We invite you to explore the many souls of Puglia (also known as Apulia in English). The “heel of Italy’s boot,” Puglia is replete withnature, history, tradition, and spirituality. The marvelous beaches will delight you, and you will be captivated by the baroque heritage of Lecce, Ostuni, and Otranto.

You will spend your nights in masserie, the luxury farmhouses abundant in the region, truly immersing yourself in the traditions of Puglia.

We prepared an itinerary with short-distances legs. Drive slowly and take time to explore the countryside; a patchwork of vineyards, olive groves, woods, and fields awaits your admiration. You will also enjoy the coastal roads of the Gargano – the region’s high rocky coast, rich with stacks and grottoes in unusual forms falling in the crystal waters of the Adriatic sea.

This is an unforgettable journey in one of Italy’s most rustic and charming regions; Benvenuti a Puglia!

Itinerary:
Day 1:	Arrival in Puglia: Bari → Mattinata
Day 2:	Mattinata → Matera
Day 3:	Matera → Martina Franca
Day 4 :	Martina Franca → Ostuni → Monopoli → Martina Franca
Day 5:	Martina Franca → Lecce
Day 6:	Lecce → Uggiano
Day 7:	Uggiano → Otranto →Santa Maria di Leuca → Gallipoli → Uggiano
Day 8:	Uggiano → Brindisi –Bye bye Puglia
Download a PDF with full information

CULTURAL CORNER

Music

Pizzica traditional music

Ballo della Pizzica – BRIGANTI DI TERRA D’OTRANTO (Taranta 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjmNWAXQeFw

Cinema

Movie: Il paese delle spose infelici

http://www.bridgepugliausa.it/articolo.asp?id_sez=1&id_cat=50&id_art=3507&lingua=en

Cultural vocab

The Pizzica dance: a Tradition between Dionysus and the Saints:

The sultry heat, sand blowing in the morning air, and the parched land of Salento, a small subregion in Puglia. The women here, bent over to work in the fields, are marked by fatigue. A tarantula bites one of their ankles, so she runs to grab a tambourine and dances without inhibition, until all the poison finally exits her body. This turns out to be a real, live musical catharsis, and the origin of the tradition that the region of Puglia celebrates every summer: the pizzica tarantata, pizzica-scherma, and the most well-known, pizzica-pizzica.

Today an attraction of international renown, the pizzica as danced by Pugliese grandmothers was not merely a dance, but a type of therapy. Like the dances of the bacchanals of Dionysus – the Greek god of wine and drunkenness – the pizzica was an act that unleashed a certain sense of oppression shared by these women.

The architecture of the trulli:

The trullo is a rustic building, designed in prehistoric times. It is circular with a conical roof. The cone is clad on the outside with thin slabs of stone placed in concentric circles and decorated with multiform pinnacles. The thick whitewashed walls and small windows, guarantee excellent thermal insulation. The trulli are modular residences and may be composed of a single room or have other rooms added to the central one.

Le Masserie:

Typical manor house or farmhouse, true expression of the peasant spirit of Puglia, immersed in olive groves. Most masserie are now luxury hotels.

Puglia food recipe

Il Pasticciotto:

A typical treat from Lecce and its surrounding areas, made with a sweet crust and pastry cream.

You can find exquisite pasticciotto  in all the famous pastry shops, but making them at home is not very difficult. They are best eaten fresh out of the oven.

Pasticciotto recipe:

Makes about 10 pasticiotti

For the PASTRY DOUGH:

• 250 g of all-purpose flour
• 125 g of butter or shortening
• 125 g of sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• a pinch of salt

For the PASTRY CREAM:

• 1/2 liter of milk
• 125 g of sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 50 g of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 of a vanilla bean stick or a little lemon zest

How to prepare it (Choose the translate option at the top for an English version):

http://www.bridgepugliausa.it/articolo.asp?id_sez=1&id_cat=42&id_art=3479&lingua=en