Polignano a Mare

Polignano a Mare was the last city I visited during my trip to Puglia made with my family in June 2021. After visiting places already seen such as San Giovanni Rotondo and Alberobello, we also saw Monte Sant’Angelo for the first time and as last Polignano a Mare. To be honest, I had only recently discovered this city and unfortunately thanks to one of the social networks that I have learned to hate and that I have long since deleted. However, even then it had its share of positive influence and it was there that I saw for the first time the image of a cove flanked by very high rocks on which houses stood overhanging. The beach of the cove was full of people and colorful umbrellas with the backdrop of a turquoise sea. Doing research on the city I also discovered another photo that was the place from where the famous view was photographed. The very popular panorama was portrayed from a very high arched bridge built entirely of bricks. There were some beautiful photos that also portrayed it from the beach side so there were two versions of the cove; one with a sea view and one with a view of the bridge. Another thing I didn't know was that Polignano was also the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, a singer with a unique voice who from the post-war period until his death in the nineties had great success not only in Italy.
We reached Polignano a Mare in the morning after leaving Alberobello, the plan was to visit the city mostly in the hours before lunch so as to leave later. The historic center of the city was rightly closed to non-resident cars so we left our vehicle in a large parking lot in the new part of the city; in this way I could visit the place as I liked, simply by walking. It took exactly ten minutes to reach the city center and more precisely the bridge that overlooked the view, which has now become famous and identifiable for the city. Initially, rather than observing carefully, my sister and I began to take pictures of each other while our parents calmly reached the historic center. When I was finally able to dedicate myself to observing and photographing the view, I noticed something strange in the landscape, something unnatural but without immediately perceiving what it was. It was certainly the final part, the one that curved, the composition of the rock with horizontal lines seemed to be cut into layers. Another anomalous thing were the houses that apparently seemed to be built overhanging that rock. We tend to perceive things in a wrong way with respect to logic and as if our mind had been plagiarized by some mysterious force. Today that I have trained rationality and logic correctly, more than overhanging houses I see houses originally built on a plane where then something like an extreme and singular event caused the surrounding area to collapse creating the cove and the panorama that we see today. Observing more carefully, this was the most logical analysis I could do but which certainly should have been studied and explored further. However, regardless of the reasons that created that panorama, the place certainly had an incredible visual impact. The beach itself was smaller than I had imagined but there were many people and only a smaller amount of colored umbrellas. Walking along the bridge the perspective on the cove changed until it was possible to see the opening to the sea properly. In general the beach area was cared for with greenery and also a long strip of synthetic grass that was part of a restaurant.
Immediately after the bridge there was a structure that was a true symbol of separation between two totally different dimensions. It was called Arco Marchesale and it was a true arch that also developed in depth built entirely of stone. It was the only element in that context that differed from the rest of the urban planning that was mainly composed of flat and anonymous shaped apartment buildings like all those built in Italy in the sixties. The arch with a beautiful symmetry and an imposing appearance was literally the door to a totally different urban planning where the stone elements of the paving and the structures took over the banal concrete. The first impact with the historic center took me back in time, in fact there were many ancient buildings let's say like those of the nineteenth century but also buildings completely in stone that had a more rustic appearance and certainly belonged to another historical period. The streets had a paving with an irregular laying but always with very bright tones. Walking through the historic center I immediately noticed the cleanliness and conservation of the buildings that were almost all restored and mainly white or light brown in color. Understanding the styles, however, was very difficult because it was evident that over time new buildings had been constructed using parts of the old ones and, above all, the old ones were also of a different nature.
One of the most interesting place of the historic center was the panoramic point close to the sea where, in addition to it, you could also see the two ends of the city. From there I noticed that the structure of the rock where the houses stood was of a very strange nature, from one side you could see caves that went right under the city and in any case the rock itself gave the impression of being of a very strong typology but somehow it had been broken. On the other side you could see the part of the rock that started from the cove and reached the sea. This was even stranger with very long horizontal lines like perfectly cut layers. It was as if that rock had been formed by layers of flat rock placed one on top of the other but we are talking about hundreds of meters of rock. The view of the cove from the panoramic point was certainly more beautiful and gave other ideas for analysis compared to that from the bridge. After the panoramic point, the exploration of the historic center continued through those original and renovated houses that even if they did not have a common style were certainly of a unique beauty precisely because they were mixed with each other in a particular unison.

Arco Marchesale

Layers Rocks

We stopped for lunch around 1:30 PM in a restaurant, and we ate outside under the tent enjoying a seafood pasta that was delicious. Lunch lasted about an hour and then in the afternoon we went for a walk through the streets where there were souvenir shops. The more I walked in the historic center the more I saw the mix of houses all well kept and where by tradition there were poetic writings outside them. Those streets and houses were full of charm and mystery so much so that I photographed a lot simply following my instinct and not logic. The final visit before leaving was to the statue of Domenico Modugno which was located slightly north of the cove and the historic center. The statue showed the singer in one of his classic poses with his arms open, a symbol to represent the flight of his song "Volare" but also a form of love and passion towards the public in a sort of symbolic embrace. Beyond the statue there was a staircase that led to the rock that ended at the sea. Together with my sister we went down just out of curiosity and continuing towards the sea we arrived almost at the end where the rock had a shape that was alien to me. More than on a cliff, I had the impression of being on an archaeological site, where before there was who knows what imposing structure. It was the part that could be seen from the panoramic point and that seemed to be formed by layers, up close my sensation was more or less the same, even if you couldn't see the layers that remained underground, the shape of the surface was even stranger. The rock had rounded shapes but kept the surface flat in several points and for several meters. The parts presumably consumed by erosion, showed other parts that for me had been structures because they had a certain constructive symmetry. I had my sister take many photos of me, telling her to take especially wide shots so that the particularity of that site could be noted. Personally, I immediately had a strange feeling when I came into contact with that area and my feelings suggested to me that the place was not what it seemed, that is, a cliff shaped by erosion. This had certainly consumed and cleaned up a bit of the surface but that conformation was definitely something else because real layers were evident, something that nature and erosion cannot form. Still in the same site which was very large, I found the view from the far right of the cliff interesting, the one that overlooked the panoramic point where I had been before; from there you could perceive that the houses could not have been built on the layered rock but rather it seemed that it had been cut dry. That was the last view of Polignano, after which we left the city before 4 PM to go home.
If the historic center of Polignano amazed me with its various styles, its cleanliness and originality, the rock formation made me think and elaborate theories. Then I perceived something but only later and thanks to the photos I was able to study the phenomenon better. Just as in my city, where about three meters underground there are the remains of another city, it is evident that there was in the past, not even as far away as we imagine, some event that buried it. Polignano also gave me this impression, especially the latest images of the historic center. Probably that rock formation had once been something like a building or series of buildings and the sea was further away and at a certain point in history maybe three hundred years ago, the entities that lived at that time consciously built on the rubble or on what some event had strangely shaped making it look like rock. Little by little I am looking differently at the strange conformations that southern Italy is full of, places that immediately captured my attention because they are different from nature. Today, looking at the photos of Polignano as well as other places I have visited, I am sure of one thing; nature does not create geometric shapes with dry and precise cuts. It is enough to start from this principle, use a minimum of logic and rationality and even if we are not part of the elite who have the tools to understand and then tell the story that suits them, we can still understand and if not find, at least get closer to the true reality of things.

Domenico Modugno Statue

Alien Landscape

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A.M.