This leg of our southward journey from Ancona was, as we'd suspected, long. We left the mountains behind as we departed Marche and passed through the hilly green terrain of Abruzzo. The landscape deflated and flattened as we reached the northern tip of Puglia. Buildings changed from warm stone and terracotta brick to white render. Oak trees gave way to palms.
Just at the edge of the Gargano peninsular we detoured off the A14 to pause, stretch our legs and eat, and found ourselves in the slightly worn little lakeside town of Lesina. We might just as well have driven a stagecoach into Dodge City. The streets were deserted, save for a couple of dusty, curly-tailed dogs basking in the sun. When we did see people, they were weathered and dark, black-haired and nut-skinned. It felt noticeably hotter here. The place looked like it saw few tourists, and felt like the sort of town in which you could disappear, if need be, for a few weeks, maybe more. Maybe forever.
We bought bread and cheese for lunch, then wandered down to the waterside of Lago di Lesina, a long but narrow stretch of water that separates the town from the Adriatic. A grey concrete promenade ran along the lake edge to the north, with grafitti-covered benches at intervals. Scraps of litter blew around the promenade wall as we ate, looking out across the choppy grey expanse of the lake.
As we pushed even further south, the coastline was intermittently scruffy, then smart. And then in Torre Canne we found the Hotel Levante and stayed for three nights. It wasn't quite what we'd expected, after the rural neatness of Marche and Umbria. The town was a bit ragged in parts, pleasant in others. The hotel was pretty smart on the whole, but any character or charm it may once have possessed had been knocked out of it by the pounding of package holidays. The restaurant was pleasant enough, but the menu promised the kind of ubiquitous food that's the stuff of tour groups. This may be extremely unfair, because we never ate here, to both the hotel and the tour groups.
As we settled in, we realised that the hotel had its good points too. The pool and grounds were good, there was direct access to a private beach, along which you could walk to the town and back, and our room was big and comfortable, with a large sun terrace, perfect for enjoying the makeshift lunches of produce we'd bought from the market. And it was a great location for exploring the region, and especially nearby restaurants.
Smart Hotel Levante we quite liked in the end. Scruffy Lesina we liked from the start.
Hotel Levante, Via Appia 20, Torre Canne (72010), Puglia
The hotel doesn't appear to have its own website, but this link gives most information:
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