I have always loved travelling - studying maps, planning journeys, discovering new places, learning the local 'lingo' so as to be polite, trying different food and meeting interesting people. As a child, I kept a diary of every holiday we ever went on, collating car park and restaurant receipts, guide books and other mementos of experiences I shared with my family, writing a little synopsis at the end of each day. This way I always remembered the names of every town we visited and all the new things I saw. I still find it difficult to not save the same mementos every time I travel!

We didn’t venture too far when I was young; several holidays in Cornwall in the UK, Spain and the Balearics, as well as day trips to France. However we were lucky enough to spend four summers in the eighties in Italy, on the Adriatic Riviera, where my younger sister and I revelled in the bambino friendly atmosphere, the hotel pool, the large and busy beaches and the numerous bars where we would be treated to granita and gelato, the majority of which would end up down our fronts rather than in our mouths! I have vivid memories of sitting in the hotel dining room in just my underwear, stuffing mussels or spaghetti or watermelon in my mouth and making a huge mess at the same time! I loved it and, if it would not be frowned upon, would still do it now!

So, I fell in love with Italy at a very young age and have felt myself drawn to return many times as an adult. I have been lucky enough to visit Rome several times, Frascati, Venice, Bologna, Florence and Tuscany, the Isola di Ischia, Lake Garda and the Amalfi Coast. When my husband proposed by the Grand Canal in Venice one happy evening and we wandered the deserted night-time streets afterwards, the one thing we were certain of was that we wanted to get married in Italy!

The search was on to pick somewhere in the country we love so much, which offered an authentic Italian experience for our guests, somewhere easy for them to travel to and which was off the well-beaten Italian wedding trail. Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast and the large cities were ruled out - where else could we look? It was then we started reading about and visiting the not so well travelled and undeservedly overlooked at the time, south of Italy; specifically the 'region' of Puglia. We fell in love with how rural and untouched life is there: the olive groves, the beautiful beaches, the rustic and seasonal food, the great wine, the hospitable and friendly locals, the trulli houses scattered across the land, popping up to surprise you on random corners, the white washed hilltop towns still with so much heritage and vitality. Since finding this wonderful corner of this fantastic country, we have visited time and again and can't believe how lucky we are!

Avid travel readers will have noticed an increase in articles on Puglia in the last year or so and as the region is further promoted, the amount of flights to Bari and Brindisi from the UK are rising (accommodated by a soon to be expanded airport in Bari) and luxury resorts are opening at a fast pace, Puglia is swiftly becoming the new go-to destination in Italy. Away from the busy tourist towns of the north and west coast and with a climate to match neighbouring Greece, the ankle of Italy's boot is a great year round travel destination. I am keen to share my knowledge and secrets of this wonderful area of Italy so have created my blog for just that purpose. I will write about authentic places to stay, off the beaten track activities and towns and introduce you to other people who love Puglia as much as I do; both residents and tourists.