Hey eks, I thought you'd been to Il Frantoio, but can't find it in your trip reports - though it gets great reviews from others, so I'll still book it. Did you eat there?

Also, where do I find the slowfood list of restaurants in Puglia? I can't make heads or tails of sowfoodpuglia.com.

Don't miss Paestum while you're in that neck of the woods.

Nanbug: Paestum is not in, or near, Puglia!


I did not eat at Il Frantoio. I had mixed feelings about it and know that they get a lot of traffic from bicycle and walking tour groups. I am not sure that the high price is worth sitting inside for the amount of time that it takes for them to parade those dishes, which in all liklihood are dishes that you can enjoy at many area restaurants. Check around and see if the reviews for the meals there are all written by English-language tourists. I might try it on a return visit but there are so many other places. Still, I am sure it would be quite an experience.

I have the SlowFood Osterie book in English. You can find the write-ups on the SlowFood.it site but they will be in Italian. They are divided up into districts within Puglia; here, for example, are the listings for those in the Brindisi district; on the site you can clock on the names and read the information, in Italian; I've only been tot he last two:




Pantagruele Brindisi
Il castelletto Carovigno
Cibus Ceglie Messapica
Taverna della torre Cisternino
Masseria di parco di castro Fasano Speziale
Lamiola Piccola Ostuni

Eks -- I know Paestum isn't in Puglia.

I suggested it since the OP is traveling to Naples from Lecce and it's a straight shot west before they head north to Naples.

Thanks for the food info, Eks. I ordered the book.

I hear you on Il Frantoio. Especially on the whole 9-course thing. Too beaucoup.
People say it's a "must" but there are enough musts that I might stick to the cheaper ones.

Have you ever thought of putting up a travel/ food blog so people can find all your reports and food lists in one place?

Ditto on Il Frantoio. I decided against them after I had called and asked for the price - which is quite shocking in a region where you can have a delicious, more than filling dinner for two with wine and coffee and circumstances at a top restaurant or masseria for the price that Il Frantoio charges for just the food for just one person.

Lbel: Thanks for the compliment. I would consider that but I am not computer savvy.

Franco: You know I am sitting at the edge of my seat wanting to know where you went in the region recently!

About Il Frantoio: I cannot imagine that the food would be better or more abundant than the food we had at Masseria Barbera, and that restaurant was filled with local families, which for me added much to the experience. I wonder if Il Frantoio draws any locals to those elaborate meals(??)

Dear ek, I don't think I can caper lbel's thread in order to tell you where I went! (But I could caper yours, if you really want me to - just food or also the sights, what do you want me to post, if anything?)

Franco, please, my thread is your thread. Share all!

eks: If you ever really wanted to do a blog, I could help you set it up. It's a cinch.

Lbelgray: That is really kind and really tempting! Not to be naive, but what would be the benefits of doing a blog over posting the reports here, besides being able to link the pics? Do people actually make money with a blog? Pardon me for being such a novice on this topic! I fell I can come clean with you; it is probably common knowledge that I am the very last human to occupy the passenger seat of a car with a paper map clutched in my hand.


Franco: Yes, you must, please, tell us your itinerary and where you stayed and ate! I hope you realize what an astounding help you are on these forums.

Eks: It's definitely hard to "monetize" a blog by getting advertisers. You have to have a really big audience to make money that way. I use my blog (talkingshrimp.com) as both a platform for getting clients (as a writer) and a creative outlet. Who knows what could come of it for you: free hotel stays, meals...anything could happen.

But one sure benefit is that you could have all your trip reports in one place, with all your photos, and people like me would use it as a resource - way easier than searching fodors for them, though you could still copy and paste them here.

I always get excited when someone posts a link to their own site where they have more details and photos. I'd love it if your reports were accompanied by visuals. Hotel pics, food porn, all that.

Also, you'd own all your content. You put a lot of work into those reports!

Dear ladies, you're wanting me to do a trip report, true? Well, being the lazy person I am, I'll do a rather summary report...

This year's trip to Puglia had eight legs (in Puglia! afterwards, I also toured the Basilicata, but that's another story).
From north to south:
1. Peschici, 2 nights at www.baiascirocco.it - basic rooms, but a splendid position above the sea, a very kind host, and one of the very best breakfasts I've ever had anywhere (actually, a breakfast for foodies, as commendable as a good restaurant).
Visits: Peschici, Vieste, Monte S. Angelo, Siponto, S. Leonardo di Siponto - which means the Gargano. A rather beautiful part of Puglia, and its one and only mountainous part (driving needs a LOT of time on the twisting roads there). Monte S. Angelo and S. Leonardo di Siponto are among the greatest sights all over Puglia; in Monte S. Angelo, though, the greatest thing is not the famous grotto church of the archangel Michael, but the so-called Tomba di Rotari, or S. Giovanni in Tumba, a church nobody seems to have done serious scholarly research on so far. For a long time, the popular guess was that it be a tomb of a Langobardic prince, which has been proved nonsensical; now, guesses are "a fortified tower converted into a church" or, more widely accepted, "a baptistery from the early 12th century". Well, there was the portal added in the early 12th century, and obviously also the cupola vaulting completed (or rebuilt?) - but even for a complete amateur art historian like me, it's obvious that this is the layout and style of a Carolingian church (which is not as bizarre as it may seem on a first glance - Puglia was Longobardic, and Charlemagne became, as we all know, King of the Longobards in 774). Anyway, a really spectacular building that is completely overlooked by most of the visitors to Monte S. Angelo (pilgrims, mostly...).
Meals (other than those wonderful breakfasts): the first evening, Frà Stefano in Peschici, good enough but nothing special; the second evening, when I had wanted to dine at this famous agriturismo: www.agriturismolatorretaronna.com, their restaurant was unfortunately closed, and we returned to Peschici, to try La Taverna, which was slightly better than, but all in all pretty similar to Frà Stefano.

(No, I'm not going to do the whole report at once, please have mercy! I'll continue later or tomorrow.)

Mercy has been granted, on the condition that you include Basilicata in the report here.

Just reading this has moved the Gargano up my list for "future trips!"

Question: Was there any special reason that you chose Peschici as a Gargano base, rather than Vieste, for example?

Yes, ek, a very simple reason: I like Peschici better than Vieste; I just think it's prettier. And then, I had also read that in the meantime (it's been a while since my last visit), Vieste had grown too touristy. Which will be true in high season, but wasn't true in May.

Next report installment:
2. Lucera, just one night, very unfortunately, at the gorgeous (and above mentioned) Palazzo D'Auria Secondo, www.palazzodauriasecondo.it
Sightseeing: Lucera, Troia and - not quite - Foggia; not quite because the only sight there, the cathedral, was completely hidden behind scaffolding, and closed (I knew ahead that it was closed for restoration, but I didn't know about the scaffolding, and had hoped to see the exterior, which is more interesting than the interior anyway). The Troia cathedral is another really excellent sight; Lucera, this extraordinarily likeable town, doesn't unfortunately have any sights to write home about.
Food: two lunches and one dinner at Palazzo D'Auria Secondo - wonderful! Generally, this part of Puglia is kind of a food heaven... three more addresses: one, a (locally) famous butcher in Apricena, Michele Sabatino (Via Roma 50), who is one of the producers of a rare Slow Food presidium product: the musciska, jerky from beef or goat - traditional food for the shepherds during transhumance. Today, we don't gnaw at the jerky sticks, like the shepherds inevitably did - it's now usual to slice the musciska thinly, add rucola and/or some flakes of caciocavallo cheese (preferably from the milk of the podolica cows that are also providing the beef for the musciska) and first-rate olive oil: there's hardly any more delicious food on this planet. Those podolica cows are a wonderful breed, anyway; their milk (i.e. cheese) and beef are incredibly tasty and delicious, the beef is not quite compatible with contemporary taste, though: it's not at all tender, rather tough since these are true transhumance animals, up to this day (they're driven back and forth between the Gargano and the province of Matera) - which means that they are walking really long distances, and walking all day long (impossible to raise them in stables), so they're brawny, and you have to chew it. But the taste is really impressive. (Palazza D'Auria Secondo is an excellent place to sample this beef if you can't buy from Michele Sabatino and prepare it yourself. As far as musciska, no problem to take it home since this is food from the pre-fridge era, made for long storage.) Sabatino also has great pork from a local breed living, much like the podolica cows, in the woods of the Gargano.
Second address, pastries: Casoli, Via Regina Margherita 121, Troia (close beside the cathedral). Their most famous creation is the Passionata, a delicacy involving ricotta, marzipan, sponge and rosewater.
Third address, olive oil: Agricola Paglione, Contrada Perazzelle, Lucera, tel. 0881-521159 or 338-4168113 (don't try to find it on your own, have them give you directions). One of Puglia's best addresses; particularly recommended: Nasuta oil (the Nasuta being an old olive variety typical of Lucera).

I forgot to say that at Paglione's, they're also producing heavenly preserved green olives, and heavenly preserved tomatoes, excellent stuff to bring home in order to enhance your own cooking for the next few months.

3. Bitonto, 4 nights at www.palazzoanticaviaappia.it - perhaps the most beautiful accomodation we had in Puglia, for the laughable price of 80 Euros per night for a superior room (discounted as compared to the price given on their website). This early 19th century mansion has been splendidly restored by an antiques collector - and furnished with part of his own collection. Unusually for a B&B, it's staffed 24 hours, and the staff is incredibly nice (if lacking professionality - don't expect their wifi to work, for example). Obviously, the owner doesn't need to make money from this B&B; I guess he just needed more space for his collection (he himself doesn't even live in Bitonto), and didn't know what to do with the newly restored mansion. With that price, and the scarce number of tourists coming to Bitonto, the income can't even cover half of the expenses he has only for the staff, let alone the restoration.
Bitonto is still a somewhat problematic place, though. Once it was among Puglia's worst (and Puglia was probably Italy's most crime-ridden region, back then, in the 1980s and 1990s), and today, it's one of Puglia's relatively few towns and cities where that recent past (shaped by extreme poverty, petty crime, closed and crumbling sights, neglect and decay) can still be felt, though the whole historic center is now as brilliantly restored as that B&B. Generally, the change that Puglia has undergone, at an amazing speed, has to be seen to be believed. Twenty years ago, this was a region where it was almost impossible to get any pasta at any restaurant other than "al ragù" (minced meat & tomato), "al sugo" (tomato only) or "all'arrabbiata" (tomato & hot peppers) - people were simply to poor to eat at a restaurant, and thus was the restaurant scene. Bygone days, fortunately.
Places visited: Bitonto, Bari, Valenzano, Bitetto, Ruvo di Puglia, Castel del Monte, Giovinazzo, Molfetta, Bisceglie, Trani, Barletta and Canosa di Puglia. As far as architecture (and sculpture), this is Puglia's best part. Particularly recommended, in this order: Castel del Monte, Bitonto, Bari, Trani (but see my comments above), Valenzano, Molfetta - but there are wonderful Romanesque buildings in all of the places I visited; actually, just Ruvo is skipable. (Molfetta and Bari are two more places where you wouldn't want to explore the very darkest corners late at night, probably.) As far as Canosa, there are also fascinating archeological remains, but it doesn't make sense to visit them on your own; as regular readers of Fodor's probably know, I usually never use any guided tours, and actually abhor them, but the archeology of Canosa is definitely not self-explanatory (nor easily accessible), so you'd better make an appointment ahead with local Fondazione Archeologica, www.canusium.it - we had a really great tour guided by a graduated archeologist (who doesn't exercise this profession, though, due to lack of jobs in that sector): three and a half hours packed with outstandingly qualified and scholarly up-to-date information for, hold your breath, 16 Euros for two persons. I'm not sure, though, whether those excellent tours are available in any other language than Italian (and restaurant Italian will not be sufficient for that university level lecture).
Meals: one late-night (after restaurant hours) dinner at the B&B, where they offer to use the kitchen freely, with locally produced cheese - those caseifici (cheese manufacturers) are ubiquitous in Puglia, and absolutely worth trying at least once; they're specializing in fresh cheese like notably burrat, scamorza, fior di latte (here called nodini). One more dinner in Bitonto, where the ragù-sugo-or-arrabbiata age is still going on (we ended up having pizza, go figure). One wonderful dinner at Masseria Barbera, see above. One dinner at Hostaria S. Domenico in Giovinazzo, a very nice restaurant unfortunately trying to serve inventive cuisine, something on which Italians almost always fail to succeed. Just three lunches (having had brunch before arriving in Bitonto): at UPEPIDDE in Ruvo di Puglia, www.upepidde.it - very good and commendable, though perhaps not as good as famous; in Trani, see above; and in Barletta at Il Valentino (Piazza Plebiscito 53), a more than decent, honest, cheap, friendly place where the clerks from the neighbouring city hall have lunch.
Olive oil: Masseria Barbera, as above; by the way, I liked the oil from winter 2009/2010 better than the 2010/2011 one, and according to dott. Barbera, the owner, I'm by no means the only one. Unfortunately, I had no time for two other very interesting producers that I wanted to visit, Minervini in Molfetta and Masseria Pilapalucci near Toritto (where they are also growing Slow Food almonds).
Opera: especially for you, ek, I have to add that I saw Norma at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. This was a very particular occasion: in 1991, the Petruzzelli was burned down by the local mafia, and its reconstruction (reopening in 2009) has become a symbol of Puglia's recent recovery after so many decades of really unpleasant life; and the mafia arson happened the night after a performance of Norma. Well, precisely that Norma production has now been reconstructed, as well, same stage sets, same stage director, same conductor (Roberto Abbado, lackluster but reliable); a very symbolic occasion, thus. I attended the opening night, and it was perhaps too symbolic to allow for a really good, unconstrained performance - the whole approach was definitely more academic than one would expect in the Italian provinces. But the performance was still decent, which is certainly more than nothing when it comes to an opera as incredibly difficult as Norma. What is really unfortunate, though, is that the acoustics of the Petruzzelli are a nightmare (I've never been at the old Petruzzelli, so I don't know whether this is a problem of the reconstruction, or an original problem); you feel like inside the sounding box of a huge cello, with reverberations reminiscent of an indoor swimming pool. Carmela Remigio, who is an excellent Mozartian, is definitely too lyric for a heavy role like Norma; Andrea Carè, a very young Italian tenor, should urgently restudy - while he has an excellent, large, truly dramatic and heavy voice, his high register is so weak that he had to skip every high note throughout the evening, and literally left out entire phrases if they were too high for him. As it is, I can't even decide whether he is really a tenor, or rather should restudy as a baritone. Sonia Ganassi, probably the best-known of the singers involved, was a very secure, large-voiced Adalgisa, mastering also Bellini's style very well, even if lacking in delicacy. Giacomo Prestia, finally, made me wonder once more (actually, I've been wondering for many years) why and how such a coarse bass could make such a good international career.

Typo alert: should read "burrata", of course.

Franco this is absolutely stellar information and the details on the food are very close to my heart, as you know. (Not to mention the account of Norma in Bari, which I have to re-read and reserve comment for later.)

Just about your post of 7:09am right now. The notion of the transhumance has always fascinated me. I have an anthropologist friend who spent time in Andorra studying the route in the Pyrenees and who has related some interesting tales.

We heard about the Podolica cows and saw the beef on many menus in Matera,
but until I read your comments here I did not put together that the meat would be less than tender due to the long distances walked by the animals. To be honest, I always thought of sheep in the transhumance and never thought that cattle might travel as well.

The musciska is a treat I've not heard of, either, and something I will be on the lookout for should I be fortunate enough to visit northern Puglia. I suppose that many cultures have some sort of dried beef (or goat); I know that I see it in Chinese and Malaysian stores here in New York. And when you mention rucola, I think of bresaola, which I suppose is a more elegant preserved beef that must be related to cecina, the Mexican or Spanish version of air-dried beef.

I am sure you've seen this:



http://www.presidislowfood.it/ita/de....lasso?cod=338



Again I am moving a bit off topic..please, please continue....

Bresaola, yes almost - but beef bresaola is just a substitute: real, good bresaola is horse meat.

Perhaps I can add another leg of my journey later on tonight, but I can't yet promise.

4. Altamura, one night at www.masserialacalcara.it; nice rooms on a real, hard-working farm in a poor (both culturally and economically) part of Puglia, really nice owners.
Sightseeing: Altamura, Gravina in Puglia, Laterza. You need more guided tours to see the grotto churches of Gravina and Laterza, which are otherwise inaccessible. The sights are rather modest, with the exception of the church of S. Vito Vecchio in Gravina, whose impressive Byzantine frescoes have been completely detached in order to save them from their original location's humidity, and the entire grotto church has been rebuilt in the (also otherwise charming and interesting) local museum of the Fondazione Pommarici Santomasi. I didn't like Gravina, though; there are hardly any travelers so far, and yet the locals already seem to have decided to rip them off. In just a few hours there, I've been cheated twice, just for a few Euros each, but what an enormous difference to the incredible generosity and hospitality that usually prevail in Puglia.
Meals: lunch at Trattoria Mamma Mia, www.trattoriamammamia.it - this was the most insolent rip-off all over Puglia, so hands off this restaurant (even if the food is quite good)!! They're offering a two-course lunch for 15 Euros: a selection (i.e. several plates) of antipasti, and one primo or secondo, a liter of mineral water and coffee included. Now, as you already know, we don't eat much for lunch, and my travel partner wasn't hungry at all that day, so wanted just ONE plate of antipasti - a small assortment, thus; and I ordered my usual primo, so the two-course lunch menu divided between two people. Of course, I expected to pay 15 Euros for the two of us (since we had coffee for two, but a smaller antipasto) - but the bill was 25!! Adding insult to injury, the owner even dared insisting on his policy, "justifying" it with the fact that we had had two glasses and two napkins (and no mention of the much smaller antipasto). Ten Euros for washing one glass, one fork and one napkin, that's certainly European record... Dinner, to return to enjoyable memories, at Masseria La Calcara, our hotel: excellent food in huge quantities, partly rustic-hearty and partly surprisingly delicious (and yes, for standard Puglian prices).

Franco: Masseria La Calcara looks like a keeper. I love the video on the website. As for Mamma Mia, the name alone seems odd for Italy. Mamma Mia might be the name of a mindane Italian American joint in a small town in the US--I would not imagine that Italians would choose that name unless they were looking for tourists. Do you think I am all off base with that thought? In any case, how sad that while they appear to be wanting to attract visitors, they showed the worst of themselves with that crass attempt to extort more money from you.

I have to laugh at the thought of Bitonto, because we found ourselves mired in traffic in that town just minutes after arriving at Bari airport and picking up our car. We saw nothing of the old town and I had not realized that there were such treasures within easy reach. Honestly, with only 2 days in the Andria area, I now see that we barely scratched the surface as compared with your in-depth wanderings and discoveries.

Oh, to have witnessed that Norma, even with its flaws, in the renovated theatre! It never occurred to me to even look for opera in Puglia and how your report! I do not have your knowledge or critical ear and I would probably have thought that singers and conductor alike were marvelous. I did see Norma here at the Met (2009?) and although the reviews were not raves, I was over the edge with joy in just being there!

Eager for more! Your actual travel companion, as opposed to your virtual companions here, is one fortunate person!