What Puglia Actually Is

Puglia is the part of Italy that makes you feel like you've arrived somewhere that still has a secret.

It occupies the heel of the Italian boot, a long region of ancient olive groves, whitewashed towns, and coastline that stretches along two seas. It's been slower than most of Italy to develop a full tourist infrastructure, which is a significant part of what makes it extraordinary right now.

The landscape is unlike anything else in Italy. Olive trees that are over a thousand years old line the roads through the Salento. The trulli of the Valle d'Itria, stone huts with conical roofs that have existed in this form for centuries, look like nothing else on earth. The Adriatic coast near Polignano a Mare drops into water so clear it reads Caribbean blue.

The food is different here too. Puglia produces roughly 40% of Italy's olive oil, and you taste the difference. Pasta is fresh, handmade, and shaped differently than anywhere else. Orecchiette and cavatelli are regional staples. The cuisine is simpler than Emilia-Romagna, less layered than Sicilian, and deeply rooted in what the land produces. It's some of the most honest food in Italy.

The towns reward wandering. Lecce is often called the Florence of the South, Baroque architecture at a scale and quality that would be famous anywhere else, in a city most Americans have never heard of. Ostuni, perched above the olive groves on a white hill, is as photogenic as anything in Tuscany and a fraction as crowded.