Puglia is Italy’s great secret — the long, sun-drenched heel of the boot that has been producing extraordinary olive oil, remarkable wine, and some of the most distinctive and delicious food in Italy for centuries, almost entirely unnoticed by the international travellers who flood Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. That is changing, but slowly — and for now, Puglia remains one of the most rewarding and most authentic regions in Italy, a place where the food, the landscape, the architecture, and the way of life are entirely its own.

At the heart of Puglia’s Valle d’Itria sits Alberobello — a town of extraordinary visual impact, its streets lined with trulli, the iconic whitewashed cone-roofed stone buildings that are unique to this small area of southern Italy and that give the landscape the appearance of something from a fairy tale. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the trulli of Alberobello are genuinely extraordinary in person — more numerous, more varied, and more atmospheric than any photograph can convey, particularly in the early morning or evening light when the day-trippers have gone.

Beyond Alberobello, Puglia reveals its full richness: the white hilltop city of Ostuni; the baroque splendour of Lecce; the sea caves of Polignano a Mare; the archaeological wonders of ancient Egnatia; and the extraordinary Adriatic coastline of crystal-clear water and dramatic limestone cliffs. Fly directly from your local airport with Aviant into Bari — the vibrant regional capital — and use it as the gateway to one of Italy’s most rewarding regions.