Puglia, Lonely Planet recommendation for best value:
By:- John Puglia
Puglia, recommendation: If you’ve ever rubbed shoulders with billionaires on the Amalfi Coast or spent the weekend in Venice, you’ll know that Italy can drain travel budgets. This year, look south. Italy’s heel has arguably the best beaches in the country, hilltop towns and ancient sights. But what makes Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria such good value is not just the financial side of being in this part of the country. It’s the fabulous food – cucina povera (poor man’s food), simple, tasty and cheap – and the relaxed pace of life even in peak season, coupled with good-value accommodation for all budgets.
Puglia has been recommended among the top ten value destinations for 2019. This continues the renaissance of the tourist industry in Puglia. Villa Puglia ensures that prospective holiday makers have a choice of the finest holiday homes for rental. Old fortified farmhouse in Puglia, Italy. Image by Michele Galli / E+ / Getty Images. http://www.lonelyplanet.com//travel-tips-and-articles/lonelyplanets-best-value-travel-destinations-for-2019
National Geographic recommends Puglia Few visit Puglia beyond its most famous seaside towns, fewer still outside of the warm months. And—as proud as they are of their region’s ancient vineyards and medieval castles, cone-roofed trulli dwellings and white-sand beaches—many locals seem surprised by tourists’ attention. “If you go to Tuscany nowadays, you have to know where to go and what to do to have an off-the-beaten-path experience,” says Antonello Losito, a Bari native and the owner of tour company Southern Visions Travel. “But Puglia is always off the beaten path.” By the time the sun sets on even the busiest summer day in Bari, cruise passengers have fled back to their buffets, and locals swell the town’s narrow streets and cobblestoned piazzas in their stead. Old men clutching canes chat in the distinctive local dialect. The scent of ragù floats through open doorways, blocked from the street only by hanging blankets. Families push strollers. Laundry flaps from windows.
Where Old Ways Still Rule: Greeks and Goths, Romans and Normans, Byzantines and Venetians: All put their feet, and flags, in the heel of Italy’s boot. There, the region of Puglia stretches a strategic 250 miles along the Adriatic Sea (and 95 miles on the Ionian), making it a key connection between Italy and Europe’s east.