When first looking for a spot to stay in Puglia, Polignano a Mare was actually my first choice. But after doing some research I changed my mind and decided on Monopoli.

Monopoli is a bit bigger and everything I read online said Polignano a Mare might be just a bit too slow for the time of year we would be there.

Well, a week into our trip, while on our cruise and only two days out from Monopoli, our hotel was cancelled due to some maintenance issues. So the scramble was on to find something, and in pretty short order. Thank God for Expedia is all I can say.

Not finding a whole lot that I was happy with in Monopoli, I got the idea to maybe go back to Polignano a Mare. And they had something that worked quite well. Just a few minutes walk from the train station right in the old part of town.

An appartmento, Dimora Signorile.

I ignored the first red flag presented to me almot immediately though. I probably spent close to 2 hours on the train doing an insanely ridiculous online check-in. By the time I was done that I was pretty frustrated.

But upon arrival we were rather enchanted with the place. It’s quite old,though I’m not quite sure how old.

It has a perfect location just inside the old city gates. There’s plenty of restaurants and shops within a couple minutes walk.

The city, Polignano a Mare is a beautiful little town. Built right on the edge of the water many of the houses and apartments sit right on the cliff sides.

There’s a famous restaurant here called The Grotto you may have seen on TV.

And while there’s lots of restaurants and tourist shops it still has a good, old town, vibe.

The apartment had two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, dining room and a bathroom.

It had an older feel but it was a good older feel. I was particularly impressed with the stone archway at the front door. You just don’t see this kind of thing very much where we are from.

Everything seemed rather perfect. We even found a very highly rated restaurant a 30-second walk away.

Read my review of Rosso here.

The second red flag went right over my head and didn’t really sink in until the next morning.

We noticed the temperature in the apartment was rather cool. I ended up playing around with the thermostat a bit and made sure the radiators were on. It did warm up slightly so I didn’t think about it too much. But in hindsight that was probably just our body heat warming up the place a little.

The third red flag was a little more obvious, though we likely would have lived with it had it not been for the fourth red flag. Due to its proximity to all the restaurants the noise throughout the night was rather bad.

That, however, was the least of our concerns.

The next morning it hit us like a cold shower. It was actually a cold shower.

No hot water in this place. Not even lukewarm. As frigid as a 70 year old nun.

I contacted the owner. No response.

I contacted Expedia who contacted the owner. No response.

I searched for and found the hot water heater. There was an error message flashing on it. Well f***.

I don’t do well with cold showers. Or no showers for that matter.

And when you’re paying this kind of money this is unacceptable.

It didn’t take long to decide we weren’t staying a second night. Even if it meant forfeiting the cost.

The only thing Expedia could do is give us a 50-dollar credit. Better than nothing, but we’re going to try and fight it. And of course they’re getting a horrible review on Expedia.

So we said goodbye to Polignano a Mare a day early, hopped on the next train out and spent an extra day in Rome.

You should visit Polignano a Mare sometime. It’s gorgeous.

Just don’t stay here.

i