Puglia has long been a popular destination for northern Italians to holiday and is slowly becoming more well known to those who are looking for somewhere a little “less discovered” in Europe.
Situated on the ‘heel of the boot’ of Italy, Puglia is dotted with beautiful small towns with unique architecture like the conical Trulli of Alberobello or buildings perched on the cliffs that overlook the ocean.
Polignano a Mare:
Shortly before the Puglia region became a hot spot for non-Italians travelers, an image surfaced online (Instagram, of course) that caused an influx of visitors to flock to the small town of Polignano a Mare. That image was of Cala Porto, a small white pebble beach surrounded by towering limestone cliffs, white-washed houses, and the most gorgeous turquoise waters.
I must admit, that image is the image that allowed me to discover this region in the first place. So here we are, a little more than a year later, in Polignano a Mare.
We drove 30 minutes from Bari, where we were reunited with our van after having traveled through Greece, to Polignano a Mare. We only had one full day to explore Polignano a Mare, but in all honesty, that’s all we needed!
For much of the afternoon, we wandered through the photogenic old town, discovering the Vicolo Della Poesia – the poetry steps, the well-known view from Balconata Sul Mare, Grotta Palazzese – a hidden restaurant within an ancient cave, and admired the picturesque beach, Cala Porto.
Alberobello:
Alberobello is a charming hilltop town known for its Trulli – which are whitewashed stone huts with cone-shaped roofs. Fun fact, this gorgeous part of southern Italy is the only place the Trulli houses have ever existed – all 1500+ of them.
The Trulli houses were built in the 1500s and because of these characteristic little houses, Alberobello was made a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We had heard that Alberobello becomes incredibly populated with tourists during the day so we decided to wake for sunrise to wander the Trulli-lined streets. I am really glad we did because by 10 am, tourists were arriving by the busload!
While I’m really glad we saw the Trulli houses, we were pretty keen to hit the road again as soon as the crowds started to arrive. The main quarter – the Rione Monti quarter, is mostly souvenir shops and restaurants so you very quickly feel like you’ve walked into a tourist trap. That’s not to say you shouldn’t visit, I mean they are incredibly unique houses and very cute, but we were more than content with the one early morning we spent there!
Torre Dell’Orso:
We continued our journey to Torre Dell’Orso – one of the nicer beaches in the Puglia region. Near Torre Dell’Orso is the Grotte della Poesia (Cave of Poetry) – a picture-perfect natural sinkhole surrounded by impressive rocky landscape and the clear blue waters of the Adriatic Sea. It is incredibly popular and was named in the top 10 most amazing natural pools! Hence why I wanted to go there.
Things didn’t go according to plan for us. We arrived in the late afternoon and decided to free camp in a big parking lot about 3 minutes from the beach. As we were free camping we were off-grid, meaning no power hookup and no toilet facilities (apart from our own in the van). We enjoyed a lovely glass of wine and chicken for dinner.
I’m sure you can see where this is heading and don’t worry, I’ll spare you the details.
All I’ll say is I have never been so unwell. I had both ends on the go every 10 minutes. Remember how I said we only had our toilet facilities in our van? Yeah, well I lost all dignity that evening. Privacy was not at the top of my list! Poor Morgs… He’s seen it all now! He was also fighting a losing battle and he too ended up being very ill.
The next morning when things were more settled, we found the last shred of energy we had and drove to a nearby campsite to have better facilities in case things went south again. We stayed for 3 days and didn’t move. We were so dehydrated and drained that we could hardly walk or even stand! Over the 3 days, we slowly rehydrated and got some life back into us. It was awful!
So that threw a spanner in the works. We took the time to recover and got on our way.
By the way, my cooking did NOT give us food poisoning! The chicken was well cooked (we always check). The only thing we can think of is there might have been some bad bacteria on the chicken. So you can still come for dinner parties and I promise I won’t kill you!
Matera:
Known as “The Stone City” or “The City of Caves”, Matera is a sight to behold. This remarkable city has quite literally been carved out of the rock. It is made up of a network of caves that have been inhabited for 9000 years, making Matera the third-oldest continually inhabited settlement in the world.
Over the years, Matera has gone from ancient civilization to slum to a hidden gem. It was once known as the “shame of Italy” and, up until the 1950s, society was living in poverty and malaria was rife. It wasn’t until a new law was passed which forced the residents of Matera into modern buildings which are now known as the “new town”.
The “Sassi” or ancient town has come along way in the last 70 years and was recently crowned the 2019 European City of Culture. It is now a place where tourists flock to roam the zigzagging staircases, marvel at the incredible architecture or explore the caves.
Matera is quite possibly one of the most uniquely fascinating cities we have ever visited.
The first glimpse of the Sassi will make your jaw drop. You feel like you’ve travelled back through time.
We found the best way to explore the achient town was to simply to get lost and wander the narrow cobblestone streets, climb the many staircases and discover gorgeous little courtyards that burst with colour from the cacti. Come the middle of the day, the heat hits an all time high of 38 degrees and with limited shade around, we would retreat to a cave resturants for a cold refreshement.
The sunset in Matera was very unique. Unlike Greece or Croatia where the sky burns all shades of reds and pinks, the sky faded into shades of deep blue and the color of the stone caves was washed orange and yellow. It was captivating.
We spent two days exploring materea and we certainly did not see it all! We absoluetly loved the anchient town of Matera and would hihgly reccommend adding it to your list of places to go! You wont find anything else like it!
Oh! And before I sign off this blog post, I almost forgot..
The new James Bond was being filmed while we were there! The aire we stayed in had an old race track which they used as a base for the helicopter to fly in and out of to change its camera gear! A few days before our arrival, they were racing all of the Aston Martin stunt cars around the track to practice! Unfortunately Daniel Craig wasn’t there at that time, he was due to fly in a week or so later.
We spent two days exploring materea and we certainly did not see it all! We absoluetly loved the anchient town of Matera and would hihgly reccommend adding it to your list of places to go! You wont find anything else like it!
Although our entire road trip through the Puglia region didn’t quite go to plan, there were some big highlights – Matera being one! We feel that we haven’t finished exploring Southern Italy so no doubt, we will make our way back here one day.
