Conical stone trulli and whitewashed hill towns, exuberant baroque, two seas, and a city of caves lived in for nine thousand years, the heel of Italy, sun baked and still under the radar.
Into Bari and down to the sea at Polignano a Mare, a town balanced on cliffs above the Adriatic. After the flight we keep it easy, a first plate of orecchiette, a swim off the rocks, and on to a masseria, a fortified old farmhouse, in the Itria Valley.
Alberobello, a whole town of trulli, conical dry stone houses with whitewashed walls and grey pointed roofs, found nowhere else on earth; the balcony town of Locorotondo, and a long lunch of burrata, made that morning. The slow, sun warmed south.
Ostuni, the dazzling 'White City' tumbling down its hill, an olive oil estate among trees a thousand years old, and a swim on the Adriatic coast. An afternoon by the masseria pool, a primitivo with dinner under the stars.
The baroque of Martina Franca, the old town of Cisternino, and a hands on cooking class, orecchiette pinched by hand, the way the nonnas do. Cheese, wine and a wood fired dinner; Puglia eats better than almost anywhere in Italy.
South to Lecce, the 'Florence of the South', its honey coloured baroque so soft it looks carved from butter; the Roman amphitheatre, the artisan papier mache workshops. On into the Salento, the very tip of the heel where two seas meet.
The grottoes and clear coves of the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, the cathedral town of Otranto and the fishing harbour of Gallipoli, a swim and a long seafood lunch. The southernmost, sunniest corner of the mainland, all sea and light.
West into Basilicata to Matera and its astonishing Sassi, a city of cave dwellings carved into a ravine, continuously inhabited for nine thousand years, abandoned, and reborn. A cave hotel night, the floodlit canyon of stone glowing across the gorge.
The rock cut churches with their Byzantine frescoes, the cave house museum showing how families once lived here, the viewpoint across the ravine at dawn. A last dinner of Lucanian pasta and wine in a candlelit cave.
A last espresso looking over the Sassi before the transfer to Bari for your flight. Puglia and Matera are the Italy the crowds have not found yet, go now, and go slowly.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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