Trabucco da Mimi (or finding Gillian’s Island in Puglia)

Those Phoenicians were a clever bunch. One of their inventions was an ingenious way to fish on a large-ish scale from land, no matter what the weather, thereby avoiding hours / days at sea (and presumably avoiding getting wet as an added bonus).

They’re called trabucci and I was very excited to discover some still exist in Puglia (and Abruzzo, but we weren’t going there). You can read more about them, and how they work here

You can find them along the Puglian coast, some decaying into the sea, some still working, and some offering fresh fish to hungry nomads such as ourselves. We visited three while travelling along the Gargano coast but Trabucco da Mimi was by far my favourite.

After following a narrow dirt track off the main road our first glimpse of Trabucco da Mimi was promising indeed: part beach shack, part Gillian’s island, part Tiki bar. I immediately knew I’d found my happy place.

We ordered at the bar (the menu’s all in Italian but the staff speak English if you get stuck), and were lucky enough to get a prime position metres away from the water.But there’s plenty of other lovely spots to sit, and as you can see it’s a fairly casual affairInside there’s a bar and lots of suitably nautical detailsDinner was simple and delicious, although those little fishies were a bit fiddly. Lucky Mr Travelling Pantaloni is an excellent hand at extracting fish from bones, no matter what the size!We stayed until after dark, and had a few more drinks while the lights of nearby Peschici twinkled across the water

If you’re keen to experience it for yourself, my tip is to book ahead and go early so you can watch the sun set.

Trabucco da Mimi

Localita Punta S.Nicola, Peschici

Ph 0884 962556

www.altratrabucco.it

Until next time, happy travels,

The Travelling Pantaloni