more tomorrow.....

Mmmmm more please!!

hey jamikins-will do, hopefully try and report daily

Oh my! This is fabulous!

Hehe glad u enjoyed willow......Thank you

I just read the pasta I ad was cavatellii, it was pasta that woman used to sit outside and make by wrapping the past,a around a long pole several times and then chopping into little pieces and was a little social occasion for neighbours to catch up.....

Yeah, Puglia rulez! ^__^

Vito

You've arrived! Can't wait to hear more!

Did Art Nouveau have a sea view from the terrace? What was your impression of the town of Sta. Maria al Bagno?

Also, Can you post the link of "your" villa so we have a mental picture as we read along?

Thanks so much and happy eating!

hi eks (and vito-it sure does!)

no probs. We are staying at

http://www.villapulia.com/ca-del-fico/

which is surrounded by olives groves and the odd trulli (including its own). It is lovely and great as has a beautiful view out to the sea. We have just braved the pool and was lovely and refreshing

yep Art Noveau did have a sea view across the little road that drives through the village and the sea was looking very pretty and calm when we were there. We really liked the little waterfront village, it had a nice little beach- already busy and a nice promenade with trees lining it either side. When we arrived at 12 it was fully of people driving through but soon quietened down as lunch time arrived. It wasn't huge but bigger than we expected and e hadn't realised there would be a beach as such so were pleasantly surprised. If we were staying nearer the area we would most definitely go back to the restaurant.

Ok off for a siesta, luch again has tired us out!! more on that later

Be still my heart!

This is wonderful! Thanks for reporting.

Wonderful so far and waiting for more! Have bookmarked the villa, looks divine.
Love your food descriptions, I'm hungry now!

Looking forward to much more!

My mouth is watering at your meal descriptions! Looking forward to reading more!

hehe thanks all, my mouth has ceraintly been watering at each and every menu!! ok so just back from dinner (we braved driving in the dark!!) and before i sleep and give my stomach a chance to come to terms with the unusual amount of yummy food, its only fair to keep you updated...

So after another round of itlaian coffee bread and pruscuitto in the morning (this has to stop, we just cant cope with all this food and breakfast is going to have to be the something to "give") we ventured into Monopoli via the coastal road. The turquoise sea looked truly guidebook picture gorgeous and we enjoyed the short 15 minute drive (the roads seemed empty today). Now we were not expecting huge things from Monopoli simply as as far as we knew it wasn't a huge tourist spot but we were really quite pleasantly surprised. The centro storico is very nice and white and clean with a beautiful cathedral and very quiet white stone streets and houses. It was pratically deserted, we only saw 2 other tourists while we were there and the old little car toot through the tiny toy like lanes. There was plenty of washing hanging in the narrow lanes between houses and it felt a tiny bit like a small white dazzling naples but with little to no noise- locals were cleaning the stone ground around their houses which explained why it was all so shiny looking. This place looked how I imagined Puglian harbour towns to look, white and blue with the odd dash of pink. We really liked it and loved the waterfront fortress style walls with its little castello at one end with the harbour on the other side and the wide promenade between stone and sea. There was the odd sun bather by the waterfront too.

We stumbled across a square with a fruit market and bought some deep red tomatoes and some soft peach peaches and a little basil plant (when in rome and all that...) The stall holder didn't speak any English but we coped just fine with out tiny italian we had picked up (ok so we pointed on occasion!). There were also a huge variety of oranges of all shapes and sizes and dozens of crates of shiny courgettes and 1000s of deep red cherries- remind me why we don't have fruit markets like this at home?!?! We also found a little gelataria which had delicious looking gelato which we vowed to come back to after lunch as each and every flavour looked creamy, rich and delicious (we never made it, i blame the tiramisu!). There was a small cheese shop we visited via the hanging bead entrances (oh now what if behind those long beads is not the shop it said it was but a scary unknown world- we were brave and entered in!) We picked up some more creamy proscuitto and some gorgeously intensely flavoured hard crumbly cheese like a parmesan but a much deeper orange ("typico de puglia") which we have no idea what it was called as there were jus loads of mini wheels of it with no lables (by the time we got home it was well and trully sweating its intensity out!) and of course some gorgonzola. Don't get me wrong i adore french cheese but gorgonzola has got to be in my top 2 cheeses world wide only behind the to die for 'brie du melun' (not meaux-melun!) but il save that for a French trip report!. There was no way i was going to skip my number 2 cheese especially when in Italy. Everything we looked at the shop owner offered us a sample (again we tried desparately to understand the italian as he told us about the cheeses but we failed misserably!- oh well at least taste has no language barriers-everything we tried tasted divine so we took some of all we sampled-2 large cheese wedges, some tiny mozarella balls "mozaRELLa" and proscuitto -all for just 8 euro!! and when cutting the proscuitto they moved what must of been a 10inch diameter moradelli sausage. We vowed to dine in tomorrow and feast on cheese and ham Italiano style and maybe seek out some more of that scrummy fruity red wine We were starting to worry the samples might fill us too much before we even got to lunch so moved on...

Given how quiet the streets were we were surprised to find another couple already settled inside

http://www.lavecchiataverna.it/chi_siamo.htm

just down from the cathedral. It is a tiny place ran by a nice couple with a lovely arched stone ceiling, pretty blue table cloths and pretty pictures of Monopoli from times gone by with only a scattering of tables. Apart form the one other table we were the only ones there but we didn't mind, made us feel more special! Vito the owner came in after 5 minutes and was very nice and welcomed us to Monopoli "Arhh Miss 'elen" (i had booked-really no need at the moment as very quiet in this town on a monday at least). We settled in and were given a little bit of pan and pomodoro (Italian words just sound more romantic right!) to try- the tomatoes small and sweet on crunchy bread as well as a huge basket of soft bread (we resisted, we learned from yesterday bread can be dangerously filling here!). This time i was the boring one- seen as we have salad caprese at least once a week a home, i felt i had to sample the real deal at least once while we were here ad glad i did- the mozarella was so white and stretchy and with a delicate flavour- the texture was perfect and the tomatoes were ripe and juicy. Drizzled with olive oil and a tad of salt and some basil leaves, it was simple,light and refreshing (how will the ones at home ever compare now- although i do have a secret extra-raw garlic!) My partner ordered cheese and salami which thankfully they were out of salami so he instead was recommended a wonderfully presented, prawn, mozzarella and aubergine dish that was a little parcel beautifully on a small base of tomato sauce. You would not think prawns and cheese would go, but they did so so well-the aubergine was not at all stratchy/chalky but lovely and soft and well cooked-delightful!. To follow we managed to resist having pasta again (very tough since we avoided pasta for two weeks before out trip so were still dreaming of more after yesterday's feast!!) as we felt we should take advantage of the fabulous coast and what it had to offer. He had prawns cooked in lemoncello, which were fleshy pure white, fresh and yummy (no curled up tough stuff here!)- It seemed like they had soaked some breadcrumbs in the lemoncello and then grilled the prawns in this coating-we saw them rush over the lemocello bottle so knew was all done to order (plus we could hear the sizzling in the distance). I had octopus and cuttlefish which was extremely meaty and filling and grilled and which i drizzled with a squeeze of lemon they provided- It tasted fresh and the octopus in particular had a very deep unique flavour but this is the real deal- where you know it is an octopus on your plate with the little suckers bursting out at you (as it should be but sometimes a shock to some!)- got to admit was a battle to finish as so filling but was certainly very nicely excecuted.

We thought we were stuffed but were too tempted by the Tirimisu to go without dessert-(again we are Italy, so how could we possibly say no!) it was light (maybe too light) and creamy with not too strong a coffee flavour and despite asking for a small portion was quite substantial (it all got gobbled up so they knew us better then we knew ourselves). To finish off we had "due caffe" and then were offered home made lemoncello on the house- which i took (partner having to do all the driving as i don't drive so felt quite guilty as he loves the stuff!) and wow it packed a punch!!.

We were reminded we were in Italy by how relaxed things are, lunch is important here and can easily go on for a several hourse, but the naturally cool interior was also a nice break from the midday sun !!! We were told from june 1st they had a terrace over-looking the sea which sounded lovely... went off back to rest after all this food (although sad not to sample the gelato we had spotted earlier-we were way too full) and maybe just the odd sugared almond (they are almost all gone -arhh what will i do!!) to keep us going till dinner...(if i could resist that gorgonzola which last night's pizza had me craving again)........

After our little sleep and a swim we ventured out again- this time to a little Masseria near Ostuni. But this was quite a feast which defeated us (we took our desert home, our bellies literally could not take another spoonful of food) and i think i need to recover before i can tell the tale of the delights that were victorious against us. We have promised ourselves a lie in in the morning so will report on this in the morning

oh and apologies for all my typos, i am usually a little sleepy when i am writing these from all the food.........

Omg loving this report - cant wait for more!!

Mmmmmm I think one of the highlights of our two weeks in Umbria was " cooking in" and shopping for groceries, even when we just went to a supermarket. And cooking with the local olive oil was inspiring. It will be fun to hear about your culinary creations. Sounds like Puglia is a reason to plan another Italian adventure.

uhoh- yep for sure, we love staying in and trying out the local ingredients and not to mention it saves on meals out. We learned today that two big restaurant meals in one day was just that bit too much.......still cant move...not even a yummy sugared almond can tempt me right now!!

Our main reason for picking puglia was for food and so far it has proved a great choice......

ttt 4 later

So enjoying your report, particularly as we're off to Puglia in a few weeks! Looking forward to more and glad to here Monopoli was attractive, we'll be staying nearby for three days.

Bookmarking

Our evening drive took us around the outskirts of Ostuni (puglia like everywhere else has unattractive surburban housing blocks but on the way back our route provided a stunning view of la cite bianca lit up and glistening in the dark-we will venture inside the city, which looked bigger than i expected another time!).

We finally arrived at Masserie Salinola in the Ostuni countryside (after missing the turning and venturing deeper into the surrounds than we needed to) feeling on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is starving, about a 5. Goodness knows why we said "si" to the offer of a set of local stle appertisers produced from ingredients on their farm -oh yes it was because this was a foodie trip so who cares if we were actually hungry or not!! Now this was clearly a nice place to stay (although we were considerably younger than every single other table (we must be ahead of our time in our gastronomic adventures!) and were the only non staying residents so got a bit of extra welcoming by the polite english speaking man in charge as the guests were obviously used to the concept-set menu with options to change something if you didn't like and of course the option of all those extra appertisers. The place sold a lot of its own produce as we saw jaws of passata, olives, olive oil, jams on offer to take home as well as lots of books on the art of italian cooking. It was a nice pretty room, with tea lights on table, beamed ceiling (i think!) and jazz music playing. There were lots of couldrins hanging from the ceiling and the tables were lined with cream table-cloths and soft padding (new to us! tables with blankets to make the leaning on them more comfy i assume!). It seemed like this was obviously a restaurant aimed at guests/tourists rather than somewhere that locals might go- although there were Italians staying and it seemed very nice so this was not a problem, it seemed highly regarded and was more upmarket than i had expected and used as much of its own produce as possible. (being a hotel there were no prices as such just a board with the menu of the day on so we were a little fearful of how much a meal somewhere like this might end up- but relaxed when we saw a bottle of house wine was just 5 euros!)

So now on to the food- we were given a tiny (thank goodness!) plate of bruscetta with warm plump tomatoes (tomatoes really come into their own from May/june so they were going to feature a lot!) and slivers of ricotta on a small bed of wonderfully peppery rocket to wet our appetite before the appetisers starting to flow. Now this was not a big plate of cold appertisers, this was several plates of hot and substantial appertisers (we knew we were in trouble at the point as for a minute there seemed to be no end to them being delivered to us). We were given stuffed lightly fried zuccini flowers with salty delicate ricotta, a warm and light vegetable fritata, rich field mushrooms and tomato pie with a little thin curst on top which when you cracked through gave way to steaming tasty liqor filled with a variety of different fancy mushrooms (the ones that cost a small ortune in london and again here are so so much tastier here- very earthy/meaty and far superior to any we have had before and this pie felt like a little corner of england in puglia!), grilled artichoke hearts with mint (i'm not going to lie- i still don't get the appeal of artichokes-even in Italy this is on my small list of hated foods), a duo of plump mozarella balls that literally oozed our their own milky liquor when you cut into them and a fluffy leek omellate.

I was absolutely stuffed and had no clue how on earth i would possibly survive three more courses. It's ok i tell myself- the next course is just soup!! uh uh fail! this was no ordinary soup, this was a rich soup filled with pasta which looked like macaroni cheese when it arrived it was wonderfully yellow with nuggets of pasta popping through (still not sure what produced the think sauce-perhaps yellow zuccini). Oh dear- how deep does this bowl go......not that deep thank goodness! It was very tasty and hearty with perfectly al dente pasta and felt very Italian/authentic and could be a dinner on its own. The drizzle of chilli oil we were encouraged to give it worked a treat as it added a nice tangy note to it (it also felt very "foodie/chefy") but there was no denying that was absolutely zero chance of me finishing this with the main still to come, i was already on the verge of suggesting we just pay to stay the night given how full we were (how we will survive the 40 minute journey back in the dark!). I felt bad leaving a third and tried to explain to the sweet guy that we had had a huge lunch but he probably thought i hated it.

Finally came the mains, a plate of stuffed aubergine (oh no we had this for lunch!) but it was actually very different to the lunch version, this time filled with its on flesh, chucks of mozzarella, breadcrumbs and something fennel like being served along with what must be the best rosemary potatoes we have ever ever had. These potatoes tasted divine and actually of something in their self able to compete with the rosemary-very yummy and a wonderful dish in itself rather than just a side dish to absorb other flavours. Wow, i had no clue potatoes could taste like this and i did not care that i was full anymore- this potatoes would live on in my memory as a huge regret if i did not at least attempt to eat as many as possible.

My moment of potato madness was stopped when then it hit me that i might actually be sick i was feeling so full from the day's feasting, i started to panic (there was only one female toilet- i cant hog that and besides it was right next to the main room so people would here me) but before we had a chance to halt desert the first course was delivered (yes there were two!). Ok so i am no huge fruit fan but i think this is the happiest i have ever been when the huge plate was slowly set down and i saw that it was just fruit (very pretty and colourful fruit-cherries, apricots, pineapple, melon, orange but still just fruit- i might actually cope-thank you!) I had feared a huge crepe or plate of rich cakes !! i decided to try some water melon-maybe this would help me. But then as soon as i saw the guy shoot by i had to halt the food and requested we have our second food course to go as it was caneronolli and while i was stuffed i was not mad- i knew that on a normal day in london i would crave the ones i had previously had on a trip to naples so there was no way i was going to let these slip by. They were very kind and packed them up in a little box, complete with a bed to strawberry coulis and mint leaves. We paid up (70 euros including a half caraffe of house wine, good value for so so much food!) and drove home where i just collapsed onto the day bed (i fear i will miss these beds!) But still i had not learned and wenty minutes later curiosity got the better of me and i had to try the caneronolli so had a tiny cut of one. Very filling with lemon flavoured delicate cream inside. In honesty not as amazing as the ones i had remembered from naples but still nice and am sure i would have appreciated far more if i wasn't still on the edge of being sick. Don't get me wrong the sick feeling was purely from over eating and nothing to do with the Masseria, which was on the whole excellent food and reminded me that Italian cuisine was far far more than just pasta and pizza.

Then it was bed time, to dream of those potatoes................

Today...Cistercnino and possibly Locorotondo (the only Italian word with 5 Os in it i have been told)

sorry the 2nd pudding was Canolli- (not sure where i got caneronolli from- i seem to be inventing words- apologies)

oh and this was the location for our battle with food!!

http://www.masseriasalinola.it/it/home/

day 3.....

its raining in puglia.....this is not what i wanted- oh well gives me a chance to report on lunch while i remember.....

We ventured up the spiral roads to Cisternino. Parking proved a tad tricky but got there in the end! again we were amazed how quiet this place is- no tourists, only a handful of locals, we practically had it to ourselves apart from of course the little butcher van that pulled up in the main square and the man preceded to cary a whole and rather large pig over his shoulder across to a little butchers- this really is meat town. Our villa owner had told us that most people come to Puglia for its vast array of wonderful seafood not realising the great meats on offer too and that Cisternino was the place to sample some of the best. The centro strorico was small but very pretty- again perfectly white and clean with gorgeous stone houses with mazes of white stone steps getting to each door. Lots of narrow lanes and the only non white colour being the pink flowers bursting over the small balconies iron's bars. (oh an not forgetting the central church which was a darker stone and really stood out from the white)- I must have taken a dozen shots of basically the same thing- a pretty white lane with pretty little entrances...but who cares i can always delete some. i liked this little place, even the cats were white!

Other than the butcher the only real bit of life was a little restaurant "Le chicche di zia rosa" with tables sat outside in a tiny area with the owners family all eating their lunch....a huge plate of steaming tomato gnocci and some greens. We thought if its good enough for them, and they did seem to be enjoying it! it was most likely good enough for us. We sat down and they all immediately rushed to finish to serve us- we felt a little bad. Now i know we should probably have just had a plate of meat given where we were but we were seriously craving pasta!! So we compromised and I had sausage oreccetti (penne is going to seem so boring now!) in a light tomato sauce and chopped bright green fresh parsley which looked a pretty picture of colour which was yummy and fresh. But the real winner was my partner's spicy sausage rigatoni....it was fantastic. The spicy sausage was deliciously tangy and truly more-ish, this was the dish that i had tried so many times to perfect at home and never quite got the right taste. The secret must be the sausage- i would love to know how they make it spicy like this without being "hot" spicy. It was soft and sweet and i have to admit i turned green with jealousy!! I also am coming to belief that its impossible in Italy not to be served perfectly cooked al dente pasta (it must be like reading and writing-something you just have to learn). i washed this all down with some yummy house wine...hmm this is what Puglia is about!

We had skipped antipasti today and decided to venture into the "secondi plat" territory and go with the locals with a meat dish. We had rolled meat balls, which were held together with cocktail sticks and had a very deep intense stew like flavour/texture but very juicy and succulent and not at all dry (there was also a rich tomato passata sauce but they could hold their own without it). Again these were quite earthly- it seemed to be a mix of lots of different cuts inside that blended together to give this quite unique flavour. They were very filling and certainly quite unusual- not sure i would have again too soon but we were definitely very glad we sampled. Finally i ordered a dish of egg/cheese/meat balls not really knowing what to expect. These gorgeous hot treats came out looking like coated quails eggs but were in fact once i cut into them discovered a light and fluffy batter inside with specks of herbs infused within them. They were delicious melt int he mouth treats and were perfect for mopping up that last bit of passata (yes, we should be using a bread boat but these were a perfect substitute). There were so many we said we would ask to take some home but as time passed by they were just too yummy to not gobble up and by the end of the meal we were just popping them in our mouths whole like little sweets. We gave ourself a gold star when we saw that the table of local men next to us ordered a huge plate of them, maybe these are local to this area?

It was a lovely spot and we managed to get by with broken italian and smiles. Strangely they did not serve coffee...the staff ran elsewhere to bring back a set of caffe's for them to sample after their own lunch..odd. There seemed to be a steady few locals pass by and chat with the owners, including kids go by playing with a shout to them "cioa nino'. Life here seems laid back and a place where people know their neighbours and family life is key. Some came into eat, welcomed with a hug and a bottle of red which they sat and discussed with the owner for like twenty minutes, i only wish i knew the meaning of the words that went with the big hand gestures around the bottle, treating it like a trophy-they definitely are fond of their wines and so they should be as so far all the house wines have been great.

Then it was time finally for some Gelato from a little place we spotted on the way in, I picked a perfectly silky looking nutella flavour. As i walked away saying how perfect the consistency looked and had my first spoonful i realised it was nutella (no wonder the waiter asked me what other flavour i wanted, which i stupidly had indicated "none other" to- he must have been thinking i was a silly tourist). Arhhhh again i have not been able to have some proper italian gelato - yes i know it has been my fault both times but this is starting to get annoying

We ventured out to Trani today- what a charming a beautiful spot, and again apart from some people at the harbour front (perhaps direct from their yachtes that were parked up taking pride of place!) the town was very very quiet. It is really a lovely town with cream buildings and pretty balconies and flowers and again dazzlingly clean! The sea was beautifully turquoise and the marvellous cream Church tower looking such a lovely picture next to the blue of the sea. There were pretty piazzas an narrow lanes with big wooded arched doors to the houses as well as creamy building with pale blue and pink shutters that wouldn't look out of place in Paris. It was a very dreamy town and if this were in northern Italy it would be flocked with tourists no doubt- reminded me that while definitely growing in popularity Puglia certainly is not fully on the tourist map just yet! We felt very lucky to have it almost to oursleves!!

Now onto food......

We dined at

http://www.osteriaferroefuoco.it/ristorante_osteria_trani_ferro_fuoco.asp

and apart from one other man we were the only ones there the whole time. We didn't care as it meant we got the pretty window table looking out to a pretty piazza. We were presented with prosecco and appertisers before we even looked at a menu. Yummy squares of toasted pan i pomodoro once more but these tomatoes were exceptionally sweet and delicious. We were also given little balls of twisted mozarella served in a cute little cone with a yummy sweet onion relish which went perfectly together.

We decided to go for the house mixed hot and cold starters. Now there was very little English spoken and we enjoyed listening to an array of Italian describing what we were about to feast on.....if only we knew what it all meant! Wow these were fab, several different capaccios included salmon, octopus, swordfish (we think although could have been any meaty fish!!) and a beautifully creamy bresola that literally melted in your mouth. The cappacios were really something unique for us and each one had the perfect amount of olive oil, lemon and pepper and the meaty fish one being wonderfully tasy, almost like fresh anchovy. Hot starters were a bubbling hot tomato and cheese crepe which had been done al forno in 4 neat little parcels which we assumed were pasta at first. Very nice! and a mixed portions of vongole and muscles dripping in a yummy white wine and tomato sauce. They were nice and plump and juicy as they should be (not as good as those ones in santa maria al bagna, but still very good). And of course some bread to mop up the tasty liquor!

On to mains and it was pasta for us again. I had a wonderfully light fat macaroni (not like mac and cheese but more like a rounded penne tube) which was simply in olive oil and basil with the odd tomato and some fine riccotta gratings (how do you grate ricotta without it breaking!!).....so so simply but utterly delicious- how do they do this!!!, it would never taste like this at home. Maybe it was the olive oil or even the pasta itself being fresh but it just was velvety soft and so tasty, it got mopped up very quickly (they even cutely made a tiny plate for my partner to have). His main was a sage butter ravioli which arrived with a gigantic parmesan disk covering the whole plate! the ravioli was clearly home made and so thinly rolled and the flavour quite delicate. They were very filling and well presented but half way though a parmesan disk that had began to soak up the sage butter he had to give in-think we have manged to over order again!!! oh well maybe we will learn tomorrow!!

All this plus half a carraffe of wonderfully light and floral white wine for 56 euros! We felt wuite content from lunch and strolled around the empty cream lanes till we met the wonderful blue/green sea again and admired the view.

We then finally managed to sample some proper Italian gelato on the harbour front- choccalatey stratictella and nutty pistacio perfectly creamy! This soon mixed together to form something quite uniue. Hmmmmmmm

My kind of trip report!

I think those fried egg/cheese balls you had in Cisternino were pettole...do these look familiar?



http://www.buttalapasta.it/articolo/dolci-di-natale-le-pettole-pugliesi/5332/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46543713@N06/4306515364/

Keep up the good work! It's difficult to do all that eating purely in the interest of reporting!

Hi eks,

glad you are enjoying

Back at the villa now to relax and come to terms with how much food we have eaten!!

hmm pettole-yes possible they maybe the things, although they look like they have a thicker batter while ours looked more like a very fine breadcrumb shell rather like tiny scotch eggs until you actually eat one and see its very soft in the middle....but probably they were those but judt done a la casa!

Haha, yes eating for reporting is a difficult job....someone's gotta to it

ah and should have said, we dined in last night- got a tray of huge langoustine for 3 euros so cooked them up in lemon, chilli and garlic and attempted to make stuffed zuccini flowers they i we found in the "Familia" supermarket- they worked!! i wasn't really sure what you coat the flower with after stuffing them so just dipped them in olive oil mixed with come samolina i found in the villa cupboard.

Puglian produce is sublime! Travel writer Simon Calder wrote

"Many regions in Italy lay claim to the best food, but Puglia could comfortably assume the title"

i agree!!

still ttting

haha, i was confused what ttt meant before and thought was maybe a typo, so this time i googled it...get it now and guess i am ttting myself!

Just had an amazing lunch in pogliano a mare...will report full later but it's a lovely town so if nearby in Puglia don't miss it.

Ok today's food was too good- i have to share it while fresh in memory!!

A quick slice of the yummy puglia bread (apparently they often use somolina to make bread and it keeps far better than your typical bread) and salami each (resisting breakfast was proving trickier than we thought) and we drove of to Pogliano a Mare about 10 minutes on from Monopoli up the coast. We found a parking space in the square and could see straight away that this place was a popular tourist spot from the modern cafes and gelateria "cafe white", "cafe millenium" etc etc but don't get me wrong this was in a good way and very tastefully done- we realised why Pogliano is seen as a real gem of Puglia....

The old town streets again were pristinely clean with lots of blossom pink flowers brightening up the cream/white stones as when as the odd small but perfectly formed white church. A few little squares with a handful of restaurants/cafes/b&Bs-this would make a good base we decided as there seemed plenty of trattoria and even little puglian pubs to keep you entertained at line. Little lanes led to the cliff face and the huge drops down into the pretty blue sea. A gorgeous little balcony overlooking the waters had us green with envy of whoever was lucky enough to wake up to the sunrise and the beautiful sea views. There was the old little shop and we picked up some great pasta herb mix. The woman selling it took such pride in telling us how to use it (in Italian) that even though we always buy this stuff whenever we were in Italy we listened with enthusiasm nodding away knowing the lady really wanted us to enjoy!. The stony beach that forms the main picture you always see of Pogliano was deserted and the water went aqua-marine green as it gently crashed against the pebbles- it was very clean and clear and pretty as a picture! We stopped and had due cafe (we were becoming Italian) in a tiny cafe that looked down to the sea and stolled back through the lanes, stopping for the odd picture before wondering on to find our lunch spot....

http://www.ristoranteantichemura.it/

Simply put lunch was AMAZING!!!! the highlight so far and a meal we will remember for a long time.

We were led into a gorgeous room of deep red, black and white pretty lights that was carved into the stony archy characterful room with very soft music playing and somewhere that in the evenings we could imagine being extremely buzzy and even more atmospheric. We were again the only ones there for lunch but again who cares!. We were welcomed by Fabio the owner/manager (we think) who was very nice and made effort to make you feel welcome including lighting the little candle on the table even though it was only lunchtime. He chose some wonderful white wine, which is in our all time top 5- it was absolutely scrumptious and tasted and smelt of apples (i hate it when people always say the wine has hints of this or that but with this one no-one told us what it should be like but we could simply tell ourselves that it truly was like apples and both immediately said it to each other). At the end we asked for the name and told by the waiter (who didnt speak much english but was very helpful-if only we understood!) it was "Coppe/coppa" and from Puglia- (can't be sure but possible Coppa d'Ora from Foggia)

We were then given some deliciously light but incredibly tasty aubergine carpaccio (they like there carpaccios here!) with was smothered in garlic and a wonderful vinergarette which made it very tangy and tasty, almost like it had been pickled. For starters we then had muscles gratin and squid gratin-both were excellent. We heard them sizzling as they were cooked and when they arrived were large portions on silver platters with the most tasty crunchy, herby breadcrump topping we had ever sampled, it little things like this that makes Italian cuisine so special- they take simple ideas, muscles with breadcrumbs and olive oil and perfect them. The squid was cooked absolutely spot on and had been made into pasta like long tubes. The dish had the odd pomodoro in it and i literally scarped the edges of the tray to get those last few bits. The muscles were nice and meaty too. Wonderful!!

As great as the starters were they did not compete with the truly divine pasta dishes we had for mains. My truffle triangles (there was a fancy word for the pasta but i have already forgot!) were simply stunning- a dish i just know i will dream about for years- it was truly perfect and was smooth and richly flavoured with truffle and the stuffing was creamy/silky/yummy!!, the pasta itself was of perfect texture and consistency and i ate it with continuous "hmmmms" and "wow how amazing does this taste!!!" like sentences to my partner. I cant explain just how yummy it was!!!! i even text my sister mid dish as i ate saying i was eating my second best pasta dish ever (the first was in Capri!). Partner had a vongole gnocciettini, which also was exceptional- light and deliciously flavoured with wonderful olive oil. You simply do not get gnocci of this quality in London unless you go to Locanda Locatelli or somewhere (well i haven't anyway)- this is the type of meal you hope for in ITaly. Don't get me wrong all the others have on the whole been excellent but this is the winner so far. As the food had been so good we thought we would be mad not to try some deserts so i had the crema catalan and my partner a tirimisu. Both were very nice indeed (they even blow torched the crema at the table a la Paris!) but it is the mains that we will remember this place for. All this including 3 glasses of that wonderful wine for 63 euros-again great value in my opinion.

Back at the villa, had a swim to try and cancel out some of the naughtiness of the food and nearly half way through the trip and now feeling a little guilty about all the eating and not much sight-seeing but hey this is a foodie trip, the food are our sights

Dinner.....pizza at il tronco or something different..........

Thanks for that bit on antiche mura. We are staying in polignano a mare in the fall, arriving late in the day, and I was hoping to find a really good resto for that first evening. Sounds like that fits the bill.

I think I better start dieting now, by the sounds of it!

oh yes definitely give this place a try- its really lovely. Pog looks great place to stay too, good pick!!

on and agree on the dieting bit (except mine comes after!!- "the diet cant possibly start till after puglia" has been my line of thinking )

oh, i'm so glad I'd had supper before I read that.

no way i could have put up with sausages when you were consuming such a feast.

now I want to go to Puglia instead of sicily.

it's not fair.

Just great! It IS interesting about the bread, that it will keep for so long.

When I bought some in Matera to bring back to the US (pretty crazy, but I had an entire bag stuffed with bread, taralli, dried pasta, etc) the woman at the bakery told me it would keep at least 7 days.

I thought Polignano was one of the prettiest towns in the region, of those that we visited.

I'm very impressed ow you are managing to put away all that amazing food. I know it is a tremendous sacrifice, all in the name of research, so I know I speak for everyone here when I extend my deepest thanks!

Ann, Eks im sorry to say but i have failed!!

We just went for dinner....now i knew that two meals a day like this couldn't work from my last encounter but i was so keen i had us eat out again and on the way home we actually had to stop mid mortorway as i was so ill. Two minutes earlier i was absolutely fine and suddenly the most intense pain i have ever had came over me. I have never felt anything like it and was actually scared i was going to collapse!!!!

Eventually we drove on with my head half out of a fully open window all the way home- i couldn't even help us navigate out narrow country road- i looked like a mannequin handing out the window.

So im sorry, truly i am as i wanted to face food head on and win....and clearly i have failed

perhaps tomorrow i will feel brave enough to re-live the dinner and let you folks know how it went, but for now i am well and truly ignoring all the puglia treats in the villa.

Italian Food 1: Me:0

ohh and ann, im sure sicily will be amazing- that is also somewhere i long to go. Don't miss Taormina as supposed to be lovely

perhaps tomorrow i will feel brave enough to re-live the dinner and let you folks know how it went, but for now i am well and truly ignoring all the puglia treats in the villa. >>

oh dear - the spirit was willing....

hope the flesh perks up soon!

I am loving this - bikerscott had a similar thing happen last year in France...he just ate so much rich food he couldn't eat another bite for two days!!

yes, that happened to us after we had lunch at le cinq.

I thought I'd never want to eat again.

Yes, but think of your devoted readers!

OMG-the sacrifices u r making. Hope u feel better and certainly hope u feel up to eating some more delicious food.

You will be rewarded for your sacrifices! Thanks so much for this report. I am sorry you feel so sick!

I'm thinking I need to lose 30 lbs before we could ever venture to Puglia. But thank you for your valiant attempts to vanquish the temptations....

ok i can face writing about it now just

(thanks for all your well wishes-i am nearly recovered, and happy to share all these little experiences as helps me make like of subject- i will need to seek out biterscott's story)

So last night we went to Il Cortiletto in Fasano area and just outside Pezze di Greco (i think there is another restaurnat with same name in Fasano centro, this one was on via lecce)

http://www.tripadvisor.it/Restaurant_Review-g227665-d1785098-Reviews-Il_Cortiletto-Fasano_Province_of_Brindisi_Puglia.html

Its a pretty little place with warm yellow decor inside and a pretyy stone white terrace outside with lots of dried chillies/fruit hanging on the walls. We were sat in the courtyard and were the first to arrive but it soon filled up despite being the restaurant in the least tourist place we had ben to (it was just a roadside place in a quiet resi area). It was mostly full of locals with except maybe one other british couple.

There were no menus and the waitress told you the offereings (antipasta, 3 different pastas and several secondi plats) We just about picked up what was on offer despite being said in Italian (with the ok english word when our faces looked truly confused) went with antipasti and ocreciette with rolled mean stuffed with mozarella and zuccini flower and the pettole balls (thanks eks )

Not realising it fully we had ordered a near identical mains to what we had in cistercino!

The antipasta was very good, with very tasty quiche style dishes that had lots of flavour as well as ham, cheese, relishes and a yummy pearl barly little risotto looking tower and a truly sweet mini onion gratin which was perfected well. There was also a gorgeous fat little fluffy soft fritata of some sort- almost like a corn cake without the corn. It came with a gorgeous pink sauce which i would love to know what it was!

As soon as we finished these we were very grateful we had only ordered pasta and not secondi plats.

The orichiette was done very simply in sweet but sharp passata with parmesan springled on the top and the meat rolls/ cooked pettole were served in a big stew dish for two. The mat was a tad tough but very flavoursome indeed. We were both quite contently full (too full but i didn't know that yet!!) and asked for il conto. 44 euros including 2 glasses of wine and a bee and three little dolce cakes-i definitely should NOT have eaten these but i did!, and while they were very well made they all were marzipan based and that is one of the very few things i truly hate!

The place is definitely a popular locals spot and there was a table of 8 loud men enjoying a good meal- i commented to my partner that in Italy blokes don't go for a drinking session in the pub for their big night our they come to feast on delicious food instead!

The secondi plats coming out did look very very nice. The decor was lovely and charming and it was very pretty with little candles in nooks and crannies of the white stone. It made me think of the strong greek feel Puglia has and how very different it is from northern Italy.

Probably not our best meal but i think if we had tried the secondi plats we would have been more blown away. Don't get me wrong the pasta was very tasty but too simple a choice for it to be in the running for best meal. The antipasti. Would definitely recommend though and this place is clearly a winner with the locals, whom are the true judges!

So we set off home and your know what happened then!

Today Matera or Lecce- not quite decided yet- hoping to stop feeling so full!

Food cravings of pasta- come back to me please, I am in Puglia- I need you

On a side note, after being totally convinced that Puglia was the foodie capital of Italy, i have done further reading and it appears to have two northern serious contenders- Piedmont and Emilia Romagna (whom i hear always battle amongst themselves for the crown-beware of Puglia guys!!)- Anyhow i thought oh dear i am just going to have to visit them! I went to Bologna once but it was over the easter weekend so very little was open and at the time it ranked it furthest down on my city stopping tour. I have always felt i misjudged this place as continue to hear wonderful things about it so now i have an excuse to go back and seek out that divine world renound vinegar that features in 70% of what we cook at home! But although it doesn't have the balsamic vinegar crown, Puglia produces circa 45% of all italian olive oil and that's pretty foodie eh!

Haha love the food description - cannot wait to get there!!!

Here is last years trip report where bikerscott lost his battle with food!
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/jamikins-bikerscott-pickle-themselves-in-france-again.cfm

Looking forward to more!!

ah cool thanks Jamikins will have a res through tonight, ooh i am going to be so jealous when we are leaving and you are on your way here-sure it will be a great trip

Ok coffee-done, yummy bread- done..Matera here we come!!

Today we went to Matera and viewed the unique sassi. The drive along the back roads into Basilica was very quiet roads and vast open fields with only the odd hay bale here and there and some cute baby foals, reminded me that agriculture still is such a dominant (number 1) industry down here.

The sassis are very unique indeed and we were surprised (and relieved) to suddenly see then after walking the new town for so long thinking they had gone! They truly are quite something and worth a visit to see.

I have to say don't try and use a map once you find them!! it was very difficult and we ended up just walking wherever the cobbled lanes would take us. They were (again!) very very quiet and we only saw a handful of people walking through them, so apart from dozens or sparrows chirping away we had the little world of sassi to ourselves I am assuming in summer these places are busy right? i cant believe how few tourists there are- don't get me wrong its great but very unexpected.

For lunch we went to

http://www.osteriapico.it/en/

deep in the sassi and enjoyed some great antipasti "pico"

A gorgeous bean rich soup (kindoff!) with soft cheese sprinkled on top which was yummy and had little black eyed beans (my favourite!) bursting with flavour and a juicy pork dish with fennel (i though i disliked funnel turns out i don't!) which was just that tiny bit spicy, a very tasted wilted spinach dish was excellent and again great depth of flavour and again some nice salty cheese and local hams and some of the regions fired peppers ("fingerfood") which were very different and almost like pepper popcorn in texture (all thought were long peppers rather than being popcorn shape!!). The antipasti was on the whole wonderful and very unique and seemed to keep on coming! ("no finito" he kept on saying!!!- oh dear i was getting a sense of deja vu for later on!)

We then moved on to pasta (can you ever get fed up of pasta?)...I had the local dish of strozapetti pasta which featured that yummy pepper this time chopped up and pana fritta (fried breadcrumbs). The pasta was cooked to perfection and had just the right amount of tasty coating of delicate sauce- pasta don't always need parmesan here (and in fact more often have ricotta) as their own flavours hold their own!! (i had attempted this strozapetti style pasta in the villa and got it very wrong!). My partner's cavatelli con funghi and sausage was also very good, with a very deep earthy taste which was certainly very filling and rich. Again cooked perfectly al dente with the right amount of coating.

We got a bottle of wine by accident (thought we had ordered a caraffe) but we thought oh well i will just have to have as much as i can, my partner a very small glass (driving) and we would leave the rest. It was from basilica and very enjoyable (all the wines we have had have been great) although my head is suffering now.

The restaurant is very unique and a great space in the arches with tables going extremely deep down. The guy in charge was very pleasant and helpful and we enjoyed listening to his enthusiasm for the dishes even though again we only made out the odd word here and there. There was just one young chef who we saw pop out on occasion, i was surprised how young he was given the quality of the food. Bravo!!!

I have decided i have over-eated and just know my stomach can not take one more bite of food or i might be very very ill!!- dinner has been cancelled despite being the place i was looking forward to most I just know i cant risk it so will desparately try to re-arrange for another night when we can really enjoy it and are both feeling well again and not so overfed and on the verge of getting very ill!!) This reporting may need to be a part time job!!

If i recover before midnight i might manage some of that delicious creamy parma ham and gorgonzola in the fridge- it would after all be a sin to waste these!!

oh and should have said, apologies those expecting a report of La Botteghe, which we had wanted to visit after seeing it on "A place in the Sun".

We arrived less than 10 minutes early at about ten to one and were ignored by one man and then (politely at least but still) told to come back later in 8 or 9 minutes! Slightly annoyed me as the place was already all lit up and prepared and having seen how huge it was inside and not really like you would feel in sassi we decided to try somewhere else.

HG - confession time - i wasn't really aware of what Sassi were so I had to google it.

CAVES!

I understand now.

shame about the indigestion - i don't know how the italians do it.

no probs about La Botteghe - if they didn't want you, we don't want them.

haha, no neither do I..but they do have this huge 4 hour shut down period where they have a big lunch and then recover from it. Traditionally (I think) lunch is a bigger occasion than dinner. The good thing about it is that at about 12.45 loads of parking spaces become free although shops closed but restaurants don't so i am happy!!

yeah i think i only knew the term sassi since i planned the trip to Matera, which was only about 1hr45 from our base near Monopoli

Well said re La Botteghe thats kind of how we felt today. Glad though as the man at pico was so nice and helpful and did want us

oh and i should have said, we had a reservation at la botteghe and told them when we arived but were still asked to come back in 8/9 minutes. It was the fact we can gone to trouble emailing to reserve etc etc and then just to be told to come back at the reserved time that annoyed me or i would not have minded all that much!

ok anger released!!

It was the fact we can gone to trouble emailing to reserve etc etc and then just to be told to come back at the reserved time that annoyed me or i would not have minded all that much!>>

yes, that would have peed me off too. redolent of an attitude that you exist for their benefit, not theirs for you. which does not auger well for a restaurant.

well put ann!

Started the day with some gorgeous soft and light chocolate croissants from the bakery down the road (we felt bad always having savoury stuff for breakfast when the Italians like sweet pastries mostly) and then headed off to Martina Franca for lunch After travelling up through the hills and seeing lots of pretty trulli and catching a glimpse of pearly white locorotondo we reached the designer destination! This is certainly an upmarket town, apparently the rich flocked to for its position in the valle plateau where you could see panaramic views across Puglia. It was certainly grander than others places with a huge central Church and a tree lined promenade with and big arched entrance to the old town. Again very white but with more grandness, with big detailed doors and some upmarket clothes shops and little cafes. At12.00 the place was full of locals do their morning shop (their was even a parking attendant making sure the desire for a good spot was capitalised on!) Once more, as soon as you enter deeper into the narrow lanes, it becomes eerily quiet again, with little old ladies walking or children playing in the street. No tourists (except us!) and a real sense of what it is like to live here. I think it is this (probably not the case in july/august) that sets Puglia apart from the like of Tuscany- you really manage to get a feel for life here.

We eventually stumbled on our lunch destination after a frantic search for a farmacia (everything shuts at about 1pm!!)

http://www.cocopazzo.it/ in the old town

We were one of only two couples there (The other locals) and enjoyed the full attention of the chef/owner whom spoke excellent english and was very helpful in explaining all the antipasti on offer- he won us over and we went for antipasti for two followed by yet more pasta (we always have intentions of going for simple started and then secondi plat but the antipasti always tempts us and then we feel like a secondi plat would be too much!!)

Anyhow the antipasta was great as it has been everywhere, local cheese, tasty ham ham and raw pancetta (yummy and soft, really works) as well as flava bean puree on fried bread, artichoke(oh dear!) tempura (i actaully went back for more as the batter was so tatsy!), fresh burrata mozarella with cream bursting out from its centre, polpette in tomato sauce (a little bland), a very smooth and soft melt in mouth fish cappacio with pearl barly and a hint of lemon (seems to be a popular ingredient here)

Then on to my pasta....after my lunch occasion with the divine truffle pasta in Pogliano when i saw something similar (this time the stuffing was pumpkin and it was in a truffle butter) i had to go for it. After my first taste i said "Phenomenal!!!, this has done the impossible and blown the other one out the window", my parter tasted and agreed. It was delicious with a strange parmesan style suggary coating on the truffle butter, the butter with this coating was simply divine and more tangy then the other (which was amazing remember). However once i continued eating and as yummy and amazing the butter was and the thin pasta was as well as perfect texture it had the pumpkin stuffing wasn't nearly as good as the stuffing in pogligano and i changed my preference back to that one (partner disagreed). Don't get me wrong It was wonderful and every time i ate the sauce i was blown away but the other one as a whole had the edge as the stuffing was sublime too- i truly think this sauce/pasta with the other one's stuffing might possibly the most delicious creation ever made- they need to get together!!- genuinely components of both were truly stunning and i think together would be a masterpiece!! My partner had a tasty crepe stuffed with mozarella and roasted pepper, which too was very well executed with perfectly fine crepe, oozing mozarella and peppers which were very nice and sweet and bronzed from baking, but it came second to the pasta which was fab.

Enjoyed a tasty rose (puglia has great rose wines, i am not a rose wine drinker but very much enjoyed the one he recommended). One of our more pricey lunches at 61euros including two glasses of rose and un afe (plus some delicious little almont buiscuits with sugared nuts) but was very good, it had a nice terrace out front but it was far too quiet for that today-besides it started raining

Stopped on the way back at the local bakery to pick up some little cakes for later...............(if they last that long!)

You are putting us to shame in the eating dept...I look forward to doing our best to match you in a few weeks!

I probably shouldnt tell you about the stunning weather here in London this week....hehe...

I know I can't pretend I am not just that bit annoyed ah well I'd only be in the office. But Puglia isn't as warm as we hoped. Not fair!!!

What is fair is the yummy pizza from il tronco we just had, despite another 130 odd pizzas we picked the same ones-so so good. Deep pan should not be permitted, these thin ones are perfection pizzonified

And jut tried a yummy chocolate profiteroles. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, there is no way the other seven will last the night

Look, HG, there's no getting around it. You will have to return to Martina and order that pumpkin-stuffed pasta again. And then back to Polignano for the truffle version at Antiche Mura. And then decide which one is truly the winner.

I hope you are not thinking of returning to London before you have that sorted out.






Your trulli looks adorable!

Here's another thought: I bet that that barley dish at Il Cortiletto was grano saraceno. I saw this at quite a few antipasti tables in Puglia and I tried hard to find it back home before realizing that it is unroasted buckwheat. (We have mostly the roasted/toasted version here in the US).

Keep up the good work...!

Are you buying any foods to bring home?

Haha that is a good idea but what if they are not as good!!!!!

Yes u might be right about the barley, I am not all tht clued up on those types of food. They kind off looked like litte sugar puffs (hmm do sugar puffs even still exist)

have just been forced to put the other 4 cannoli in the fridge for tomorrow, this is too hard, the first evening I can manage desert and it needs to last till tomorrow.

The villa is really lovely and the owners run a company called southern visions which sounds great. They also own 3 other villas in Puglia which look stunning!!!!!! Trini its jet www.villapulia.com for the villas. Its got a grata sea view too as wall as montanina behind. The onere incredibly geloso ad speak perfect english. The villa even cane sito own iPad!!! Although the auto correct on it Boeing in italian Leeds trovino me

Archeggi see what i mean, i mean the auto correct being in italian keeps throwing me

Ha ha i need to re take hold of ma own lap top this auto correct driving me nuta

Its a great touch touch ha ing. An iPad , bene vero useful

ohh and planning to bring back the arrabita/herby mixes as we always seek these out in italy, some olive oil, sugared almonds and maybe some pasta

The onere incredibly geloso ad speak perfect english. The villa even cane sito own iPad!!! Although the auto correct on it Boeing in italian Leeds trovino me >>

lol, HG - love the italian i-pad. my apple-mac automatically corrects my german and italian without being asked, which is useful! perhaps the i-pad doesn't speak english?

haha, no apparently it was set in english when my partner was using it and then i switched it back to Italian somehow. My spelling and typos on here are bad enough without having to contend with the auto correct being in another language so i have grabbed my lap-top back while partner tries to figure out how to re-set ipad to italian!!!

i think i was trying to say.....

the owners are incredibly nice and that the villa even came with its own ipad but i always press send without reading.....i need to learn!!

just had the 8 course il frantoio meal...oh my i do not want any more food....ever!

I'm guessing you will eat again, HG. ;=)
Do tell!

Hi jubilda, hehe thank you- yeah i guess i am going to have to eat at some point.

I only wish i could tell at the tale but i am being genuinely serious when i say that if i started writing about it i might be sick no joke - i know that sounds super dramatic but every time i even think of it i feel awful it was all good but i should cant face it!

oh dear what have i done!!

come on, just a little taste, please...

how about one course at a time?

but you owe it to your public.
seriously, I am so sorry you feel sick.
Maybe tomorrow a good hike and an apple!

haha ann,

Jubilada you're right i know....ok here goes

so i had booked il frantoio a while back but had only started reading about 5/8/10 course while on here and while i thought there was a small chance of it being thati gigured it was lunch time and surely they would have mentioned it on the email......

we arrived late (we took a wrong turn again which let us down a lane where we spotted a tiny tiny kitten in the middle of road- i ad to stop and once i picked up (it fit in one hand!) it was pretty tough not to try and steal it!! it was adorable and so so cute and we were worried it had no owner as was puring so much. I finally managed to put it down and we turned back on to the road ss16, which by the way seems lined with masseria. (on a quick aside-we learned something today that we should have realised a week a go- on these roads there are posts with the number of km down u are- very useful as the address simply said ss16 874 and ss16 is rather long!!)

Anyway practicalities aside we slipped into the group when we got there, had a quick aperitif (the weather was beautiful and we were hoping this might be the start of a warmer week......my envy of london and all!) The masseria looked charming and a nice place to stay, it was interesting hearing about its history of being a protective mini community due to all the invasion Puglia had had over the years. Seeing all the fruit trees and herbs in the garden and finding out about how the olive oil was pressed (extra virgin thats the very first squeeze of the olives, the next squeezes produce the not so great stuff). It did feel a little museumy but i guess thats what a tour is. Finanly lunch time-yeah!! (that last chocolate profierole bun thing was hours ago!!)

ok now even writing this the next day, the though of one particular dish is making me gag (honest!!) so i might just brush over that one, you'll notice which!

First course (and at this point we still had no clue what format/number of courses there would be, but the lack of menu had us a tad suspicious!. No fear only 3 folks and one knife maybe it would just be a three couser)) was a "Pizzalle con sughetto" or fried bread pasta with tomato sauce (so thats what the "sugo" is on all the pizzas! - don't get it what is pomodoro!).

Wownow these things were like those little space ship sherbert sweets you have in shape and nature but the tomato sauce was to die for!!!! it was so yummy- they told us it had ricotta in it and also one of their peppery olive oils (they ship out to all over Tuscany i'm told). It was so deep in flavour a little sweet, a tad salty, strong overwhelming i would have bought jars of the stuff- why was this not on sale!!!!!!!!! hmmm so good i know this will be something i crave.

Next course, a wild asparagus souffle/flan- but presented like a slice of pate. This too was very very good, the perfected texture and just the right amount of cheese through the middle- yum i'd order that of the menu anyday (well if there were a menu!).

Next up was a Melazane in Parmesan- a dish that Italian restaurants all over the world try to do right but over get bland.Incedently at this point we decided London was missing "Puglian style restaurants and vowed to open our own " A Puglia" oh well we can but dream! Back to the melanzane (aubergine). Yummy yummy yummy! hmm am sure you all know how a good one of these should taste and this was it- super creamy, soft aubergine, that gorgeous intense tasty parmesan (although it seemed like this one also had mozarella).

So we realised we had just had three rather substantial courses but knew we were not on the mains yet (they warned us they would switch to red wine for the mains-we were very much still on white- oh dear!)

Next artichokes (arhh i don't get them!! does anyone??) in a sweet wine and fried onions in orange honey and fried onions. (amazingly this is not "that" dish and the onions were truly scrumptious tasting like a little mini round of chip shop chips and scratchings with a good load of salt and vinegar)

Then (oh my why are we not on mains yet!!!) a huge slab of flava bean lasagne with "a thousand leaves"....different, i ate most of it........... with a shot of something very alchaholic to go. Again... i drank it.

Finally the red wine!!! yeah this meant we were over the hill!! Oven roasted Lamb "con potate il cuccio" (with potatoes from the over- i took the print out menu home). Delicious!!! this battled my feeling full very well and i really enjoyed this. The lamb was sublime and very very tatsy and fell apart but was not at all dry. It was gorgeous and i'm not a huge fan of lamb. The potatoes were also very finely sliced and rich with flavour (i know-pottatoes!! but they were honest). They served with a 16% primativo red (too much for me!!) Both really enjoyed this course but as soon as it finished the full pain crept back in.

And finally a very pretty looking rose petal, almond and courgette salad with which i'm told (i'll be honest i don't really do salad but partner adores it!) had a great dressing.

Ok so we were truly truly stuffed but still i felt we had not had enough sweet stuff while here so was quite excited about a desert..hmm tirimisu...hmm chocolate torte....hmmm-NOOOO it was fruit based!!!!! a strawberry mix of thinga (can you tell my enthusiasm for food is dying!- i knew writing this would be hard!)

Arhh i know people love this fruit dessert style stuff but i'm one of those people who think if you are going to indulge then you may as well indulge. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice and looked like something out of a michellin star chef's cookbook with a little shot of srawberry liquor and i took a snap but it didn't feature chocolate so i was not all that pleased.

Ok i did it i wrote it up!! Few!!

now one last thing.....why is it that when 2/3 of the lunch guests arrive in a car and will clearly be leaving in a car do they pour everyone, without asking....so many wines/liquors. Is it not obvious that half the people there are driving!!!! i don't get it. We even noticed that in restaurant everytime my partner indicated he is driving they ALWAYS say "oh a little, go on" or something similar. We alwasy give in to saying yes (we are weak i know!) and then i have to drink mine and most of his so that he is within limit!! Is it just us or do others feel like people are politely and sweetly but still trying to encourage you to drink and drive down here. Odd ok, moan over- i still love the people down here, whom if i haven't mentioned are very nice

Jubilada...i managed a slice of bread, proscuitto and gorgonzola last light just the one but still.

Yeah!
I'm very happy to read your comments HG001London!
Spread the word about Puglia.. it's still unknow in the world

Vito

and one more thing- we have decided to ditch most of our remaining restaurant bookings, there is something about booking, then turning up and being only ones there ("oh dear have they just opened at lunch for us" feeling..) that makes if quite difficult to just order a pizza. And the way i am feeling i want to turn up and well...just order a pizza!!

haha Vito i will do on the whole we adore adore adore Puglia and will be telling people at home for sure

vito we booked that lama place you recommended- should we keep this ?? we are feeling like steering away from masseria (they are great and all but too much) and trying to eat where locals do...hmm where do locals go?

although i did manage to phone one place and book in Italian as no email address so maybe il keep that one

Hi,
as wrote in different posts about Puglia, we (unfortunately?) don't have a really turistic business, so at 98% (imho) all the restaurants are apulian-oriented.
Lama del Duca is a good choice.

Vito

hey vito, ah thats good to know, i will just have to resist having all the courses and then i can be back on the foodie trail not feeling so full all the time

Ah,
in Conversano there's a friend of mine that produce oil and manage local products (food).
If you would to bring out some apulian tastes you could consider him
http://www.frantoiodorazio.it/e_index.php
I use all of his products

Ask for Francesco*

Vito

* He's my wedding witness

ah cool, thanks Vito. We are huge olive oil fans (one reason we come to puglia!!) so i shall seek him out. Thank you so much. Ah and hope the wedding was/is lovely

do u have an email address possibly only i cant get the contact page on the website to send?
thanks again vito

HG, very valiant!
I think pomodoro is tomato and sugo means juice, or sauce.

ah, get it pizza con sugo it is then, everytime!

So while we are having a little siesta (this morning was busy- alberobello and locorotondo!) time for a foodie update.

First i have almost recovered from our meal at il frotoio-phew!!! we have learned from it though. No more huge lunches!!!

So today after a couple of coffees in alberobello |(cute unique place, have to see it, dozens of white and silver trulli packed in tight together, which in the dazzling sun really look quite pretty!! Some set up as little shops and a lot still lived in as houses. I felt a little sorry for the residents, as i think if you took the number of tourists we had seen to date in Puglia and x 20 you still were nowhere near the tourists here, even on a "quiet" monday morning. I can't even begin to imagine what it is like in August!! It is almost like a toy town. Its definitely worth seeing and quite a few places selling pasta etc etc etc. Tip- visit the guy opposite the main stretch of cafes as he sells the sugared praline almonds! hmmmmmm they're back!!!! these ones are even bigger than the ones we had before. Also sells lots of olives included some huge plump and juicy chilli olives as well as lots of dried figs -i think they were figs anyway. You pay for the location mind at 8 euros for the two medium sized portions- but the are more than worth it.

Then on to Locorotondo, which was empty!!!!!! where are all the tourists!!!??? - oh yes is Alberobello

Locorotondo really is a pretty town (i think it is part of a group on beautiful villages/towns of Italy). Lots of mini white washed streets with the odd bit of baroque doors/windows.Beautiful big Church and on the whole very pretty indeed (also wonderful views from a little park down into the valley-pick your favourite trulli complex that you would have for your home!). Being Monday a lot of places were shut, and we were most sad that the pizza place basto was closed we had heard great things!! But there was a truly divine smell coming from one place. So good that we spent about 10 minutes trying to find itt again after our wonder round. We did- yeh!! Think the smell came from the house foccacia that we were served when we sat (again just us!) down in the place- "Ai Tre Santi" . We then resisted the antipasti and just went for pasta. One orichiette with tomato and ricotta and one stuffed ravioli with mean and mozarella.

Both were absolutely yummy- the best oriichette in tomato sauce we had had. Slightly olive-oily but this was the good olive-oily!! In fact-delicious, I even used the melon slices we were given on side to mop up the sauce of each. Tasty, simple pasta in Puglia-this is what we came for The ravioli were huge (got 5- thats how big they were). The ricotta works so well it got me thinking why are we all so obsessed with parmesan over in the UK when this hard ricotta really packs a punch when it comes to flavour.

They were both cooked fresh to order by the guy running it (who was a tiny bit grumpy when we first arrived but soon started smiling). It was really excellent and we completely forgot about the pizza place (although it is supposed to be excellent!)

Nice and full we ventured back to the villa for the odd sugared praline almond with just one thought as we drove past little complexes of trulli homes....Puglia seemed nowhere near as poor as i had heard it was.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

oh and meant to say meal was 21 euros including soft drinks- even on holiday i needed a break from drinking at lunchtime (owner "no vino????" )

Hi HG001London,
you can send an email to info@frantoiodorazio.it

The "Frantoio" (place where making the oil) is open Mon-Fri 8.30-18.30 and in the saturday morning.

Vito

Hi Vito, thanks so much- really appreciate this

HG - glad to see that you have recovered sufficiently to eat a little bit!

seriously, by about half-way through a trip, i find that I'm eating far less than at the beginning - it's as though my body reaches a satiation point at which it automatically starts to cut back.

i'm working away this week, and staying in a hotel, and I can feel it beginning to happen already!

BTW - which was the dish the mere thought of which was making you heave? honestly, i couldn't tell!

yeah i completely get what you mean we had a far lighter day today (lunch great but dinner a huge huge let down!- more on that tomorrow).

oh the dish was the lasagne slap (i actully just coughed writing that)- it was quite nice at time but on my it will haunt me for a long time!!

Hope you are managing to enjoy a hotel despite being at work too.

Hope you are managing to enjoy a hotel despite being at work too.>>

not too bad as I've not actually got a whole load to do except sit at the back and make a note, so the main problem is boredom.

the hotel is quite pleasant - a nice position over looking the Avon Gorge and once the hoi-poloi have gone home, very quiet. and the weather is glorious. [the fact that it's raining at home makes it even sweeter].

aw sounds like a cool type of business trip . Bet when we come back it will be raining!

its very sunny here in puglia today so hoping for a lovely warm day..fingers crosses

ok so extremely quick right up of last night's foodiness!

every trip has to have one bad meal and sadly and unknown to us when we headed off in our little car to san vito, a tiny fishing cover in north pogliano, that this would be it.

We went to locanda di Abbrazia (which gets excellent reviews) and already had a badish feeling when despite walking up to entrance, the staff were determined that they would not let us (or another couple who left before they even entered as they seem annoyed too) in before 8. So we strolled back to the water and watched the fisherman go off for there night fishing before reterning several times until the door was already open. Again only ones there!!!

Started of well with some very nice prawns mornay but the mains of grilled mixed fish (the lemon risotto i actually wanted could only be done for 2- very annoying!) were absolutely bland as anything ever!! a good quantity but tasted of zero!! The most enjoyable bit was dipping the chips in the ketchup/mayo combo we created ( a la the burger van of surbiton we treat ourselves to at home every once in a while!).

We were both so disappointed - it was truly the worst meal we had had in a long time. To top it off we were then practically ignored- not offered coffee, we had to wait ages to get attention to get bill despite being only ones there. We payed (70 euros!!!!!) without leaving any tip and left quite annoyed. The odd thing was the whole time the owner was on his laptop looking at wines, vegetables etc etc with the other two guys sat watching discussing them. So he did seem to care about his produce but was totally taking for granted his customers (all 2 of them!).

On the bright side, San vito was cute and very eerie with all the birds flying around.

Went fff to Lecce today which took us away from the white washed stone of the valle d'itria and into a pinky/orchre orange baroque town scoffing on yummy conetto di cioccolato at the local bakery on the way (ok so they are nutella but they still taste delicious!)

Lecce is indeed very pretty and the old town has lots of baroque Churches and beautiful architecture, although was a bit smaller that i expected. It was a bit tricky parking but we found somewhere in the end, after the odd "toot" from the locals as we went at a snail's pace through the streets with the P signs. (Of and folk due a trip: Parking lines read yellow-never park. Blue-Park and often pay during peak hours and white-free parking. I think!) I loved the colour of the stone-almost pinky and really gives a feeling of warmth. The amphitheatres were nice to see too and its good they have not been built over as they are true pieces of history. (although the group of 20 or so school children obviously disagreed going by the look of boredom on their faces)

Walked round the quiet back lanes and found a pretty little delli that did coffee so had ourselves a couple of expressinos (expresso with milk- we were told these were the coffees to try!) and they were quite yummy! For lunch i was super annoyed to find "Pizza & Co" didn't open to 6pm!!!I had been craving pizza for 24 hours!! arrhh, so we quickly found somewhere else on the main stretch, i forget the name but it definitely was something "pizzaria". We settled in the back little "pizzaria" garden and tried to order a couple of pizzas ("no, no- pizza la cera!!) Arhh why is pizza only in the evening Oh well the locals know best and we admitted defeat and promised ourselves a trip to Il Tronco tomorrow or thursday. For now, we decided to have some lemon risotto with prawns (again this was only available for two, so maybe i was a little harsh on last night's place- on second thoughts you couldn't be too harsh on last night's place) . The risotto was super light yet creamy and lemony and a nice change from pasta and taught me that you don't need to stuff it with parmesan. Again cooked perfect (how does even the smallest of places here always get it spot on!) But my partner hated the black bit left in the prawns, so with much attempts to get them out ended up leaving the prawns- i ventured on and really enjoyed them- very fresh. I ordered one piccolo glass of vino bianco -she repeated "piccalo?", "si" i said. I was then given (no kidding) the world's biggest glass of wine!!! it was like one of those ones you get as a birthday pressent that fits an entire bottle. Oh well i'm still on holiday so i drank it!!

We did our first real bit of shopping and picked up some pasta in the "Benedetto Cavalieri" branding which we had read was very good. We also found a jar of "sugo con ricotta"-we are hoping it is like what we had in il frantoio-will sample tonight and if it is even half as good will be very annoyed we only got the one jar. That stuff was so so tasty!!!! Finally we found a great deli on the main drag (Lecce are definitely into their delis- which is great as so are we!!) and we bought some buffalo mozarella and a huge salami piccante (hmm they are both rather large so not sure how we will get through them!).

Back at the villa now, snacking on the oldd sugared almond or chilli olive. Hmmmmm

wonderful. Lemon risotto sounds divine, and thanks for the beautiful description of Lecce.

Wow...what a food report. Now I have to plan on going there!

we ran into the whole 'pizza only at night' thing as well. i get it-- they don't want to fire up the huge ovens all day-- but it's tough when you've got a craving!!

Carol- thanks, you should come its a foodie heaven here

kawh- ahhhh makes sense now!!!

Jubilada- it was very nice and light, although my partner said one that i make at home is better!!! i disagree but nice compliment to know i can compete on a small level with the Italians! Lecce is definitely worth a stop.

Update on the salami- having sampled last night, all concerns about not being able to get through it went out the window and instead mission set to accomplish before we leave- must find exact same salami to take home.

It is gorgeously intense and so so spicey-now i love spice and meat and so this was super yummy. It has a huge layer of fat running down the spine which may sound a little off putting but it gave it some amazingly moist almost gooey texture 9/10 in the salami/other sausage rankings (only beaten by a 10/10 saucisson infused with fois-gras that we bought from a tiny place on the left bank of Paris....OMG don't even get me started on that!!). I'm sad to say that we have now run out of gorgonzola we (well mostly I) ate the last bit last night. I've decided that it truly is in my top ten food items and i no longer have a need for butter

So in case you hadn't gathered we stayed in for dinner last night as we had been out more that we planned to in the evenings and had a load of stuff to be eaten. Got back from Lecce and the sun was blazing so cooled of in the pool (ahhhh, glad the weather has improved as it is such a nice pool!) For dinner gad a nice speck/ricotta ravioli with a side of salad caprese ( our little basil plant "basil" was in need of being eaten!) and we were so impressed how ripe yet firm and lovely the tomatoes were a week and a half on from buying them (they don't last 3/4 days in UK). That lovely deep red colour, still not too soft and with the buffalo mozarella from Lecce went down a treat (of of course smothered with extra virgin olive oil). Washed down with some local white wine from Marina Franca for me and that scrumptious red wine for partner......we were reminded that in a few days we would be back to work and not have the excuse to enjoy wine everyday Oh well look on the bright side, 3 days left to make the most of!! We sampled the tomato and ricotta jarred stuff and was nowhere near as good at the divinely tasty one at Il Frantoio - teaches us for using a jarred sauce!

I'm still hungry!

Good buy on the Benedetto Cavalieri pasta, which is made in Maglie, near Lecce. I've seen it for prices up to US$9 in the New York City area. It's very good.

Do you remember the price of the lunch at Il Frantoio?

Only three days left, oh no!!

haha, yes we are sad to be leaving jubilad

eks, lunch for two was 118 so by far the most expensive lunch but its definitely a one off experience and includes a lot of wine. Good to know re the pasta, maybe we will stock up

just back from ostuni- lovely place will report on lunch later

So went to Ostuni today and really liked it. It is definitely the queen of the white washed towns of the valle d'itria. We Parked up and grabbed due expressinos with me managing to have a mini Italian conversation with the kind guy behind the bar in a tiny caffe before wondering into the white maze that is the old town.

Now we had driven past Ostuni before and the old town certainly stands out hugh and mighty in the surrounding fields but the outskirts we had happened to drive through (although they seemed to have disappeared today as we came a beautiful back route) had been a little worn and so we hadn't really been in that much of a hurry to return and even considered skipping it. But so glad we came in the end as the old town is very nice and glistering white and lane after lane of whiteness!! We admired the streets and again even the animals blended in, we saw two silver/white cats and a super white pug! The lanes are mostly circular and the cathedral in the centre is a really pretty cream facade-prob my favourite one (its no Lecce detail but i just thought it looked really pretty). The main sqaure just otside the old town was also very nice and a nice place to get some gelato if you fancied it (there were a lot of options for gelato and i vowed to grab one on way back but again never made it!)

We decided to seek out the lunch place our villa owner had recommended. We walked round and round and round and it was nice to venture into little lanes we probably would have missed otherwise, but we could not find it and after 30 minutes gave up. However there had been a little place near the cathedral with a handful of tables out on the white street that we liked the look of so we ventured back. By this point it was boiling and so upon entering the vaulted stone room it was a great belief to have some cool. Despite the pretty tables outside, we decided to stay inside i the cool, which was nicely done is green and white checked tables and pretty pictues of olives trees on the wall. (We had also spotted a photo board outside with dozens and dozens of photos and figured it must be fairly popular going by all the photos) "Sapere & Sapori" was the name of the place and it seemed to be (and i might be wrong) a husband, wife and son team.

http://ristoranti.travelitalia.com/it/ristoranti-ostuni/ristorante-sapere-e-sapori-ostuni/

They were very friendly and the menu was short but we enjoyed a perfect little Puglian lunch here and was one of our favourites despite being very simple.

The local crunchy dipped (in something not sure what!) frizze (?!? i think) bread with pomodoro (again i LOVE the tomatoes here!! not sure i love the dipped bread quite so much) followed by a plate of meat and some orecchiette. The sausages on the meat plate were as tasty as you could possibly imagine (this was my partners dish but i soon convinced him for us to share!), super meaty and very richly flavoured and the orecchiette super simple with just a big laden of passata on top and riccotta cheese to spoon on to your liking . Once more (and i know i always say it but its always true!) pasta cooked to absolute perfection!! Hmmmm the meat was a great choice and was just the simplest of meals but perfectly executed. With two glasses of wine, water, a coke and a caffe- 34 euros- bargain!!!

Only 1 evening and 2 days left!!! thats an absolute maximum of 5 more puglian meals

oh no! your trip is coming to a close and that means 4 me no more food fixes each day thru your great foodie report. I think I've gained a few lbs just reading along.

I would love to hear what your favorite meals were and which places not to miss.

hi yes, i no i'm quite sad yep will for sure do a little summary of best places and meals on friday. I swam in the pool for an hour now as it hit me that all that food was going to have an impact!!! arhhhh oh dear- too late!

Just finished reading with great interest your trip report. We are traveling in Puglia in late June and are very excited about the trip. Thank you for posting such detailed descriptions of your vacation and meals. I have to admit being a bit scared that I will get fat. It will be our first trip to Italy and we will on that leg of the trip be hosted by a friend who lives there and staying in his families vacation trullo. We are not doing any planning for this part, just trusting our host who is very enthusiastic about all that Puglia has to offer. We are spending the first week of our trip in Rome and then 3 days in Sorrento and will be seeing Pompaii and Capri before traveling to Puglia.

Hi Kimbery, thanks for your nice comments, glad you liked the descriptions

I am very envious of you having your whole trip ahead of you

The weather is just getting nice and warm and the sky is super clear. Its a lovely part of italy and will be very different to your time in Rome.We love it here and as you can probably tell love the food!!

Don'w worry about not having much planned- we are very much taking this second week as it comes, we have learned that at this time of year for lunches at least you really don't need to book! and your host sounds like he will take great care of you!

Its a really lovely place (as is capri and amalfi coast!) Haha and am sure you wont get too fat as one meal fills u up so you tend to go easy on the next (evening meals for us have been relatively light), also it being hotter will help too! ordering the antipasti has been our downfall as you get soooooo much

Have a great great trip, rome and southern Italy are some of my favourite places!

bookmarking

Ahhh we have two pugs so would love to see the white one haha - any pics to share with us!!??

Looking forward to picking up the torch and continuing the food extravaganza in our trip report mid June!!!

Sounds like you will be in London for the jubilee?? It's supposed to be warm and dry...fingers crossed!

It had been at least 4 nights since our last Il Tronco pizza and we were craving it again (embarrassingly the head pizza chef now recognises me! its only been 3 times in two weeks, that's not too bad is it- i tell myself that its because i watch the creation of them with such enthusiasm sitting on the little stool at the bar while being roasted alive by the oven next to me! he even refers to me as "ahh inglesa"!). So as a result i haven't got a big outing to talk about this evening, but Il Tronco and its ridiculously amazingly thin tasty pizza is going to be one of the top memories we have of Puglia- it is so so SO good!!

We have just sat in our villa literally "hmmm"ing and "wow"ing for the whole of the 5 minutes it took us to scoff them down and both agreeing 20/20 in the pizza world. Pizzas for years to come will be compared against this place- in all seriousness. This time we went for the marinaro ones (i wasn't aware of this when i ordered but am not complaining as they were yummy), one with fresh anchovy,capers and gorgonzola and one with marinated anchovy, see-through thin peppers, oregano and chilli flakes. I wondered whether it was worth posting about these pizzas again but in the end thought that these pizzas were truly some of the best food we had ever had. We are actually a little sad we will not be able to have them anymore!!

Tomorrow we are having a lazy day by the pool with some more of the scrumptious salami piccante and great puglianese bread and Friday (our last day) will try to make it to Ceglie Mess., seen as we never made it today!

hmm my post reply to jubilda has dissappeared....

yep back on saturday with a few days off before back to work!

glad to know someone picking up the torch- will look forward to cheering you on!

Got loads of photos (including one of pug!!) but not really sure how to post.

Yay I use http://www.flickr.com/ and picasa (part of google). Hint hint....

hehe jamikins, ok i might be brave and give it ago although i don't have my little lead to attach to my laptop but will try and put something together once home. When are you off (are you travelling around or in one base?)

Looking forward to seeing the photos!!!

We are heading to le marche for a week staying at this farm/ cooking school http://www.latavolamarche.com/html/

We start by a night in bologna then are driving to the cooking school via Ravenna. Then after a week there we head to puglia where we are staying here for a week http://www.masseriabaroninuovi.it/en/

can't wait!!!

ah wow you are down in the salento region- this will be perfect for june (in Lecce we saw dozens of post cards for the salento beaches and they looked beautiful, truly! it is on our list to come back to Puglia and in particular to the south. Sanat Maria del Bagna and lecce gave us a feel for it and it seemed lovely. We had planned a trip to Otranto but figured it seemed a tiny bit too far and decided we should enjoy the region we were in and all the great stuff is has to over and come back another time.

Am very envious

We love where we are in the valle d'itia region and think it definitely warrants a return trip as is so so nice, so maybe we can come a do a week here and then a week further south.

For a first time trip we found having two weeks up here perfect so we could really get to know it and enjoy it at a leisurely pace. We don't often go back to places but puglia is on "the list"

I've never had pizza with gorgonzolla but it sounds divine.

we had been thinking of three locales in our two week trip: South, North and Matera. WHat do you think?

LOVED your report!

thank you so much. leaving for italy (and puglia) in 14 days (not that i'm counting...)
my mouth was watering reading your report.

thanks dina, glad it has wet your appetite for puglia-still a little more

Jubilda-yeah that sounds good, you probably only need 2 nights tops in Matera (you could even day trip from puglia very very easily although can imajine it being wonderful at nightear;y morning. Which are your bases in the north and south and where do you fly in and out of? there are so many places to enjoy you could 2 weeks in either area i think so you will have plenty to do in both for a week each. We very much love this area but also got a feel for further south too and wished we were staying another week to venture down to Otranto area oh well will have to come back!

kimberly-its amazingly yummy, only little cubes scattered over it but adds a tangy deep flavour. Hmmmmmm

HG, still in early planning. We can fly into either Brindisi or Bari depending on where we decide to start trip. My partner has one of the stassi hotels picked out and want to be in matera at night, we are thinking of maybe Polignaro and Otrantp, but also want to plunk ourselves down fairly near one of the airports for a few days to start, so not sure, but too early to know. We are in that fun anything is possible stage.

ahh i remember that stage.

Pog is less than an hour from bari and on literally the one straight road all the way! you could then go to matera from there for a few nights then down to Otranto before flying out of brindisi.

Just a thought but there are so many ways to do it!

Have fun planning

yes, that's the sort of plan we are thinking of, but didi not realize Pog so close to Bari. We really would like to chill at a masseria with pool for a couple of nights before getting a car and venturing out as we know we will be exhausted upon arrival from intensive work leading up to travel.
Did you starve today?

jubilada, yeah i know what you mean-its nice to have a relax before starting the driving etc etc.

you are so lucky to have it all to plan- i love the planning stage

oh and yesterday.....

we were slightly running short on funds and decided we wanted to each out for lunch and dinner on our last day (today) and seen as the weather was glorius and we had plenty of food in the fridge we went for an (almost!) lazy day by the pool.

We couldn't resist a quick nip out to the bakery and grabbed two more cornetti di chiccolato (hmmm will miss these) and rove five minute up coast to enjoy these at Porto Ghiacciolo which our villa owner had recommended, which is on route to monopoli. Beautiful mini beach cover with gorgeous clean calm water and a trendy upmarket little beach cafe, This looked like a great summer beach spot and could imagine it packed in august (today just a handful of people swimming away early in the morning)

Then popped home to enjoy the gorgeous pool! For lunch, we feasting of that delicious salami, local cheese and olive oil on Puglianese bread (have i said how perfect Puglianese bread is?- but you have to get the right one, its the one that almost golden yellow in colour with a brown toffee coloured crust and is quite airy rather than dense). We all demolished the remaining plump purple chilli olives we bought in Monopoli and some other supermarket salami which was scrumptious too!

Lazy few hours by the pool and then an evening dinner of gnocetti with pomodoro, chopped salami, garlic, torn basil leaves and olive oil (thats it! i was trying to keep it simple and tasty and take advantage of the great olive oil, oh accept i found one remaining oozy mozarella ball, so tore this up and sprinkled on at the end) For 1 euro a bag- this gnocci is some of the best texture ever, super creamy and takes the coating very well, has made me feel very bad about the nasty spongy stuff i buy at home!). Yummy dinner mopped up with even yummier golden bread....and all washed down with cold bubbly prosseco.

Like i say you don't have to spend a fortune here to enjoy nice food- the ingredients speak for themselves so that you can't really go wrong whatever you cook up!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ok last day- very sad

in fact

oh forgot to mention we also grabbed some little chocolate cream filled filo pastry goodies from the bakery for pudding. These are super yummy, flaky, buttery pastry with a tasty chocoate filling. We have seem them a lot her (kind off long triangle shape) so recommend as an after dinner treat!!

Ciao, again!! I forgot to ask you..or maybe I did not see if you mentioned it above, but did you go into the water at the beach at all? Was the water too cold? Thanks!! So glad you are having a blast!

hi eks, we only went yesterday and just to calf deep as we had not planned a swim. It was cool but there were plenty of Italians in (and even more down in santa maria al bagna the week before). The heat has really stpepped up a notch these last few days so by the time you are here i will be perfect beach weather i would guess. We are off to Greece in September so were not really trying to turn in into a beachy holiday as there is not really much else for us to do when we go to Greece (Paxos) apart from beaches!!

The water looks very clean and clear here thoug so should be lovely

Ok so our trip is nearly done and very sad to be saying goodbye to Puglia in the morning

I will write up the last day tomorrow in the airport i expect, but in short went for lunch in ceglie and enjoyed one of the best meals we had had at Il Perricci in Monopoli tonight for just 30 euros for two. More later

Ok home now so thought better write up the last day.....

Started off as always will coffee on the terrace (the weather was heating up bug time!) and went off to try and seek out that delicious steak we had heard about on here ( )in Ceglie Messapica. Its kind off like a small version of Ostuni, a little poorer maybe but perhaps more authentic (older!) old town. It took us a fair while to reach but through some very very pretty countryside with loads of trulli but got there in the end. Had a bit of a bad time parking as accidentally took a super narrow road through the town and had to park a little far out, which meant a walk through the outskirts which were quite worn down. Unfortunate as the central old town was really quite pretty and authentic.

It was again empty (like literally no one there!) and we wondered round getting very hot in search of the aroma of steak!! every time we smelt something delicious we soon realised it was just someone cooking the family lunch- i longed for us to go in and join them!! Eventually (after even using our phone map unsuccessfully and almost about to give up and drive to Locorotondo to seek out that pizza) we found it...it was Closed!! NOOOOO!!!! we were really disappointed Me especially as it was our last day

But time was passing and we had spotted Cibus restaurant on our search and there didn't seem to be many other places in the old town little streets and driving back to locorotondo seemed a little drastic so we ventured back to Cibus.

http://www.ristorantecibus.it/index.php?pg=3&view=contenuto&lang=it

For some reason i had briefly skipped over this place on my searches thinking it was uber expensive and Carluccio's words in our Lonely Planet "never go to the expensive places-they are not authenic" haunted me and warned me off anything looking too pricey. But we didn't have a lot of choice. So when we arrived and had to ring a door bell i thought- oh dear our budget (which we had kept within and even had a 100 euros left for last day) was going to go out the window. But rejoice!! the menu looks like normal prices (8-12 euros a pasta) yeh i could relax!! and the outdoorsy setting is lovely and simple and Puglian white! not fancy at all, apart from table cloths.

It was a pretty place, with a semi indoor/outdoor eating place- all very white and cream ad those lovely arched puglian ceilings and greenery throughout, matching tables and chairs and provided a nice shade from the heat. We were given some huge wedges of that golden bread (hmmmmm i LOVE the bread here!) and a big tall bottle of deep yellow extra virgin olive oil. We began to feel relaxed again and poured ourselves a big glug of the oil to enjoy the bread with. Hmmmm i love bread and olive oil in puglia- perfect combination of peppery indulgent oil and deliciously scrumptious golden bread.

We had a plate of local hams (2) from the region which were very thinly sliced and very light. To follow i went for local rabbit with olives and tomatoes which was nice. although could have done with a little more of the yummy sauce- the rabbit was tender and the olives were very nice and tasty as all Puglian olives have been. Partner went for stuffed pork with onions and local cheese, which while huge and moist was unfortunately a little bland. but the cheese was tasty. Oh no, not one of our greatest meals but still enjoyable and at least it was on the healthy side although it was only 41 euros including coffee so reasonably priced after all our fears!

We ventured home to pack and enjoy one last swim before opting to go into Monopoli for dinner (battle between here and Pogliano, which was 5 mins further but one of our favourites) So so SO happy we went to Monopoli (we were owed one last amazing meal!) as we had a real treat!

Also worth saying that Monopoli definitely deserves more recognition- it is such a nice place and at night really comes alive. Lots of families sat outside there houses chatting or playing games. Lots of people walking the streets enjoying the evening. and the Churches all lit up (the Cathedral looks wonderful at night). We also discovered a pretty square we had missed last time. I really like this place....

Ok so for dinner, the villa owner had recommended Osteria Perricci (as did Vito here- thanks vito!!)

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g652003-d2092278-Reviews-Osteria_Perricci-Monopoli_Province_of_Bari_Puglia.html

and we loved it!!

To start we were given was is uite simply the best bruscetta mini apertiser we have ever tasted, Have no idea if it was the oil or the chopper red/green/yellow tomatoes but it was absolutely divine bruscetta!! So so tasty we could have feasted on this alone for dinner!

Very basic but very authentic feel, no menu, little English spoken. We listened and understood (yeh!)) the dishes being ready out to us slowly in Italian and opted for antipasti for 1 (easily fed 2!) and then pasta with local seafood. The antipasti was lovely, fish based with some great deep fried spongy fish of some sort- batter was salty/crispy/sweet- the absolute opposite of bland batter. Also some nice muscles and super meaty anchovies. Also sampled an interesting (raw maybe) squid which was unusual - i liked, partner didn't. Anyway dont want to focus too much on the apertisers as it was the pasta dish that was stunninly simple but stunningly wow!!!

It was the puglian style cavatelli pasta with clams and muscles in a sauce (not tomato or cream based, perhaps wine and stock?!) which was absolutely delicious, served with a bowl of chilli oil full to bursting with fat chillies. We added a spoonful of the oil and then dug it- wow so tangy- it just tasted phenomenal to us (don't get me wrong its not at all extravagant dish, in fact was very very simple). I only wish i knew how to make this! We had a big dish for two and a ladle to dish the stuff up. We got loads but despite being a large portion , ever single pasta piece was eaten and we could have hag again!! I know i will remember this dish forever!

We also saw platters of local fried fish which lookded yummy but as there was no menu we had no clue of prices and only had 59 euros left so we were careful not to over order. Big mistake!! the fried platter looked gorgeous an going by the look of the faces of the french couple next to us, tasted so too!! We finished off with a slice of almond/cherry cake. OMG yum!! and despite my obsession for the sugared almonds here i hate almond in cake (marzipan is my 2nd most dreaded food- after artichoke of course, in case you hadn't noticed!). It was delightful . So 'il conto" time- oh dear fingers crossed, With half litre of wine and a coffee 30 euros! wow - very happy and relieved!! We left with very very happy bellies and even had change for some gelato from that place i had vowed to try in our first few days. Even had money for cornetti in the airport the next day (where randomly we arrived in Milan a the same time as Justin Bieber did- wow i don'f think i have ever seen anything quite like the way the italian girls screamed for him and his band mates- watching this at least filled some time between flights)

Anyway back to gelato......

Amazing proper gelato (beat the Trani one i think, whichwas still very nice) hmmmm gorgeous chiccolatto and profiterole flavours with little nuggets of biscuits. (interestingly italian gelato is not just italian for ice cream- somehow it is made with less fat (4-8%) rather that ice cream's 10%+ yet tastes in my opinion ten times creamier!). We walked back though the streets eating on our yummy gelato. Hmm Italy at its best!

And then we were done very sad to leave

I'll post some of our favourite places/meals tonight probably.

Hope you all enjoyed and for all those going soon-Enjoy!!!

Great report...shame about the weather today for the flotilla

i know, when we got back we were like "heat wave-really!"

HG001 - I think that we'll all be almost as sad as you that your trip, and therefore your trip report, have had to come to and end.

I do however have a complaint.

How am I supposed to choose which part of Italy I want to go to next? I had a nice trip to Umbria, Le Marche and southern tuscany planned out [partly because i am desperate to show DH Orbetello where I did my italian course and partly because I want to revisit all the lovely places in that region] then I decided to go to Sicily to see the area where they filmed the Montalbano series, and now YOU come along with this.

it's not fair!

HG001, I too will miss your trip report.
annhig, I know what you mean, but we have settled on Puglia, but alas we cannot go for a year.
That has not stopped us from planning though!

jubilada - I am planning for next May, and haven't settled on anywhere.

DH however has expressed a preference for Sicily, so i suspect that that is where we will go.

ann, juba haha i'm sorry.

I think wherever you go will have amazing food as its Italy after all.I have been to a handful of places in Italy (Florence/Tuscany,Amafli Coast, Capril,Rome,Venice) and really liked them all, especially when i revisit. (Not a fan of Venice 1st time round, huge fan 2nd time round- favourite city in fact)

(just randomly have you ever google images or been too Tropea-wow that looks cool!)

If you are planning on coming in the Summer and like beaches, and bit of a foodie i would say Puglia would be a definite winner no question. And at other times of year also a very strong contender- but everywhere in Italy i have been too has been nice so don't want to say defo Puglia as not fair on other regions.

If it helps I would say re Puglia

-very flat
-very clean
-very quiet (this time of year anyway)
-very pretty old town centres (which everywhere we went had)
-everywhere has white washed streets in the old towns with grand and beautiful Churches
-some run down suburbs, which never take more than a couple of mins to drive through
-partly greek feel
-relaxing vibe so important to have somewhere nice to come back to and chill out-i felt it not to be an action packed destination.
-alberobello is very unique and retains charm
-cheap food and wine
-relatively easy driving
-delicious food and wine
-beautiful clear water
-some jewel places like Trani/Pogliano/Ostuni/Lecce (We have just set a Pogliano photo as our screen saver pic!)
-nice friendly helpful people
-definitely a foodie place
-good for cycling
-good for fishing
-lack of people automatically talking back to you in English as they might in Rome/Florence( which i loved- the Italian language is so nice, i really enjoyed experiencing it and you cant help but pick some up)
-empty almost eerie towns during 1-5 so need to go early or late for groceries/people watching (by the end we were missing seeing people a little bit during the day and was so nice to go into Monopoli at night when people were out and all buzzy, so stay in centres if you want to people watch)
-nice weather
-i would say you need a car to make most of (although lots of places had train stations)
-lots of places close together
-authentic vibe
-not dramatic countryside/rolling hills such as Tuscany as very flat but very pretty al the same but not quite as pretty as Tuscany imo
-close to Matera
-good seafood
-not loads of museums/galleries as in Rome/Florence
-doesn't feel very touristy so restaurants all feel like local places
-towns are quite small
-gorgeous sea!
-very outdoorsy
-feeling of being a local in Italy and not a tourist so much
-on the whole not particularly glamourous (i.e. don't really have many excuse to get all dressed up for dinner as you might in Rome)
-not much theatre scene
-still very much undiscovered i felt.
-good for vegetarians

Hope this helps a bit, either way am sure wherever you pick will be great. We really really loved Puglia but am sure we would really love Umbria too! It was good though to spend two full weeks and really get to know it.

ann, i think Sicily will be great in May as I think it is warmer than Puglia and would stick with your first choice as its normally the right one- that way you can come to Puglia in June/July/August and make use of the beautiful sea!!

thanks, HG001 - so that's one vote for Puglia, and another for sicily.

very helpful!

BTW, HG001, i wasn't being sarky. i do appreciate all the tips and info about Puglia, and I've loved being on your trip with you.

opps sorry Ann i was writing all the Puglia stuff before i saw you were going May and only thought it should be a definite winner if the trip was in june july or august to make use to beaches!!

Seen as its not I would stick with your plans for Sicily and plan puglia for june another year maybe.

Sorry

oh no its cool i realised by the end it might not be that much help, but figured it would be good for others too to get a brief summary

Sicily will be fab im sure

(we were actually choosing between those too as well but only went for Puglia as we thought driving may be a little easier there-sicily is on our list too!!)

It was great having you along!!

oh and just in case anyone is thinking i think Puglia is not great as i just got back and voted for Sicily.......don't get me wrong- we absolutely LOVED puglia. In fact went through our pics last night and reflected on how nice it was.

But the vote is where should Ann go and i think Sicily seems equally wonderful and as this is ann's plan before and had a reason for going there it would be a fab place to stick with!

no need to apologise, HG. all suggestions gratefully received.

we have a friend [actually a fellow toiler in the fields of italian language learning] who has a house in Puglia somewhere, which she has said we can borrow, but we would of course have to fit in with her plans, obviously.

but there is something about those pictures of Sicily that is calling to me!

i have to admit Taormina feels like it is calling me too!!

HG001London, this was such a 'tasteful' and wonderful Trip Report. Grazie !

DH and I are just beginning to plan a trip to Puglia - and we certainly plan to follow many of your recommendations and experiences - but I think we'd better plan lots of walks between those fabulous meals. That is how we have survived our trips to other parts of Italy.

I really enjoyed your TRs and like annhig, feel sad that you (we) have come to the end of the journey. But welcome home and well done !

~MarnieWDC

HG: I, too, am sad that our adventure has come to a close. But I just want to thank you for providing lots of vicarious pleasure. Truly excellent!

Your comments on Monopoli are very helpful. We will be returning to "our" hotel near Fasano at the end of our next Puglia trip and Monopoli is very close. I had only stopped briefly to visit the market but this time I will set aside time to further explore, and maybe to have a meal at Osteria Pericci.

Did you know that Ceglie is considered one of the gastronomic capitals of the region? I'm embarrassed to say that I've never eaten there, as our first restaurant choice in that town has been closed at the times of our past visits.

About Tropea: I, too, have seen those photos. I'm dreaming about a future trip that would begin at the airport in Lamezia, continue on to Tropea, and then continue with a jaunt up to Amantea (a great seacoast town..lots of life and great food!) through Basilicata, stop at Pollino Park, Senise, and Matera among other places, and end up in Puglia. Wouldn't that be something!??

We're watching the festivities in London on tv just now....lovely!!

Marnie, what a lovely message- thank you thats really kind. Glad you enjoyed it, it was nice knowing people were reading along.

Ah yes favourite things ok

My favourite Towns of all that we visited:

1. Pogliano a Mare
2. Trani
3. Ostuni
4. Locorotondo

In addition, definitely worth the hype and a visit

1. Matera - unique
2. Lecce - warm/cheery

Favourite/ Most Memorable Meals: (not necessarily best restaurants but ones we enjoyed most)

1. Osteria Pericci in Monopoli (for pure taste and authenticity!)
2. Antiche Mura in Pogliano a Mare (for indulgence and truffle lovers!)
3. Sapere e Sapore in Ostuni (for absolute simplicity and tasty sausages)
4. A tre Santi, Locorotondo (for Puglian pasta done well)

Top 3 dishes

1. Truffle Pasta at Antichi Mura
2. Seafood Pasta with chilli oil at Osteria Pericci
3. Spicy Rigatoni at Le chicche di zia , Cistercino

**For a pricey but one off Feast: Il Frotoio, Ostuni

**and a special mention to Il Tronco Pizza- hmmmmmmm

Little things I will remember Puglia for

1. Olive Trees
2. Trulli
3. Orechiette Pasta with hard Ricotta
4. White washed buildings
5. Golden Yellow Bread
6. Tasty olives/Olive oil
7. Turquoise pretty sea
8. Sugared almonds
9. Pretty Churches
10. Antipasti

Eks,

thanks for your message

that Tropea trip sounds very nice indeed (*off to google properly*).

Yes we noticed a sign about the gastronomic of Ceglie, our meal there was good but not excellent. We really wanted to go to the antico-borgo place but also found it closed.

Yes pop into Perricci....the pasta is so tasty i am dreaming about it in london.

Haha yeah watching the london thing- that horse almost got me emotional!

Marnie,

don't worry too much about the effect on waistline, back in london its jeans weather and thankfully favourite pair still fit but that may be due to all that food still waiting to fully show its negative side...oh dear

Thank you for a delightful foodie TR. Enjoyed following along with. Appreciate your list of "tops."

no probs yes, glad you enjoyed

Haha yeah watching the london thing- that horse almost got me emotional! >>

no spoilers please. I'm watching the fabulous tennis from Paris and recording the flotilla, so we can fast forward through the boring bits.

no probs ann...there is definitely no horse in the parade

no probs ann...there is definitely no horse in the parade >>

shame. i was only going to be watching it for that!

Thanks HG I am going to cut and paste all your restaurant suggestions into my trip planner for next October (early oct) and my husband has also enjoyed me reading your reports to him. He loved your food descriptions!
On our last trip we visited Polignano for an afternoon and wondered where all the people were! We will have to make a concerted effort to visit the towns before everything closes up at 1. Thanks for your "best of" list.

Eks crunchy your trip plan sounds wonderful. We drove from Taormina to matera in one (very long) day and it was so beautiful we wished we'd had time to explore. I will be watching for a report if you decide to go. There is even less English spoken than in Puglia though, judging from our lunch experience (funny story there).

Annhig as much as I love Puglia there is definitely more variety of things to do and see in Sicily, but I'm sure you will love either.

sundried, thats so cool to know my report was actually read aloud to someone!!!

Pog was one of our busiest places (maybe 4 tourists there that we saw) but it was good to see the beach completely empty so you could really appreciate the dramatic coastline there!

That does sound like a long drive from Taormina!!

Sundried: Yes, very little English, at least in the parts of Calabria that I visited on a trip a few months ago (overnight at Amantea; lunch at Castrovillari) I never did write a trip report, but would HIGHLY recommend something along the lines of our itinerary: Fly into Lamezia, drive north with stops in coastal and inland Calabria, Cilento coast, Paestum area, and end up in Amalfi Coast area or Naples, or both. We had about 17 days and its was perfect.

HG: I love the summary lists of likes and dislikes, and bests of.... excellent!!

eks, glad you enjoyed....we have just tried to re-create Puglia in london.........english mozarella (which i used to like)......very bad........

HG thank you for one of the best trip reports ever. I read it aloud to my husband on a 2+ hour drive. We laughed a lot and arrived at our destination feeling full! We'll be in Puglia for a week mid-october .. And will make good use of your notes.

ez1- oh thanks so much, that is lovely of you to say- i hope it wasn't too hard with all my typos/italian auto correctness going on!! and glad it helped u and husband on your travels. This is the first time i ever did a trip report as am relatively new to Fordors but i really enjoyed writing it. Not sure my next trip to Paxos will have quite so much to report on

Am sure u will have a lovely time, i have my screen shot on laptop (and home PC) both set to Puglia at the mo and looks so pretty!

Does this mean English cheese will be ruined for us??? 6 more sleeps till we head to Italy woo hoo!

ooh am so so excited for you jamikins!!

re cheese= nah, english hold their own in the cheddar department! but you got to try some of the gorgonzola out there. Hmmm hmm!

also try the freshest ricotta with honey - just bliss.