TRAVEL
TRAVEL Postcards from Puglia
Judith Schrut Sends Greetings From Italy’s Sunny ‘Deep South’
Antonella’s Pasticciotto Lecce, photo Judith Schrut
Pedals in Puglia, photo copyright Antonello Naddeo
Puglia, famously known as the heel in Italy’s beauteous boot, can be summed up in three words: past, present and Primitivo. Just add pasta, panini and prosciutto, and you’ve pretty much got the ingredients of this wonderful place. There are a great many reasons you might want to spend a week or two exploring and enjoying this unique, unspoilt region, and they all involve pleasuring your senses. There’s the impossibly pretty scenery, small towns full of charm and history which dot the hillsides, and ancient seaside villages which line the rugged coastline. A near-perfect climate produces the region’s fabled food and wine. which might be described as out of this world yet down to earth. Local cheeses like burrata and smoked meats like spicy capocollo, rich red wines from Primitivo and Negroamaro grapes, superb seafood and shellfish from the morning catch, stretched orecchiette ‘little ears’- and other pastificious treats, and wow-factor gelato, make Puglia a no-contest foodie paradise. And if you like being close to nature, exercising in clean air, generous, welcoming local hospitality, waking to the smell of freshly baked breakfast cakes and the world’s best coffee, this region is definitely for you. At time of writing there seems an added bonus: this distant part of Italy appears sheltered from the worst of the pandemic, with relatively few Covid-19 cases to date. WWW.THEAMERICANHOUR.COM
Marino the Panini King of Noci and wife Anna
Magical Matera
The perfect place to begin our holiday in the heel, and less than an hour’s drive from Bari airport, with direct flights from the UK, is the legendary city of Matera. Matera is actually one of the oldest cities on earth, inhabited for over 9,000 years. It’s a place of infinite beauty and picture postcard views, prehistoric cave houses car ved into limestone rock, meandering streets and narrow alleyways. This is where Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, and Richard Gere’s King David were filmed, because of its astonishing likeness to Jerusalem. And it’s probably the most stunning European city you’ve never heard of. En route to being named 2019’s European Capital of Culture, Matera underwent an incredible transformation. The city’s aged heart, the Sassi, has been lovingly cleaned and polished whilst losing none of its charms. Many of its cave houses have been reborn as 21st century bars, hotels and restaurants. This includes tonight’s joyful dinner destination, Ristorante Soul Kitchen, a tastefully restored cave eaterie run by charismatic brothers Pietro and Mimmo and serving a daily changing menu sourced from local farmer’s markets. Four courses and a bottle of Aglianico del Vulture later, we’re not quite legless and just in time for a guided tour of Matera by night. As evening falls the city becomes an illuminated
Yours Trulli, Alberobello, photo Judith Schrut
Along the Adriatic, photo Judith Schrut
fairy tale. As a canopy of lights covers the panoramic old town with its timeworn buildings clinging to the cliffside, we retire to our cave-hotel, Corte San Pietro.
Yours Trulli, Alberobello
The trulli of Alberobello: you’ve probably seen them loads of times – in adverts for romantic getaways, stylish snaps on WWW.AMERICANINBRITAIN.CO.UK
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