Puglia

Puglia — also known as Apulia — stretches over 400 kilometres from north to south along the Adriatic coast, forming the heel of Italy’s boot. It is one of Italy’s most diverse regions: a flat, fertile plain in the north (the Tavoliere, once called “the granary of Italy”), a dramatic limestone promontory in the Gargano, the iconic Valle d’Itria in the centre, and the long Salento peninsula tapering to the southernmost tip of the Italian mainland.

Puglia produces roughly 40% of Italy’s olive oil — from over 60 million olive trees, some of which are over 1,000 years old — and is Italy’s second largest wine-producing region, home to Primitivo, Negroamaro, Nero di Troia and a growing wave of natural wine producers in the Valle d’Itria.

It is also increasingly one of the most-visited regions of Italy, still able to somehow retain, in its smaller towns, its masserie and its coastal villages, an authenticity that more famous destinations lost some time ago.