The Gateway to the East

Here you are MOLFETTA (ba), cut in stone, made of sharp edges like a diamond, born flush with old walls, tiny and complicated. You have arrived in a labyrinth of streets, in the meander of houses of our old town, you are in the lock of these walls. You are the key to enter the city through the historic gate of Via Piazza. Turn your gaze, beyond the rooftops, towards the sea that bathes the stone beyond the green windows, the famous Green Molfetta shutters, where our two silent and thinking towers stand out, one a bell tower and the other a lookout tower.

These are the towers of the Dome of San Corrado, built between the 12th and 13th centuries with the main architectural features of the Apulian Romanesque style. Cross Piazza Municipio, which leads to the streets without arrival, tunnels carved into the soft, pale stone on which the reflections of the sea arrive.

Gateway to the east swallows us all, bathes these wayfarers in dreams. Walls of white and rosy square protect from the sea the curious eyes and you unsuspecting passers-by plunge your hearts where the gaze dare not look choose to elevate your spirits, choose to fly or like kites carried by the wind like thoughts whispered to the waves.

Look at the mother of each one's time. A hole in the heart that hides history, everyone's home, a glimpse of the future, of our past preserves memory a precise point, open and deep our PULO is one and the centre of our world. The dolina del Pulo di Molfetta, a karst sinkhole inhabited since the Neolithic period, where two 'idols' were recently found, is one of the most important natural monuments visible along the stretch of coastline in the north of Bari.

It is home to an example of industrial archaeology as evidenced by the nitrate-rich caves and the presence of the most important nitriera of the kingdom of Naples and the Bourbons. Come to Molfetta and try to enter where music mixes with the waves and stone is bathed in light, in a history of art, tears, faces, stones and the sea.

Where words, hidden between interstices of walls, fight the darkness of world history, is the birthplace of Gaetano Salvemini. Light footsteps but deep furrows, of a Man and a Saint who taught a concrete Peace by walking beside us here, Don Tonino Bello. Feel the history, listen to the buzz of years gone by that mark the face with hard hands of earth soiled we season our palates with taste.

Puntarella chicory is our queen, close to PGI recognition. Skilful hands artfully knead heart, water and salt, filling our palates with flavour, whether calzone, triddo or scarcella, our cuisine inebriates not only the senses. Stop here, stop now, in front of the Torrione overlooking the sea since 1512. The Torrione Passari, initially a cannon house, later became a watchtower and is now world-famous as a precious casket for contemporary art exhibitions. And then there are the events of the Easter tradition, with the processional rites of Holy Week or the suggestive sea festival for the Patron Saint's Feast in September.

Choose to dream prisoners of ecstasy to be stone embraced by the sea, to be heart embracing a dream. Stop now and let yourself be lulled by the sweet melody of those who have always sung with the sea.

Molfetta awaits you.

Places to visit: Dome of San Corrado, Cathedral, Old Town, Diocesan Museum, Archaeological Museum, Pulo, Passari Tower, Templar Hall, Fish Market, Basilica of Our Lady of Martyrs with the Crusaders' Hospital .