Puglia forms the heel of Italy's boot, a long, flat, sun-baked region of olive groves, whitewashed towns and two coastlines. Once overlooked by foreign visitors in favour of Tuscany and the north, it has been discovered in recent years, and for good reason: it offers baroque cities, extraordinary vernacular architecture, superb simple food and a slower, hotter, more southern way of life.
The highlights
Lecce, often called the Florence of the south, is a city of honey-coloured baroque churches and palaces, intricate and theatrical, best wandered slowly in the cool of the evening. Inland lies the strange and wonderful town of Alberobello, full of trulli, the conical dry-stone houses unique to the region, while the white hill town of Ostuni gleams above the olive plains. The coast offers rocky coves and the odd sandy beach.
Eating in Puglia
- The food is simple and vegetable-led, built on excellent olive oil, fresh pasta like orecchiette, and superb tomatoes and greens.
- Eat seafood on the coast and hearty country cooking inland, washed down with the robust local red wines.
- Stay in a masseria, a converted fortified farmhouse, for the full Puglian experience.
Practical notes
Puglia is reached by flying to Bari or Brindisi, and a hire car is essential to explore the towns and countryside, as public transport is patchy. The region is large and the sights spread out, so allow a week to do it justice and base yourself in one or two spots rather than constantly moving.
It gets seriously hot in high summer, so late spring and early autumn are more comfortable for sightseeing, with the bonus of fewer crowds. Puglia rewards the traveller who slows down to its rhythm: long lunches, afternoon stillness, evenings that come alive. It is southern Italy at its most characterful, and still, in its quieter corners, a genuine pleasure to discover.