things i won't post on IG: southern italy | polignano a mare & monopoli ₊˚⊹♡
I LOVE YOU, MAY 2026
(It's my birthday month — just so you know.)
Fifteen days. Rome and Puglia. One of the best Euro summers I have ever had. I always wanted to document my travels through video — a proper travel diary, the aesthetic kind.
Slow, cinematic, intentional. Not the kind everyone else is doing, but my kind.
Somehow, I always end up with either too few clips or too little motivation to sit down and piece them together. Maybe it's perfectionism. Maybe it's just me, romanticising the idea more than actually doing it.
But I will always come back to words. So here I am, blogging.
This trip, funny enough, was born out of a sulk.
Earlier this year, I found myself quietly bitter about not going anywhere for Chinese New Year 2026. (A lot of well-meaning adults told me that the first year of marriage means staying with family. My husband is family — and he was right there — but no comments, and I learnt to compromise.)
This year, AFTER CNY Bangkok came. Vietnam followed. And then, finally — Italy.
There are places that hold a piece of you even after you leave. Italy is one of them, and it has been for a long time.
Southern Italy felt like that, but slower. Louder in colour. Heavier in the best possible way.
Now officially become one of my favorite city - Polignano a Mare (pronounce: po-lig-nia-no)
Look at the sky.
One thing I fell in love with on this trip was the light — how generously it stayed. I got to spend more time outdoor. If i'm not mistaken, I was nearly 8 in the evening. I usually do my Euro trips in winter, you see. The sun has no loyalty :( It says goodbye to me at 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
By five, the streets are in darkness. I still remember about us driving through Switzerland in PICTH BLACK and it was only five in the evening.
Another favorite place of mine Monopoli.
Everything is blue.
The sea. The sky. The line where they meet — if there even is one.
And oh — the fish and chips.
You have no idea how much I missed it.
Morning run has always surprised me with something like this.
Polignano a Mare — almost a week, and it still wasn't enough.
Oh, and if you know me at all — I cannot visit a new country without disappearing into a supermarket for twenty minutes. Grocery shopping is my love language, wherever I am in the world.
We stayed in an apartment that felt immediately like home. A kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, a private bathroom — cozy in the way that only a well-chosen space can be, the kind that makes you want to stay in just as much as go out. Perfectly suited for two, comfortable for three.
The price wasn't exactly kind to us (probably the weak MYR hurting me)
but some things are simply worth it, and this was one of them.
Cost: House Rimembranze RM1119 per night excluded city tax.
Five minutes' walk from the station. A short wander from everywhere worth being. You never felt far from anything.
And the mornings. Oh, the mornings.
<3 lowkey love the espresso culture here. I drank at least 30 shots, at least, in 15 days.
I had done my research. Mapped out routes planned it all carefully the way I always do. And then I stepped outside at 7AM and threw every single plan away!!!
YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.
I ran at a 7-minute pace, and still found myself stopping mid-stride to pull out my phone. Sometimes mid-run, sometimes fully stopped.
BECAUSE OF THE VIEWS!
Every single day amazed me. Every one.
Right, that's me done for the night — it's nearly 2200 and my bed is calling. More to come soon! x
