are what the town was defended with, and the walk along them is the best thing to do at the end of the day.
The beaches
The coast of Monopoli runs for more than thirteen kilometres and changes character every few hundred metres: hidden coves, sandy beaches, rocky inlets.
- Cala Porta Vecchia — right against the old town, fine sand and clear water. The one you can walk to from lunch.
- Cala Sottile — a small cove hidden in the rocks, for people who would rather not see anybody.
- Cala Tre Buchi — free beach, no facilities, and quiet with it.
Why this coast works better than the famous one. Polignano has the photograph, and in August it has the crowd that comes with it. Monopoli, twenty minutes away, has more coastline, more places to park and a town that is still doing its own business while you visit. If you are choosing a base on this stretch, that difference is worth more than the view.
Around it
Monopoli is a good starting point for a great deal. Polignano a Mare and its sea caves are a few kilometres north. Inland, Alberobello and the trulli are half an hour away, and so are the caves of Castellana. Bari is forty minutes up the coast by train.
Monopoli is the working port of the Adriatic coast, and it lives all year rather than only in August.
Its biggest night is 14 August, when the Madonna della Madia is rowed ashore at Cala Batteria: it is the opening of Ferragosto in Puglia, and the one evening of the three we would keep if we could keep only one.
