Puglia travel is perpetually on the rise, and it's not surprising – the southern Italian region situated in the “heel” of Italy has become an international tourism star due to the warm hospitality, good (and healthy) cuisine but also to the cinema that has brought her charm to the general public
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Puglia's Hollywood-like phenomenon is rooted in the hospitality entrepreneurs who have transformed farms into five-star accommodations, creating the backdrop for an intimate and chic vacation among millenary olive trees and the sea. These exotic refuges have lodged several international stars, including Madonna, who stayed at Borgo Egnazia for her 60th birthday.
Pasta-making on the street in Bari, Photo: Giacomo Bretzel
Domestically, Puglia owes part of its success to the television series and films that revealed its beauty to a larger audience. Le indagini di Lolita Lobosco (Lolita Lobosco's Investigations), a mystery series was filmed on location in Bari, a city on the Adriatic. The exquisite La Peschiera hotel served as the backdrop for Carlo Verdone's 2021 film, Si vive una volta sola (You Live Only Once). "After seeing the film, I said to my husband: we must go there as soon as possible," says Fionna, a Milanese who is always looking for sun, beaches, and good food. They booked a room at Masseria Torre Coccaro, and spent a weekend there, alternating beach time with tiella time (a rice, potato, and mussels dish) and a tour of Alberello's trulli, the cylindrical limestone structures topped with conical roofs.
The trulli of Alberobello, photo: Getty Images/manx_in_the_world
During the last fifteen years, Puglia travel has increased and the region has broken all records of success becoming, both in Italy and abroad, the greatest Italian discovery. “We were looking for a house to build a small hotel in a little-known place in Italy. Tuscany and Sardinia were too expensive, and we got as far as Nardò [in the province of Lecce],” says Anne Benichou.
In June, she opened a five-room accommodation inside a residence in the center of the town called Casa à Corte. The locale is a concentrate of objects, scents, flavors of the territory with the attention of a luxury hotel, considering that Anne has worked for Oetker Collection and the Ritz in Paris.
A similar story is that of Pascale Lauber and Ulrike Bauschke, hoteliers in Cape Town who vacationed in Puglia. They were so taken with Ostuni, which sits between Monopoli and Brindisi, that they bought a farm in the countryside to live in, a house in the historic center to convert into a hotel called Paragon 700. It's home to one of the most promising restaurants in the region along with a bohemian (like them) beach club.
The whitewashed facades of Ostuni, photo: Getty Images/Atlantide Phototravel
And Bari? "It is so beautiful and has such a mild climate that it feels like living on vacation," says Francesco Lopez, who was born and raised there, and has a production company called Oz Film. And to think that until a few years ago it was more famous for the underworld. Now it is the Barcelona of Italy. The boom was caused by the Apulian Spring. In 2005, the tourist promotion began which brought out the extraordinary natural, architectural and culinary riches of our region."
Apart from the beaches, the Romanesque architecture, and the orecchiette, Puglia could be looked at through a new set of eyes. Many young natives left for Europe and America to gain experience, only to feel a bit homesick. For many, returning has become a mission – and not just for the focaccia with tomatoes and mom's pasticciotto (custard-stuffed shortcrust pastries). They return with fluent English, new ideas, and international savoir-faire – an essential heritage for a region that has hospitality in its soul.
Cover photo: Lama Monachile Cala Porto a Polignano a Mare on the Adriatic Coast, just north of Monopoli, photo: Getty Images/Michal Ludwiczak