Ancient olive trees and megalithic monuments in Puglia
With D-Day commemorations over, the leaders of the free world have headed to Italy for the G7 conference. There’s a lot to discuss; including upcoming elections in France and the UK, the recent European elections as well as the situation in Ukraine and Palestine.
Resort Borgo Egnazia. Savelletri di Fasano. Apulia. Italy.
President Biden, Prime Minister Sunak of the U.K. and France’s President Macron will all be sequestered behind the bougainvillea-drenched walls of Puglia’s most famous resort. The word Borgo translates into English most easily as village, and even though it was only created in 2010, the design of Borgo Egnazia deliberately apes a traditional Puglian village albeit with a Michelin-starred restaurant, an extensive spa, one of Italy’s best golf clubs and a beach club.
Compared to the Amalfi coast, Puglia’s shoreline is relatively unsung; although Polignano a Mare has superb optics, with sandstone cliffs hosting houses and Romanesque churches before they plunge into deep blue waters. The Grotta Palazzese restaurant takes you from an anonymous doorway into a series of caves that have waves lapping below.
The white houses of Polignano a Mare are perched on a rock cliff.
Sometimes I find it tempting to think of resolutely independent and forthright Puglia as Italy’s take on Texas. If so, the city of Bari is its Austin; an irreverent student city that is a cultural hub for the region; an outwards looking mixture of Roman remains, a tightly wound old town, where nonnas make and sell pasta from trestle tables and - of course - churches. San Nicola, near the harbour, stacks a soaring Norman-era Catholic church on top of a Greek Orthodox one. Says Daniela Ficarella, of Indigenus Tours, “Bari has transformed in the last 20 years. It always had superb food but now it has boutique hotels, including Vis Urban Suites & Spa, plus festivals such as the Bari Piano Festival and one of Italy’s best opera houses in the Teatro Petruzzelli.”
The trulli houses of Alberobello
But for many, Puglia’s magic also lies in its real villages, punctuated with the region’s distinctive trulli houses; tiny buildings with conical roofs designed, according to Puglian legend, to be easily dismantled when tax inspectors were in the vicinity. Ostuni and Alberobello draw the crowds but Conversano has a sleepier charm, where the bleached white limestone and tufa buildings and the long summers combine to capture a spirit of Italy that feels timeless.
Puglia is all about the earth and the good things that come from it. The region’s 60 million olive trees - both wild and cultivated - comfortably outnumber the human population of four million. The quality of its fruit, vegetables and vines (Primitivo wine encapsulates Pugla’s expansive, gutsy character perfectly) is famed across Italy.
A bedroom at the Paragon 700 hotel in Ostuni.
The countryside also pays host to superb hotels. “The family-run Furnirussi Tenuta has the biggest organic fig plantation in Europe. I also love the fresco-filled Paragon 700 in Ostuni and the flamboyant Castle Elvira. Hotels in Puglia tend to blend rustic charm with a sophisticated edge. Whether you opt for a restored masseria, art-filled townhouse, renovated castle or one of the simple and iconic ‘trulli’, unique to the region, you tend to receive unparalleled hospitality because Puglians are renowned for their warmth, personal service, and enthusiasm,” says Lulu Townsend of The Hotel Guru.
