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Casa Polpo
Monopoli, Puglia, Italy
Casa Polpo
Monopoli, Puglia, Italy
Captain’s Home
Once a ship captain’s modest port home, this light-filled, vividly updated, 17th-century apartment features a contemporary island kitchen at its heart, under a whitewashed span of 15-foot Gothic arches. Italian cookbooks offer inspiration and a farm table for two angles toward the pretty streetfront balcony, beckoning easy dining and an experience of dolce far niente.
Located in the Centro Storico of Monopoli, an Adriatic port city that charms with its weathered alleys, timeless quay and salty sea breezes, this sleekly renovated captain’s home has landed anew. Renovated in blinding white, with soothing grey underfoot, the modernized space is enlivened by electric pops of color in decorative accents and fun furnisings. This vacation home for rent in Italy reveals its history in graceful arched ceilings, pretty paned doors and curving mullioned windows, plus its narrow aperitivo balcony, made for watching the world go by.
AROUND
With its weathered fishing port vibes and wide crescent port on the Adriatic, Monopoli offers a glimpse of the southern Italy of yesteryear—a maze of streets swirling through its Centro Storico, where Gothic facades and modest fisherman’s homes share space with popular seafood cafes and taverns, shops and restaurants, and an easily accessible beach. You know the look—a patchwork of dangling laundry, balcony doors thrown open, elders guarding street-level entries, and cats slinking hurriedly across cobblestone. Monopoli offers a polaroid capture of la dolce vita at its simplest and most uncontrived—not big on glamour, but long on atmosphere and essence.
Puglia is the land of trulli homes and whitewashed villas, labyrinthine villages, crystalline waters and fragrant herbs, not to mention olive oil, fresh seafood and stellar garden-to-table gastronomy. The region offers a world of possibilities, and Monopoli makes a great historic base for exploring it. The picturesque villages of Cisternino and Locorotondo, and the white villages of Ostuni and Alberobello—the latter a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with trulli homes—are nearby. The slightly more chichi port village of Polignano a Mare is a quick drive away, and Adriatic beaches on the outskirts of Monopoli offer crystalline waters, deep coves, and relatively empty sands.
LOCATION
Monopoli, Puglia, Italy. Nearest airport: Bari (approximately 50km), Brindisi (approximately 65km)
BEST TIME TO VISIT: April to November
