• PUGLIA
& BASILICATA •

Puglia the sun brushed heel of Italy’s boot is characterized by its Baroque hill towns, chalky beaches and plentiful olive groves. It has now become an upmarket destination like Capri and Portofino. But despite  this,  amongst the many too polished Italian destinations  Puglia still has an authentic feel, retaining a lifestyle reminiscent of the 1950’s.

Puglia is the land of olive trees and wine from whose terracotta colored earth is drawn a very unique blend. The local wines are dense and strong as you will find if you try the Salentino Manduria wine.

Once you have arrived here relax into the practice of dolce tempo: laze around on the patio of a stone masseria looking at the olives and then the turquoise sea, learn the secrets of the handmade pasta with local women, wander around the alleys of the sun bleached villages in the quiet of a hot summer afternoon… Stop and breathe it all in!

Right next to Puglia is it’s archaic neighbor Basilicata. Until very few years ago it was completely ignored even by local tourism. Although it is now living a new tourist revival it is still one of the less traveled destinations where you can experience an authentic Italy, a place that is still off the beaten track. A land dominated by its landscape with its contrasts between the gorges of its valleys, the ravines and the towns resembling  white beehives that surmount the pointed hills.

A place of the heart: Matera.
A food of the heart: the peperone crusco – a local red pepper dried and then fried.