Puglia: far from maddening crowds

A fter what must qualify as the longest, most miserable Irish winter in living memory, where I think we got as far as storm Zacchaeus (that was the storm so ashamed of itself it went and hid up a tree), Puglia had a fairly low bar to cross. As long as the weather wasn’t biblical, I was going to be fairly well disposed towards the place.

With temperatures reaching 25 degrees in early May, Puglia, or more specifically the Salento region of Italy, right at the end of the heel of the boot, certainly passed the first test, but there is far more to this place than just an escape to the sun.

While not quite undiscovered, it is definitely less touristy, less crowded, and far cheaper than the north and west of the country – yet with the longest coastline of any other part of mainland Italy, it has beaches to beat any of the more famous resort areas and architecture as impressive, and in many ways more varied, than its flashier northern cousins.

An hour south of Bari – the only airport in the area with direct flights from Dublin – Ostuni, about 8km inland from the Adriatic coast, is a good base for exploring the province. This relaxed medieval hill-top town is quiet off-season, but still has plenty to offer with pretty white-washed buildings and fantastic views down the olive tree-covered valley towards the sea, which despite knowing they’re there, regularly stop you in your tracks when you come across a gap in the higgledy piggledy winding streets.

It has inevitably a tourist drag, but it’s fairly muted and step off it and you’re quickly wandering through residential streets. At night the area around Piazza della Libertà, dominated by the statue to Sant’Oronzo (honoured for reputedly ridding the town of plague in the 1600s), is the main draw, where bars and restaurants spill on to the marble steps.

Beaches Puglia, with the Ionian Sea on one side and the Adriatic on the other, is spoiled for beaches. Surrounded by sea the province feels like an island and while you will get kilometres of sandy beaches with all the amenities and inevitable summer crowds that go with it, you also have the option of plenty of tiny coves where, if you’re lucky, you’ll get the place to yourself.

The water is warmest on the sheltered Ionian side to the west, and this is where some of Salento’s most popular beaches are, including those around Campomarino, particularly San Pietro in Bevagna, and beaches at Porto Cesareo, Porto Selvaggio, Gallipoli and Pescoluso.

The eastern Adriatic side is more weather beaten, with dramatic cliffs and caves but still holds its own beach-wise with the beautiful Alimini beach backed by white dunes and the beaches at San Cataldo, and at Torre Guaceto, which is in a nature reserve.

Towns About an hour south of Ostuni is Lecce, Salento’s brilliantly baroque capital. If there was an opportunity in the 17th century to put a frilly bit on a building, the men who built this town weren’t going to pass it up. In a town full of fantastic facades the front of Basilica di Santa Croce still manages to stand out in a super wedding cakey way. Lecce is known as the Florence of the south, but don’t let that put you off. While it is a busy spot, it still has a relaxed atmosphere and a wonderful amphitheatre that you’d almost fall into before you realised it was there.

Head 40 minutes south to the coast and an even more impressive, though undeniably ghoulish sight awaits in Otranto at its cathedral. Its detailed mosaic floor depicts scenes from the old testament, there are beautiful 11th-century frescos, and a lovely altar surrounded by the bones of 800 martyrs allegedly beheaded in 140 by Turks who weren’t best pleased by their refusal to convert to Islam.

If you were to visit only one church on your trip, make it this one.

Astoundingly, that’s not the oddest sight Puglia has to offer.

Dotted around the countryside are trulli, distinctive little conical stone houses, a bit like pointer beehive huts, but still used as homes and farm buildings. On their own they look like a lovely little eccentricity, but head to Alberobello and find a town so packed full of trulli that it looks like a smurf colony. Many are now used as giftshops, and some contain cafes.

Around the countryside are more prosaic but lovely small towns, including Martina Franca, with its surprisingly fancy historic centre, and Locorotondo, a beautiful peaceful and untouristy white town more like something you would expect to find in southern Spain or Greece than Italy.

Food and drink The olive groves are an unmissable feature of the landscape. Puglia produces about 40 per cent of Italy's olive oil and it is put to good use in fantastic regional dishes. The cooking tends to have a lighter touch than in other parts of the country with a big emphasis on vegetables. A must-try speciality is the orecchiette (little ear shaped pasta) with cime de rapa, which is translated on menus as "turnip tops" but is similar in flavour to sprouting broccoli.

Cime de rapa turns up everywhere – stuffed inside ravioli and puréed into pasta sauces with fish and shelfish. The tomatoes are so brilliant they would convince you that Ireland should give up trying to grow them. Mozzarella fior di latte (flower of milk), which has a softer texture to its buffalo cousin is common, as is the even creamier burrata.

As you would expect on a peninsula, restaurants abound with the freshest of fish. Octopus, swordfish and prawns are particularly popular, as is the local fish cernia. Even the polpette, will frequently be made from fish instead of meat.

While the olive groves are everywhere they still make room for vines. The focus is on reds with Salento made with the Negroamaro grape, and Primitivo, the same grape as California’s Zinfandel, the mainstays. There are quite a few smaller producers doing interesting things, including Cantine Semeraro, where the wine is aged to the music of Mozart and Vivaldi which sounds fanciful, but tastes great.

Puglia, particularly when it comes to food and drink, is significantly cheaper than northern Italy. A meal with wine costs as little as €12-€15 per person. An espresso costs about 80 cent and a cappuccino €1. You can get a pizza from €5 and a bowl of pasta from €6.

Olivia Kelly travelled courtesy of puglia.ie which is running a tour from September 19th-26th, and Ryanair which has direct flights from Dublin to Bari on Mondays and Fridays. She stayed at Hotel Relais Sant’Eligio in Ostuni.