As you may have gathered from my other blogs, my preferred mode of holiday is a road trip as I am eternally curious about what’s around the corner or at the end of the road. As someone with a strong wanderlust, or desire to travel, the idea of staying in one place on a villa holiday...
As you drive through the Itria Valley, amongst the vineyards with dry stone walls, you will notice little ‘hobbit-like’ houses scattered throughout the countryside. These special houses are called trullo (trulli in the plural) and characterise this rural area of Southern Italy...
After braving the crowds at nearby Alberobello to admire the wonderful trulli houses in the morning, we were keen to head somewhere quieter for a late lunch. The town of Locorotondo, often referred to as ‘one of the most beautiful villages in Italy’, looked like a great option for this...
We found a great deal of variety during our week in Puglia – Alberobello was ‘trulli town’, Matera had caves, Locorotondo provided lunch with a view, and Ostuni was a chaotic beacon of light shining on top of a hill. Lecce, a smart University city and often referred to as the ‘Florence of...
We had spotted Ostuni standing proudly on a hilltop when we first travelled to our villa in Puglia from the Airport – you can see it from mills away across the Itria Valley. Ostuni is known as ‘the White City’ due to its white painted walls and the way it glows in the sunlight. It is...
Although Matera was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 and European Capital of Culture in 2019, it was the opening scene of James Bond film No Time To Die which put Matera firmly on the map for those who were not already aware of this beautiful city. After some on-line...