Puglia · Foggia
Mattinata
The only Apulian town that faces south on the Adriatic, the white amphitheater of the eastern Gargano beneath Monte Sacro.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Mattinata is on our list
It holds Città dell'Olio.
Subscribe and you get Mattinata's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 2 h 5 min from Bari
- Population
- 5,876
- J12°
- F14°
- M15°
- A18°
- M23°
- J28°
- J32°
- A31°
- S26°
- O22°
- N17°
- D14°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in July at 30° and coldest in February at 12°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Mattinata sits at seventy-five meters on the eastern Gargano. The Iapyges, immigrants from Greece and the Balkans, settled the surrounding hills from the fifth century BC; the Roman port of Matinum, on the modern seafront, gave the town its name. The current settlement is younger than most Garganic centers: it was administered as part of Monte Sant'Angelo until 1955, when it became an independent comune.
The town proper sits below the mountain that watches over it, the two bound by the same limestone that runs from the abbey ruins down to the coast. South of town the shoreline drops toward the sea stacks and, ten kilometers further on, the pebble crescent and cliffs of Baia di Vignanotica. The national park covers all of it, mountain, coast and town alike. A settlement younger than its neighbors, built on ground far older: the Roman port beneath the seafront, the settled hills behind it, the abbey above it, all folded into a comune that has only carried its own name since the middle of the last century.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 2 h 1 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h 22 min away.
By car from the center of Bari 2 h 5 min, Pescara 2 h 40 min or Salerno 3 h 21 min.
Coming by train into Foggia? Mattinata is about 54 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Baia delle Zagare
Bay south of town with two iconic limestone sea stacks, the arch-shaped Arco di Diomede and the scissor-shaped Le Forbici.
Baia di Vignanotica
Pebble crescent under tall limestone cliffs, reached on foot from the Sentiero dell'Amore from Baia dei Mergoli.
Monte Sacro and Abbazia della Santissima Trinità
Ruined abbey standing where Benedictine monks raised it to abbey status in 1138, after annexation to the abbey of Siponto brought its abandonment.
Parco Nazionale del Gargano
National park covering the eastern Gargano headland, with limestone karst, beech forest above 800 meters and protected orchid populations.
Centro storico
White-amphitheater old town opening south to the Adriatic, only independent from Monte Sant'Angelo since 1955.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
La Locanda del ManiscalcoRistorante
La Locanda del Maniscalco carries a Slow Food snail.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Mattinata meets our one rule for a small town.
- 5,876 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Manfredonia, a city of 53,391, is 20 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 5,876, down 7.7% since 2015
- Nearest city Manfredonia, 20 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital San Giovanni Rotondo, 26 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,200 to €1,700 per m² to buy, €3.60 to €5.40 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 99% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Bari airport (BRI), 2 h 1 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bari, 2 h 5 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
4% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Morocco, Romania and Germany, against 9% across Italy. 24 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany and the United States. There are 214 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 47% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Foggia province ranks 98th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in San Giovanni Rotondo, 26 km as the crow flies. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest major one is in Foggia, 48 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 296 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is Canadian College Italy, 149 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Puglia spends about €1,500 a month, €440 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €545 a year for water, on the Puglia average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 17% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 20% in a high or medium one. 2% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
ZAGARE FARAGLIONI
Twin limestone sea stacks Arco di Diomede and Le Forbici, the icon of the eastern Gargano coast, named for the orange blossom of the bay.
MONTE SACRO ABBEY
Benedictine ruins at 850 meters on the highest plateau of the eastern Gargano, founded around 1000, abandoned in the fifteenth century.
GARGANO NATIONAL PARK
Protected area covering the Gargano peninsula, the limestone headland that juts east into the Adriatic from the Foggia plain.
Common questions
- What is Mattinata known for?
- Mattinata is the only Apulian town that faces south on the Adriatic, the white amphitheater of the eastern Gargano beneath Monte Sacro.
- Where is Mattinata?
- Mattinata is a comune in the province of Foggia, in Puglia, at 75 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Mattinata?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bari (BRI), about 2 h 1 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Bari to Mattinata?
- About 2 h 5 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Mattinata?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Mattinata?
- Rosolina, Otranto and Vernole.
- How many people live in Mattinata?
- 5,876 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Mattinata a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Mattinata is a small town that meets our one rule. The nearest city, Manfredonia, is 20 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in San Giovanni Rotondo, 26 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 99% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 75 m
- Population: 5,876
- Surface area: 73.48 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Mattinata appears in
- The best hidden coastal towns that eat well in PugliaPugliacoastaleats wellhidden6 towns · smallest 4,276 residents
- The best olive oil towns inside a national park in PugliaPugliaolive oilinside a park6 towns · smallest 5,876 residents
- The 7 best towns inside a national park that eat well in PugliaPugliainside a parkeats well7 towns · smallest 4,276 residents
- The best hidden olive oil towns within 90 minutes of FoggiaNear Foggiaolive oilwithin 90 minhidden7 towns · smallest 904 residents · closest 40 min away
- The best olive oil towns that eat well within 90 minutes of FoggiaNear Foggiaolive oilwithin 90 mineats well7 towns · smallest 5,876 residents · closest 31 min away
- The best towns that eat well in the province of FoggiaFoggia provinceeats well7 towns · smallest 2,881 residents
Similar
Towns like Mattinata
What all six share with Mattinata: on the Adriatic coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people
The letter
Mattinata is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Mattinata comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Scheggino, 288 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.