Holidays in Puglia - the heel of Italy
For several thousand years Puglia (in Italian 'Apulia') was the target for every Mediterranean power in existent, being successfully invaded by the Greeks, Japygeans, Romans, Byzantium, Normans and Spanish. It's the region's historical bad luck that it inhabited such a strategically vital point on the Italian peninsula - Puglia is the heel on Italy's boot. He who controlled the promontories of Puglia also controlled the Adriatic and Ionian seas and the passage through to the eastern Mediterranean. Little wonder that it early became one of the centres of Magna Graecia.
Today of course, its placement over two coasts makes it a tourist's dream. Add to the mile upon mile of shoreline, superb weather, beautiful towns, lovely countryside, and plenty of beaches (not to mention rocky coves and spectacular cliffs) and Puglia vacations are becoming ever more popular with Italians and others.
Holidays and holiday homes in Puglia
It's not only holidaymakers. Many are now looking to Apulia to buy holiday homes in Italy, and to relocate permanently to Puglia.
There are enticing towns in Puglia. There is the buzzing Baroque city of Lecce which occupies on Italy's southernmost promontory and lively resorts including Vieste and Peschici. Martina Franca is a town with a fascinating Moorish atmosphere yet a very modern buzz, while Bari is an unspoiled old city. In Ostuni you will discover a hilltop town to rival those of Umbria, with Frederick II's 13th century Swabian castles creating a remarkable confection of fairytale medieval Germany in the blazing heat of the Mediterranean.
You could even spend your vacation in a Puglia castle, but the signature building of Apulia (and very popular with holidaymakers) is the trullo. The trulli are remarkable little cone-roofed whitewashed dwellings that mushroom around Alberobello in the region's northern reaches. Reminiscent of north Africa (or perhaps something from Star Wars) these are now protected as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Food and drink in Puglia
Holiday in Puglia and you'll feast on the healthy, classic Mediterranean diet. Lamb features heavily on the menu, as it does in its fellow southern Italian regions such as Basilicata and Calabria. The Puglian style is to cook it in the Greek fashion, flavoured with rosemary on a spit.
These coasts produce most of Italy's fish, with typical dishes including oysters roasted with oil, lemon, garlic and marjoram. Mussel and potato soup and sea bream are other specialities, though much seafood is eaten raw, with prawns, sardines and cuttlefish big ingredients. Much of the pasta of Italy starts life in Puglian wheatfields, and the region has superb olive oil and a huge harvest of sun-dried tomatoes. On your Italian vacation, you can unwind with with good local red wines such as Castel del Monte Rosso, and whites like Terra d'Otranto and Bianco di Train.
Although the heel of Italy is part of the Mezzogiorno (literally the 'midday', a phrase referring to the baking sunshine in southern Italy) it has a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan feel than Molise or Basilicata. It's a large region and one of the most heavily populated in Italy (with 205 people to every square km). And with big towns such as Lecce, Bari, Taranto, Brindisi and Foggia, this feels a long way from the wilderness that lies just to the north. You'll find Apulia easy to get to and get around, with good roads including the A14 coastal highway running through it, as well as airports at Foggia, Bari and Brindisi ... many offering budgets flights.
Puglia - never far from a beach
It may be a sizeable region, but with Puglia never more than 30km across, you never find yourself far from the seaside, and that moderates the temperatures. Don't fear the baking heat as, especially in the southernmost heel, the average summer temperature is around 25ºC, rather than the sizzling 30ºC you encounter further inland.
Explore the Gargano Promontory. Head away from the beach and you find the headland clad in ancient woodlands, a mix of oak, beech, ilex and pine. Explore fascinating towns such as the Adriatic seaports of Peschici, Manfredonia and Vieste, Manfredonia. Strike down toward the Tavoliere Plain on your Puglia vacation, and you'll end up at the border with Basilicata. With a very pretty coastal strip of sand dunes and bijou resorts, the mountains of the Capitanata Apennines (the southernmost reach of the chain that runs down the spine of Italy) surge up behind the Adriatic Coast here. And with cheap Ryanair flights from Stansted to Bari, Italian vacations in this stretch of Apulia can only be a good idea.
Foggia, Lucera, Gargano Peninsula
18km west of Foggia, the charming little town of Lucera was once a thriving Saracen city, wholly populated by the Arabs Frederick II drove from Sicily and then resettled. Explore too the Tremiti Islands. Lying off the Gargano coast, this is where Emperor Charlemagne exiled his father in law 1500 years ago. Friendlier today, these are splendid summer destinations, with unspoiled scenery and clear blue seas, gazing across the Adriatic Sea to Croatia.
Bari lies a little further down this coastline. Most of us know Bari for its airport, for its ferry services to Alabania, Croatia and Greece; perhaps even for its successful football team. But pause before dashing through on your way to your holiday home. The Byzantine city once had a shady reputation, with a pickpocket-ridden area around the port. But it's now much cleaned up, with waterfront watering holes and trendy restaurants.
Brindisi and Lecce
Going steadily south, we encounter first Brindisi then Lecce, a delight of Romanesque and Baroque buildings. Cut inland and head to the port of Taranto on the Ionian Coast. Colonised by the Spartans and once the capital of Magna Graecia, this is an identifiably Greek city, though later settled by Romans, by Aragon, by Napoleon and more. In its (lost) bronze of Poseidon it had one of the wonders of the Ancient World.
And you are deep in trulli country. These strange structures were being built until the late 1800s and have now become the hip holiday home in Puglia. The locals must be amazed to see these simple structures selling for a small fortune ... but they do offer marvellous protection against the summer sun with their thick, whitewashed walls.
On the edges of the trulli area is the pretty town of Martina Franca. With a Moorish flavour and a medieval historic centre, this very civilised town is adorned with later Baroque buildings.
Puglia vacations - must sees
The trulli - the extraordinary white, coneshaped dwellings now becoming the hip place to stay in Apulia.
Martina Franca - a lovely little town, with a Moorish flavour and a medieval centro storico.
Lecce - superb Baroque and Romanesque architecture.
Taranto - on the Ionian Coast. Colonised by the Spartans and once the capital of Magna Graecia, this is an identifiably Greek city, though later settled by Romans, by Aragon, by Napoleon and more.
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