Puglia Travellers - Jenna & Darren

Jenna, a geography lecturer and Darren, a city worker, travelled to Puglia in September 2014 for their summer holiday, which I helped them to plan. They spent five sunny days in Peschici in the coastal north of the region, two stylish nights in Ostuni, the hill top ‘Citta Bianca’ and three nights just south of Otranto, staying in a Masseria. Having previously visited the essential but busy tourist cities of Venice and Rome, they were ready to sample a more authentic Italy with some sunshine and beaches thrown in too!

Jenna: We were instantly attracted to Peschici after hearing that this was a town very popular with holidaying Italians and indeed, we seemed to be the only non-Italian speaking people in the whole place! This felt a little intimidating at first but we easily got by as the people were so friendly and helpful. The owner of our delightful apartment (Casa Michelle), Vincenzo, was a fantastic host, taking us out on our first morning to explore the local market where we bought cheese, bread, tomatoes and the local savoury snack, tarelli and he kindly treated us to delicious coffee in the local tabana!

Market stall holder & Vincenzo selling Puglian produce to Darren!

We enjoyed many simple lunches on our gorgeous balcony, looking out over the clear blue sea, venturing down to the beautiful beach each afternoon to join the Italian families and indulge in a gelato or two! We were pleased that beach sunloungers came with the apartment, something I understand is rather a novelty in Italy, where Italians flock from the cities to the beaches in August and September, booking their spaces in the sun years in advance!

Sea view from Case Michelle

Darren: The atmosphere in the town of an evening was electric – there was a small bar at the end of our street and an excellent pizza place, both open very late and it seemed the whole town enjoyed late nights of delicious food and wine, coffee, gelato; everyone was enjoying the warmth of the summer evenings. We felt it only right to get into the Italian swing of things and certainly had sore heads a couple of mornings we were there but we felt we had experienced an Italian summer holiday and would definitely go back!

Jenna: Our next stop was Ostuni, where we stayed at the stunning La Sommita which, as you might guess by its name, is at the very top of the old part of the city. You can see Ostuni from miles around as its gleaming white buildings rise 200 metres above the flat land, mainly given over to olive groves, surrounding it. We enjoyed exploring the narrow, winding vicoli of the old town, stumbling upon small restaurants and shops selling local leather and produce. The hotel was a wonderful place to escape from the sun in the late afternoons; lots of shaded terraces to relax and incredible views out to sea, only 8km away.

The view from La Sommita

Darren: Yes, I remember it being very hot but there were always shady places to escape to! There are lots of trendy bars and restaurants in Ostuni and we also enjoyed a fantastic meal at Cielo, the Michelin starred restaurant at La Sommita.

The highlight for me was, by chance, catching La Cavalcata di Sant'Oronzo, the annual festival celebrating Ostuni’s patron saint. We witnessed the saint’s statue being paraded through the streets in the late afternoon, accompanied by elaborately dressed ‘knights’ on horseback - you could tell that this tradition has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. In the evening, huge crowds gathered in the central piazza, where the buildings were adorned with thousands of lights and the statue was again shared with the people. It seemed the whole city was out for the evening so we joined them in their celebrations, which culminated in a massive and very loud firework display, gone midnight, where whole families were parked up anywhere and standing in the roads – it felt like the whole of Puglia was there!

La Cavalcata di Sant'Oronzo

Jenna: It certainly was a night to remember! The day after, we moved on, following the coast road south to stay at Masseria Panareo situated south of Otranto and just 1.5km from the sea. As we journeyed further south, we could see the land becoming much more rural and the pace of life in the very south of Italy is certainly slower and quieter. We were stuck behind many a tractor and hardly heard another non-Italian accent. In fact, not many people in the rural parts of Puglia speak much English and while this can make for some longer conversations, we always managed to work out what each participant was wanting to convey - the Puglian people try very hard to make you feel welcome and understand you, they are very charming!

Ostuni (Photo: Brushfire Photography)

Darren: We enjoyed a very relaxing time at Masseria Panareo, which had a lovely pool and sweeping views down to the coast. We didn’t manage to visit many of the surrounding towns, such as Otranto and Lecce but we would certainly like to visit the region again to do this and enjoy some more excellent Puglian hospitality. It was wonderful to spend our holiday surrounded by Italians and their families, enjoying the sun, their food and la dolce vita!

Masseria Panareo (Photo: Masseria Panareo)

Agriturismi – Fantastic Puglia Accommodation Options

One of my favourite ways of enjoying Italy, and especially Puglia, is by staying in an ‘agriturismo’, essentially a farm stay. The agriturismi (agricultural tourism) movement was started in the 1980s as a way of helping farmers to make a little extra money by offering accommodation to tourists in spare rooms or converted buildings. They could do this as long as most of their income was still generated from farming, to ensure the farmland continued to be worked on and preserved. There are now over 20,000 agriturismi in Italy and they have become very popular with tourists; helping farmers and their families flourish in the modern world.

The type of accommodation you might experience varies hugely from basic, rustic lodgings, to luxuriously furnished rooms with all the mod cons and a guest pool and spa. Wherever you choose to stay, you can normally expect excellent value for money B&B accommodation, quite often with the option to dine in the evening. What I enjoy most about staying in an agriturismo is the opportunity to wake up each morning surrounded by countryside and tranquillity, especially welcome after a hard day of sightseeing! They also offer the perfect opportunity to sample food and produce straight from the land around you – what could be better! Staying in an agriturismo is the perfect way to sample the traditions of rural Italy and to meet people who work the land; to really immerse yourself in wonderful Italian culture.

In Puglia, agriturismi are generally called Masserie, (ancient fortified farms or country houses) and were mainly built between the 14th and 18th centuries to protect against invaders. Large structures with courtyards and surrounding walls, Masserie were mini-cities, housing small farming communities. Sometimes the isolated locations of agriturismi in other parts of Italy can result in difficult journeys trying to find your way. In Puglia however, the roads are very quiet and generally spacious, meaning you can stay in a rural idyll with a pleasurable drive to the more touristy parts of the region.

The land surrounding a Masseria usually includes olive groves as the Puglia region produces the most olive oil in Italy; the second largest olive oil producing country in the world! So at any Masseria in Puglia, you can normally sample delicious local and fresh olive oil, along with many other fruits, vegetables, milk, cheese, wine and meat, probably grown organically, if not at the Masseria but within a couple of miles. Considering the current trend of eating seasonally and locally, in my opinion, there are few other places on the planet where you can do this as deliciously and as effortlessly as in Puglia!

PUGLIA PEOPLE: Filippo & Chiara at Masseria Salamina

I would like to introduce you to Filippo and Chiara, brother and sister who own the wonderful Masseria Salamina. Their Masseria is in central Puglia, close to the towns of Cisternino and Ostuni, 10mins drive from the coast and slap bang between the airports of Bari and Brindisi. They aim to show their guests authentic Italian hospitality and to provide a rural experience, demonstrating original agricultural processes and the importance of tradition, organic production and biodiversity.

Here is their story:

Passage to Puglia: How long have you lived at Masseria Salamina?

Filippo & Chiara: From the early 1900’s Masseria Salamina was abandoned until our parents bought the property from a relative, Contessa Giuseppina Cenci, in 1986 to use as a summer house. We moved in permanently from 1989 and the Masseria was our family home. The buildings were slowly renovated and as our parents realised there were too many rooms and outbuildings to be used by just our family, they decided to convert these spaces into bedrooms and apartments for guests.

P2P: What do you grow on your land and what do you do with this produce?

F&C: Our family has owned land in Puglia and produced olive oil since the 1300s and now we yield 150,000kg of extra virgin olive oil each year. In addition we produce cereals, which we sell to a pasta maker in our local town to make fresh organic pasta; tomatoes from which we make tomato sauce to use and sell at the Masseria; vegetables that we use in our restaurant and almonds. We also produce some fruit (mandarins, oranges, lemons, apples, peach, apricot, prune) from which we make marmalades and jams. However, our first and most important production is our extra virgin olive oil.

Vegetables growing beneath an olive tree at Masseria Salamina (Photo: Brushfire Photography)

P2P: What other activities can you offer your guests and fellow Puglians?

F&C: We are a certified ‘Masseria Didattica’ which means that we work with schools to teach children about traditional agriculture and healthy food. In the Masseria, we also organise cooking lessons; classes about traditional processes (like harvesting olives, making pasta, focaccia, taralli, tomato sauce etc); team building sessions with agricultural activities; wine tasting; and olive oil tasting.

P2P: You have made a very successful business – would it be fair to say that you love what you do?

F&F: It is a busy life and Italian bureaucracy is always frustrating but we enjoy having direct contact with nature and people. We enjoy growing our produce, explaining processes to our guests and encouraging them to taste what we have grown. We can therefore not only sell a product but give an experience and a little bit of happiness - all from agriculture; it is in our DNA, in our past and we hope also in our future.

Chiara and Filippo end by saying that the best thing about Puglia People is ‘our passion for land, food, wine and hospitality … we love to produce, eat, drink and share with happiness and passion’ – I certainly couldn’t agree more!

The beautiful and majestic Masseria Salamina (Photo: Brushfire Photography)

(Photo: Masseria Salamina)

http://www.masseriasalamina.it/eng

If this post has sparked your curiosity for Puglia and its wonderful Masserie, please get in touch - I’d be delighted to have a chat and share some of my suggestions!

Numero uno!

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.