Palazzo Nesta - Madonna and Child

As promised, a close-up shot of the Madonna and Child carved in stone above the main entryway to Palazzo Nesta. Many noblemen's palazzi have the family crest above the doorway, while some have a rendering of the Madonna, perhaps in a sign of piety.

Palazzo Nesta

Palazzo Nesta was originally built in 1560 by the Nesta family of noblemen. It maintains traces of its late-Renaissance style facade. The walls of the facade are a bugnato, which was a popular style at the time. Bugnato means that the stones are not flat, but raised, in this case in the form of a pyramid, as can be seen in the bottom right corner of the photo. This building is located on Via Morte in the old town.

For more information about the Nesta family and their palazzo, click here (the info. is in Italian).

Gelateria San Marco

The San Marco Gelateria has some of the best ice-cream in Molfetta. I think it is THE best, but personal taste and opinion are crucial in evaluating such an important food group and everyone has their own opinion about the quality of ice-cream in the various establishments around town.

San Marco underwent a major change in look recently, but it still offers delicious, home-made gelato in the same location, next to the Regional Seminary, as always.

Sereno Variabile, 2

Here are some more shots from my day with the Rai film crew. Above two real fishermen and two volunteers from the crowd are pulling in the nets. There were exactly NO fish in the nets, which, as one of the fishermen pointed out, is something that can happen...

Here I am (on the right) with my lovely friend, Katia, and Osvaldo Bevilacqua, who was very patient and kind. Not at all what you might expect from a TV personality.

Here's a view of one of the chefs cooking down below decks. This shrimp was cooked with fresh tomatoes, parsley, garlic and oil...and was delicious! The chef, Angelo Tavella, the owner of a local restaurant called Dentro le Mura, said the secret was in the fact that the shrimp were very fresh. They had just been caught the night before, by the fishermen of this boat.

Here we are enjoying various types of pasta with fish, with the wind blowing through our hair. I have no idea what I was pointing at!

And one more photo, posing with the camera crew. A friendly and patient group of guys!

My thanks to Leonardo Albanese, a young journalist for the Molfetta Live site (see my sidebar) who kindly took all of today's photos for me. My camera batteries died after the first few photos in the fish market...wouldn't you know it!

Anyone who would like to watch the show can tune into Sereno Variabile on Rai 2 on August 1 at 1:30 p.m. and see Molfetta and the surrounding areas.

Sereno Variabile

The other day I had the pleasure of spending the morning with the Rai film crew who were in the area north of Bari filming for a TV program called "Sereno Variabile." The man in white in the center of the photo is Osvaldo Bevilacqua. He has been presenting this travel and tourism show for the past 30 years.

I had heard that the TV crew would be filming in Molfetta and went along just to get a photo of our town's 15 minutes of fame...and somehow found myself swept up into the whole event. We started out in the fish market (you can see my photos of the market here, here and here). Then we were loaded onto a commercial fishing boat and spent the morning out in the sea being interviewed by Osvaldo, eating various types of pasta (accompanied by both red and white wines) prepared by chefs brought along specifically to feed us, singing karaoke, chatting with the cameramen and generally having a great time!

Children's Theater Festival, 9

This is clearly not a photo of mine, but a reproduction of the website for Ti Fiabo e Ti Racconto, the children's theater festival that has been going on for the past 10 days here in Molfetta. Last night was the final evening of the festival and awards were presented. The 25 children who acted as the event judges elected Hansel and Gretel as the Best Show and the audience chose the actress who played Icaro as Best Actor.

After 10 days of going to the theater every night, we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves this evening...

Children's Theater Festival, 8

On Friday evening the Accademia Perduta Romagna Teatri (of Ravenna) performed The Magic Piper, the last show of the week before the awards ceremony at which the "Uccellino Azzuro" award for Best Performance will be presented.

Last night the children judges had to make their final evaluations of the week's shows and draw their final conclusions. Tonight the winner will be announced!