Puglia Tag

11 Oct Discovering Lecce

Posted at 03:12h in Destinations, Uncategorized by Italian Tours

Whether you’re on one of our small group tours to Puglia or setting off on your own adventure, Lecce should be at the top of your must-visit list for this southern region.

Known as the “Florence of the South,” Lecce is an enchanting destination that beckons travellers seeking a taste of Italy’s rich history and unparalleled architecture. Nestled in the heart of Puglia, this captivating city is a hidden gem.

The city’s history dates back to ancient times, with its roots in the Messapian civilisation. Over the centuries, it has been influenced by various cultures, which have left an indelible mark on the city’s architecture and cultural heritage.

Key Places to Visit

Lecce is renowned for its stunning Baroque architecture. The cityscape is adorned with intricate details and ornate facades. The distinctive Baroque style is characterised by the use of local golden sandstone, known as pietra leccese, which gives the buildings a warm, honey-coloured glow. As you stroll through the city’s winding streets, you’ll encounter these masterpieces at every turn.

The city centres on Piazza Sant’Oronzo, named after Saint Oronzo, the city’s patron saint. Piazza Sant’Oronzo is known for its Roman ruins, including a well-preserved Roman amphitheatre. The square also features a column with a statue of Saint Oronzo at the top and an elegant loggia that was an early town hall.

The remarkably well-preserved Roman Amphitheatre is a testament to the city’s ancient history. Its construction dates back to the second century AD and the time of Emperor Hadrian’s rule. It was only discovered by accident in 1901 when workers were digging foundations for a new building.

Another iconic square, the city’s religious heart, is the Piazza del Duomo featuring the Duomo di Lecce. The cathedral itself is a stunning example of Lecce Baroque architecture with an elaborate façade adorned with sculptures and ornate decorations.

The Basilica di Santa Croce is perhaps the masterpiece of Lecce Baroque. The church is adorned with a façade featuring a rich abundance of statues, cherubs, and baroque designs.

Another prime example of Lecce’s architectural splendour is the Palazzo Celestine, a former monastery that now houses the City Hall. In 1807 during the Napoleonic occupation, the Celestine fathers were evicted, and the convent was put to other uses.

Not much remains of Lecce’s fortified walls, but the Porta Napoli still stands. Completed in 1548 after a commission by Charles V to fortify the city, Porta Napoli is one of three entrances built into Lecce’s city walls. The entrance gate is a reminder of Lecce’s defensive past and offers an excellent photo opportunity.

Culinary Delights of Lecce and Salento

No trip to Lecce would be complete without savouring the region’s exquisite cuisine. Lecce and the surrounding Salento area have a distinct culinary identity, with several dishes that are unique to the region.

Rustico Leccese

A popular snack or street food, Rustico Leccese is a savory pastry filled with tomato, mozzarella, and bechamel sauce. It’s often enjoyed as a quick, delicious bite.

Pasticciotto
This is a famous dessert from Lecce and Salento. Pasticciotto is a sweet pastry filled with creamy custard in various flavours, including classic vanilla and fruit variations.

Leccese Tarallini
These are small, crunchy, ring-shaped biscuits that make for an excellent snack or appetizer. They can be found in popular flavours, such as fennel or black pepper.

Melanzane Ripiene
Stuffed eggplants are a common dish in Lecce. The eggplants are typically hollowed out and filled with a mixture of breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, and sometimes meat. They are then baked until golden and delicious.

Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa
While orecchiette pasta is not unique to Lecce, the way it’s prepared with cime di rapa (broccoli rabe or rapini) is a local speciality. The combination of the pasta’s shape and the slightly bitter greens creates a flavourful and beloved dish in the region.

Be sure to explore the local restaurants and trattorias to savour these delicious specialities during your visit to Lecce.

Exploring the Salento Area

Lecce’s strategic location makes it an ideal base for exploring the picturesque Salento region of Puglia. Nearby towns like Otranto and Galatina are easily accessible and offer unique cultural experiences, from historic churches to charming coastal landscapes.

Otranto
This coastal gem boasts a beautiful beach, a captivating historic centre, and the stunning Otranto Cathedral with its exquisite mosaic floor.

Galatina
Known for its impressive Basilica of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Galatina offers a glimpse into Puglia’s religious heritage. Here, you can also visit the Pasticceria Ascalone, where Pasticiotto itself was invented in 1745.

Lands’ End
A short drive from Lecce will take you to Santa Maria di Leuca, where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet, marking the southernmost point in Puglia. The views here are nothing short of breathtaking.

You can stay in Lecce on our 14-day Road Less Travelled Tour of Puglia, or visit the city on our 8-day Highlights of Puglia Tour.

14 Aug A POSTCARD FROM OTRANTO, PUGLIA

Posted at 01:31h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

The walled port city of Otranto in Puglia is Italy’s most eastern town. On a clear day, if you gaze out from the city’s walls across the Adriatic, you can make out the coast of Albania and the mountain ranges of Mount Çika. Just as mesmerising is the view from Otranto’s walls of the crystal clear turquoise waters. The town’s outlook, its history, and charming nature make it well worth visiting.

Founded by the Messapians, the town has a history of occupation that includes the Greeks, the Romans and the Normans. One of its most colourful periods was in the 11th century when it became a leading Crusader port.

It is also remembered for a more macabre chapter when, in 1480, the Ottomans invaded and looted the citadel. Legend has it that they sacked the city, killing twelve thousand people, and then went on to massacre the eight hundred survivors who had sought refuge in the cathedral and refused to renounce their Christianity. Historians disagree on the story’s veracity, but it was good enough for the church. Pope Clementine XIV beatified the eight hundred martyrs in 1771, and they were canonised by Pope Francis in 2013.

The most fascinating aspect of the city is the cathedral, whose architecture reflects the 11th-century Norman influence as opposed to the Baroque architecture prevalent elsewhere in Puglia. The highlight is the medieval mosaic floor, one of Italy’s most mysterious and impressive mosaics.

A priest, Pantaleone, carried out the work in 1165, employing a ‘primitive’ style that art critics compare with the Bayeux Tapestry. Scholars continue to debate the significance and inspiration of its allegorical images, which include Adam and Eve, King Solomon, Alexander the Great and King Arthur.

The mosaic’s centrepiece represents three giant Trees of Life, a common motif in early Christian and Islamic art. Amongst the branches of the trees, you will see scriptural scenes, animals, symbols of the months and other fantastical images. It truly is quite remarkable!

The church also contains the macabre Chapel of the Martyrs, where eight hundred skulls are preserved and mounted on the walls.

Don’t miss Otranto on your journeys around the Salento region of Puglia! If you want to come with us, we will visit it on our Puglia – A Road Less Travelled Tour in May and September 2024.

09 Jan MATERA – A CITY FROM ANOTHER TIME

Posted at 05:14h in Travel Tips by Italian Tours

As you look out over the sassi districts in the city of Matera, you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported back in time to a city out of the bible. The view of stone dwellings, reaching far back into ancient caves, with narrow donkey paths winding in between them, is quite unforgettable. Indeed film director Mel Gibson used this city as the setting for his movie The Passion of the Christ.

Matera, in Basilicata just to the west of Puglia, is probably the oldest continuously inhabited city in the whole of Europe. Matera is built on top of a cliff on the edge of a gorge, about 250 metres deep, with a river running through it. There is a stratum of stone that is soft and white, like a cross between sandstone and limestone, and since prehistoric times people have burrowed out shelters into the sides of the gorge. Over time they became more sophisticated than simple holes in the rock, though some of those still remain and were used as animal shelters by shepherds or as wine cellars. People began building small structures at the front incorporating the door, the window and the kitchen with its chimney and would then excavate the other rooms into the rock behind. Others would build into the rock above them, so the whole place became like an anthill, with people living one on top of another in chambers carved out of the rock with little frontages to allow for kitchens and chimneys, a bit of light. There might only be a metre and a half of rock between the ceiling of one dwelling and the floor of the one above it.

Later Matera became the capital of Basilicata and work began to gentrify the city on the top of the ravine. There was no burrowing there, as the rock was too hard, but the erection of high quality standard buildings instead. An upper class moved in to administer the area and provide services, so the two sassi areas became places where the poor lived. It became a shameful thing to live in the sassi, and the upper city was built to deliberately hide any view of these poor areas from the centre of town. Later however, Matera lost its position as regional capital and the wealthier people moved on. Without the investment of the elite, living conditions in the sassi became appalling with no running water, no sewerage and no roads. The area became a hotbed of disease – malaria, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis. It wasn’t until a novelist wrote a book about the area that the Italian government sat up and took notice. In the 1950s they began a slum clearance program to move the 17,000 residents out of the area and it was abandoned.

In the late 1980s the area began to be revalued and became a World Heritage site. People started restoring dwellings and moving back in while today the government will lease dwellings to those who are prepared to pay for restoration. There are lots of hotels and B&Bs springing up and tourism is beginning to really bite. In 2019 Matera is the European Cultural Capital which will also have a huge effect on visitor numbers.

Matera is definitely a place to see right now, before the rest of the world arrives. Our Puglia, the Road Less Travelled tour for May 2019 is already sold out but we do have places available on the September 2019 tour which includes a wonderful day exploring the town of Matera.

06 Jan FIVE REASONS TO VISIT PUGLIA

Posted at 01:10h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Avoid the crowds and enjoy the slow life

Although Puglia is starting to attract crowds, particularly to big name destinations like Lecce and Alberobello, it’s still relatively easy to avoid the type of crowds that plague cities like Rome and Florence. Locals still live the traditional slow life: shops close at lunchtime, people go home for lunch, there’s time for a siesta – all a fabulous excuse for you to relax and absorb the slower-paced atmosphere.

The history

Puglia’s position in the heel of the Italian boot, close to modern-day Albania and Greece, has contributed to a rich cultural legacy. Over hundreds of years diverse groups of people settled on land traditionally inhabited by the local Messapian tribes: Spartans, Greeks and Romans in ancient times, followed during the middle ages by a series of Bourbons, Angevins, Normans and Saracens. Their influence is evident in the unique culture of the Puglian people today and in the artifacts on show in the museums of Lecce and the MARTA in Taranto.

Delicious food and wine

Pugliese gastronomy – some of the best food you’ll find anywhere in Italy! The region is traditionally agricultural and the land continues to provide outstanding fresh, high quality produce. Puglia is particularly famous for olives and olive oil, cherries, eggless pasta, burrata and other cheeses, almonds, tomatoes, lemons, wheat bread and of course the fresh seafood. The local cuisine reflects this bounty. Until about ten years ago Puglia exported the bulk of its grapes and wine; however these days Puglia is focusing on boutique wines and producing exceptional varieties like Primitivo, Negroamaro, Bombino Bianco and Susumaniello.

Towns like nowhere else

Apart from the big name towns that have plenty of publicity, Puglia has a host of small lesser known towns that can absorb the interested traveler for hours on end. We can recommend charming small towns like Martina Franca and Locorotondo in the Valle d’Itria or Vieste and Trani along the coast. The Pugliese are extremely proud of their towns and maintain their flower boxes and streetscapes in picture perfect condition.

Blue waters of the Gargano Peninsula in Puglia

A stunning blue coastline

Puglia is surrounded on three sides by the Ionian, the Taranto and the Adriatic Seas. The coastal landscapes differ but are invariably stunning: limestone cliffs and stacks and pebble beaches along the Gargano Peninsula, white sandy beaches on the western coast, the spectacular rocky coastline in the east and everywhere a startling blue sea.

Maybe 2018 is the year you should get to know this wonderful corner of southern Italy!

We run regular tours to Puglia each year.
Contact us today to book your place!

08 Jul UNDISCOVERED TREASURES OF PUGLIA – MAY 2017

Posted at 07:51h in Destinations by Italian Tours

What a wonderful and still undiscovered area Puglia is, and our May tour this year began in the most beautiful of Pugliese towns, Lecce. We spent our first, perfect day walking with our local guide Simona, a passionate Leccese who has the ability to bring to life the stories and characters of the city she loves so much.

One of the unusual stops we made was at a workshop where they construct and restore carta pesta, the Leccese version of papier-mâché. This construction method has always been used to make religious statues. It’s popular not only because there is no marble in the area but also because they are extremely light and can be carried through the streets for processions or mounted in churches without causing structural damage. Some are up to 400 years old and need constant care and restoration. Others are made new, including smaller models for personal use in people’s homes.

We could really visualise the layers of civilisation in the city when we visited a museum that began as a plumbing exercise. Attempting to fix leaky pipes, the building owners began to dig underground only to discover an archeological treasure trove just centimetres beneath their feet. While the actual artefacts have been surrendered to the authorities who oversee national treasures, the building is open for exploration and we were able to wander though the different layers of Leccese civilisation from the Messapians to the Greeks, Romans and beyond.

Our visit to Otranto, a town south of Lecce, introduced us to a small but famous walled seaport from which crusading knights departed for the Holy Land. We strolled the walls, admiring the blue bay and enjoying weather so clear that we could see as far as Albania on the other side of the Adriatic.

We were also lucky enough to see the Tree of Life, one of the largest early medieval mosaics in Europe that is still in place in the cathedral. It covers the entire floor of the cathedral and depicts the connections of all forms of creation, with creatures as the base and God at the apex and the immaculate state of humanity free from corruption and sin. Figures to the side illustrate ways of behaviour that will help a good person avoid falling into this sinful state, a lesson for us all!

We also stopped into Galatina, a small farming town to see an exquisite complete Renaissance fresco cycle depicting the life of St Catherine of Alexandria, not only beautiful but also unusual in that Renaissance art is rarely seen in this part of Italy. From the religious to the culinary, we called in to a pasticceria to sample pasticciotto, a uniquely local concoction of short pastry filled with custard that in Galatina is still produced by the seventh generation of the pastry cooks who invented it.

Finally we moved on to Gallipoli on the other side of the peninsula overlooking the Ionian Sea. This fishing port is a popular holiday destination for Italians seeking its lovely sandy beaches; two of our intrepid travellers took to the water for a quick dip. Seated along the sea wall, we dined on fresh local seafood before our return to Lecce.

After inspecting the olive trees and presses we had to taste the oil!

Leaving Lecce on our way into the Valle d’Itria we stopped at a masseria, one of the traditional fortified farmhouses that have now been restored and are used for wine production. Our charming hostess Alessia took us on a tour to learn about Puglian wines. We wandered through the vineyards, where a crew of local women from the village were pruning the vines, and learned about the masseria’s vine growing technique. The alberello technique dates back to Roman times and allows the vines to grow as small trees rather than on a trellis.

Alessia organised one of the local village ladies to come in to cook us a typical meal, simple but absolutely wonderful: we feasted on fresh fennel, homemade local ricotta, orecchiette with a light vegetable sauce and a delicious tart, all washed down with lashings of the masseria’s wine.

For the next four nights we stayed in a country retreat near Martina Franca, a beautifully restored farmhouse. The breakfast room is built within three trulli, the typical round white buildings with their conical slate roofs for which this area is famous. Alberobello is the centre of the trulli region and our visit there provided guests with some great photo opportunities. We were also fascinated to explore an abandoned trullo that our driver knew of and see how these now mostly restored buildings would have functioned in their original state.

We also visited an ancient olive grove, with one of the most ancient olive trees in Puglia that is believed to be somewhere between 2500 and 3000 years old and still bearing fruit. The owners took us through their underground olive presses where we could see a pre-Roman, a Roman and a medieval olive press that are still intact. We did of course try the oil from the ancient trees which was very good.

On one of our days here we drove down towards Taranto to visit the MARTA, an exceptional archeological museum housing an enormous collection of artefacts from the area. The collection goes as far back as the Bronze Age, and includes items from the area when it was occupied as a Spartan colony and later roman artefacts. There are fabulous grave goods including intricate gold jewellery of inestimable value, decorated Greek pottery, fine Roman glassware and an actual tomb of one of the athletes from the Olympic Games and his winnings: four huge urns of olive oil!

Looking down on the ravines in Matera

We headed towards our next base at Trani via Bari, where we stopped to explore the rabbit warren of the medieval centre with our local guide and to visit the Basilica of St Nicholas, where we mingled with the pilgrims who come from all over the world to visit his tomb. Although this is a Catholic Church, St Nicholas is revered by Greek, Russian and Romanian Orthodox Christians, who are encouraged to pray over his relics at least once during their lifetimes. Interestingly, to facilitate this the Catholic Pope had just sponsored the loan of one of his bones to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.

Back on the coast in Trani and we stayed in a lovely hotel overlooking the fishing port; from the terrace we sipped aperitivi and watched the sun go down. What bliss!

The unquestionable highlight of this part of the trip was our visit to Matera, where for centuries people built their dwellings into the rock faces of the ravines. In fact, this city is the third oldest continually occupied urban space in the world. It was originally settled by pre-historic local tribes and remained inhabited until the 1950s, when a slum clearance program removed the inhabitants. Our guide Antonio grew up with grandparents who lived in one of these fascinating dwellings and shared his memories of life during that time. Today the Matera is undergoing a resurgence and the dwellings are now filled with boutique hotels, bars and shops, as well as some local residents who are returning to live there.

Our final base was on the Gargano peninsula in gorgeous accommodation overlooking the Bay of Mattinata, so called because it is bathed in morning sunlight. This is area of spectacular natural beauty, with limestone cliffs rising up from water so clear that you can see right to the bottom.

The land rises steeply from the coast to a cooler, greener agricultural landscape, with beautiful forests and cream Podolica cattle, wearing collars and bells around their necks. The pilgrim site of St Michael is located here in an underground cave that is entered through a church above. We descended the steep steps to the grotto beneath, sharing the moment with dozens of visiting pilgrims. Driving back down to the coast again, we finished the day at an old fishing outpost called a trabucco where we had dinner by the waterside as the sun set.

On the last day of the tour, we took a private boat trip along the coast looking at the limestone cliffs, chatting with local fishermen, exploring caves, and arriving finally at a pebbly beach where we had a private picnic lunch overlooking the symbols of Puglia, white limestone outcrops that form islands in the blue bay, the ‘faraglioni.’ We could not have asked for a more perfect way to end our tour.

Our September 2017 trip to Puglia is booked out, but we will be running the tour again in May 2018, so start planning your next holiday in Italy now!

14 – 28 May 2018 – click here for the full itinerary!

01 May AND WHAT DO TRULLI HAVE TO DO WITH TAXES?

Posted at 02:03h in Architecture, Destinations by Italian Tours

When people think of Puglia, one of the first images that springs to mind is a vision of quaint whitewashed, dome-roofed, round houses called trulli.

While the trulli architectural style dates back to pre-history, many believe that the passion for more modern trulli construction developed as an early and sophisticated means of tax avoidance. During the middle ages, landlords instructed the farmers to build the dry stones roofs of the trulli with a removable keystone in the middle and the walls without mortar. When the tax inspectors appeared the farmers would pull the keystone out, collapsing the building – thus allowing the landowners to avoid paying any taxes in what some would describe as an enduring Italian tradition!

The largest concentration of these pretty buildings is in Alberobello, but they are also common across the whole of the Valle d’Itria area, a region of farming and agriculture. In their simplest form they are used as farming sheds and are dotted amongst the fields.

The town of Alberobello is undeniably a tourist magnet but with good reason and well worth a visit. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has hundreds of trulli, many of which are original.

Today the charming rounded shapes and conical stone roofs of the Pugliese trulli are so appealing that many of them are used as restaurants and visitor accommodation.

On our The Road Less Travelled tour of Puglia we not only visit Alberobello, but stay in a beautiful hotel in the Valle d’Itria, Masseria Fumarola, where some of our lucky guests get to sleep under these typical conical roofs!

We’re running our Puglia tour later this year in September and again in 2018:

14 – 28 September 2017
14 – 28 May 2018

20 Jan RECIPE – ORECCHIETTE E PISELLI

Posted at 03:41h in Cooking by Italian Tours

One of the advantages of having our office at home is that Luca sometimes whips up a delicious lunch using what we have in the cupboard or fridge.
Today it was frozen peas and some lovely orecchiette!

1 x onion – finely chopped
1 x clove of garlic – halved
250g frozen peas
200ml vegetable stock
180g orecchiette

Fry the onion and garlic very slowly in some olive oil for 5-10minutes
Add the frozen peas and vegetable stock and cook, covered over a very low heat
Cook the orecchiette in a large saucepan of salted water
As required add a little water from the pasta pot to the peas if they are drying out
Remove the garlic pieces (if you can find them!) and roughly mash some of the pea mixture with a potato masher or the back of wooden spoon
Cook the orecchiette for 5 minutes less than the recommended cooking time on the packet, remove it from the salted water with a slotted spoon and add to the pea mixture
Continue cooking the orecchiette in the pea mixture (adding some pasta cooking water as required, similar to how you would cook a risotto) until it is cooked to your liking – al dente I hope!
Remove from the heat, stir through some grated grana padano or parmigiano reggiano and serve

Buon appetito!

Visit bari in Puglia with this food tour

Orecchiette is a typical pasta from the Puglia region in southern Italy and still today, particularly in Bari, you can see groups of women sitting out on the narrow medieval streets hand-making the local specialty. The pasta dough is rolled out into a long snake, cut and flattened in one seamless movement whilst the women chat with each other and passers-by!

The name orecchiette basically means “little ears” and the pasta takes its name from its distinctive shape. Orecchiette, like much of the pasta from southern Italy, is made without eggs, using just flour and water.

Visit Puglia with Italian Tours in May 2017 or September 2017