Not for me, unfortunately, but a friend of mine is going and asked if I knew anything about the region. I don’t, but I’m hoping some more cosmopolitan Berserkers can help. Do you have any suggestions for restaurants or winery visits?
Many thanks!
Adam
Probably too long ago for any restaurant reccos to be useful (and more pertinently, I’m not sure I wrote them down). We didn’t visit any wineries.
What I would say is:
The driving goes from wonderfully easy/enjoyable in the countryside, to stressful/confusing in the towns, mainly due to the historic, wiggly and at times narrow roads. If planning to stop in a town, I’d generally favour parking up as soon as you get to a place with spaces. This does vary with popularity e.g. Martina Franca could be quite difficult to park in, whilst Locorotondo was very easy for us when coming from the north.
If flying into Bari, it’s one of the easier airports to drive out from in an unfamiliar car, with unfamiliar signposts. The main Autostrada can be a little busy until you pass Bari itself, then is much easier. If flying out of Bari, but stressed about timings, then factor a 2-3 hour stop in Trani into the schedule. It’s only 20-30 mins from the airport, but very charming / interesting.
The usual lunchtime closing is very much still observed down here, so plan around that.
Food and wine can be very cheap, and the latter can really turn up some cheap gems, though with a degree of hit and miss.
Thank you for the info. If anyone else has anything to add, I’d greatly appreciate it.
We visited Puglia many years ago and stayed for a week at Lecce, a grand Baroque city and one where I would suggest to anyone visiting “the heel” to stay at or at the very least spend a couple of nights in. The center of the town is quite a sight, where it’s nice just getting lost walking in and around the small alleyways within. Plus, the city’s Baroque architecture and art work are something that’s not there in Central or Northern parts of Italy. It is also only about 30-minute to 1-hour drive to the beach towns of Otranto, as well as a lot of other small towns and beaches in the Salento region ofPuglia (the southernmost tip of the province). There are also very nice towns just north of Lecce like Martina Franca and the “Star-War’ish” out-of-this-world Alberobello. Lecce is also about 45 minutes from Brindisi, which is one of the main airport hub of the region.
Puglia is more rugged in terms of landscape that any Northern Italian region that I know of, and the towns are so unlike those elsewhere in Italy. There are plenty of white-washed towns on cliff-tops and hill-tops that have the seaside Greek town look to them. They’re really pretty in a very sun-washed Mediterranean sort of way.
Many thanks for the additional info.
My son spent a week in Puglia last June. He recommends http://www.grottapalazzese.it/en/home/ for dinner. Says the food is good and the environment/view is spectacular.