How To Visit Puglia In A Day

Even with limited time, you can visit Puglia for 24 hours and experience Italy away from the more touristy cities up north.

Like Basilicata, many Americans skip Puglia in their quest to experience Italy via the Italian cities of Rome, Florence and Venice. For a vast majority of American leisure travelers, a trip to Italy is a once in a lifetime experience. Let’s face it, there is only so much Italy that one can explore in a typical two-week vacation, not to mention Neapolitan pizza to eat.

Many years ago, before the Food Network became a cavalcade of competition and reality shows and when Mario Batali had a dedicated cooking show, the chef predicted that the region of Puglia would be Italy’s next great food destination rivaling the culinary epicenters of Rome, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Well, time has passed since those halcyon Food Network days, but, still, the masses have yet to explore this burgeoning gastronomic cornucopia at the heel of Italy’s boot.

Puglia, with its vast flat plains of olive groves, vineyards and conical houses, is abundant with a rich, sophisticated food culture that goes beyond the simple rustic food that most associate with southern Italy. Popular Puglia destinations include resorts like Bari and more rural towns like Margherita di Savoia.

Day Trip To Visit Puglia

Our Puglia day trip from Matera began on a road that weaves through jagged Lucanian cliffs and exits into vast Puglian fields dotted by the province’s signature residences: the round, conically-topped trulli, drywall constructed homes that date back centuries.

The initial purpose of this unique construction is debatable. Some believe the construction was a convenient way to assemble and disassemble houses in order to avoid tax assessors. Others note that the structures provide perfect insulation from the harsh southern Italian sun in the summer months.

Whatever the reason, the oddity of the fairytale structures defines the Puglian landscape. In the town of Alberobello, trulli are ubiquitous, clustered by the hundreds.

But in ways that go beyond the trulli, we found other captivating attractions on our Sunday morning in Alberobello – open air markets, an outdoor church mass and a festive bandstand where older residents of the town gather to hear traditional music in the southern Italian sun.

Bounties Of A Puglia Market

We adored the Sunday markets and olive vendors that are prevalent on the city streets.

Pro Tip
Olives make wonderful snacks to enjoy during a Puglian day trip. They also travel well and taste better than olives sold in the U.S.

Beverage Break In Cisternino

The southern Italian lifestyle is easy, and there are small towns like Cisternino atop hilltops where one can breeze in and enjoy a panini for lunch.

Such a break is even better when accompanied by an inordinately large Negroni cocktail and an expansive view of Puglia’s Itria Valley.

Pro Tip
Most businesses close for several hours each afternoon. Many cafes, where you can relax, eat lunch and enjoy a tasty libation, are open throughout the day.

Evening In Martina-Franca

As the evening breaks in Martina-Franca, the nightly passageata begins. The stately yet compact town’s grand center affords an excellent opportunity to view the nightly stroll while hanging at a local cafe.

The passageata is serious business, as even the town’s oldest citizens proudly struggle to walk through the medieval town center using rails and walls if necessary to keep their balance.

Dinner At The Southern Edge Of Martina-Franca

There aren’t a ton of resources on ‘where to eat’ in Martina-Franca. We found a number of nondescript reviews in difficult to understand, Google translated Italian, but there were a couple of good reviews that pointed us toward the southern border of the town’s center. It was there that we found Osteria Coco Pazzo.

Since Italians eat late, many restaurants open for dinner as late as 8 p.m. Such was the case with this white-walled cantina which we found after a maze-like walk that left us along a two-way main drag.

We approached the restaurant, located in a bi-level Italian strip mall and were quickly greeted by a food runner who treated us like long lost guests. It was just then that we heard a familiar refrain.

We explained that our selection was purely by chance. Literally: the restaurant looked good, so we went in. He was fascinated by our serendipitous arrival and proceeded to shower us with a stream of well-crafted yet traditional Puglian dishes.

The osteria’s menu offers a selection that embraces local ingredients that are abundantly available in Puglia. We began the meal with a melange of antipasti and enjoyed treats like squash blossoms, shrimp, fava bean dip and a red snapper carpaccio.

Although the fava bean dip is a Puglian staple, our favorite starter was a plate of local meats and cheeses including bresaola, tender cured pancetta and vaccherino – a local, intensely funky cow’s milk cheese. All this was served aside rich, soft, creamy burrata.

Other standouts included a pasta dish made with handmade orecchiette pasta and a flavorful tomato sugo. Another was the house special marretto, a lamb roll made with organ meat and served with roasted potatoes and bay leaves.

To full for most Italian desserts, we ended the meal with after-dinner liqueurs and cookies. The combination provided a sweet but not too sweet conclusion to the satisfying meal.

Final Thoughts

Our day trip to Puglia ended much like it started, with us driving through winding roads. As we approached the ancient city of Matera, we already missed Puglia but took comfort in the plastic bags of olives just waiting for us to enjoy for days to follow.

Although we only got a small taste, we tasted enough to know that we want to return for a proper trip to Puglia. Next time we visit Puglia, perhaps we will make time to explore the seaside towns near the Adriatic and Ionian seas.

Without a doubt, we will eat and drink lots of local food and wine among olive tree-dotted fields and quaint towns. To us, that is the ultimate way to live like a local Puglia, even if just for a day.

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Original Publication Date: April 26, 2015