Before heading to my friend’s wedding in Piacenza, south of Milan, I took the opportunity to visit Puglia for 3 days with one of my best friends from Thailand who lives in Finland at the moment. We met up at Brindisi Airport on 18 Sep around 9 pm. After picking up a rental car we drove to our little Trullo, a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof in San Vito which is located about 30 minutes from Brindisi airport. I booked this place because I wanted to experience traditional accommodation of Puglia and the location of the Trullo was perfect, right in the middle of the areas that we planned to explore. The host was very welcoming and kind to us. We tried some local fruit from their garden which we very much enjoyed.

We left the Trullo around 9 am and our first destination was Ostuni, a historical charming white town with Mediterranean architecture. We walked around The Old Town, enjoyed the architecture and refreshed ourself with drinks at one of the lovely outdoor restaurants. It was an enjoyable morning.

After that we headed to Alberobello and before arriving in Alberobello we stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant with a stunning view in Locorotondo called Controra. The lady was very friendly and served simple dishes, she spoke very little of English but it was not a problem at all. All the way from Ostuni to Alberobello was beautiful countryside a mixture of farms, vineyards and lovely Trullos. It was a good morning drive.

After lunch we headed to Alberobello, the town of Trullo. The small town has been made a UNESCO World Heritage site for the district of Trulli, with characteristic white conical roof houses and built with stone. I was amazed and fell in love with this town as it was so cute and so dreamy! We were very much enjoying looking at those Trullos. The town was busy with tourists but it was not too difficult to take nice photos without tourists in it. After hours of walking and shopping we stopped for a drink at a little bar near the parking, with a view overlooking those Trullos. It was very relaxing after a long walk. The reason to visit Puglia was inspired by Anna Dello Russo, an Italian fashion journalist who has a Trullo summer house in Cisternino, Puglia. I follow her on Instagram for fashion but she often posts her beautiful Trullo. Alberobello has to be on your Wishlist when visiting Puglia!

 

After that we headed to our last destination of the day, Polignano a Mare. We arrived there around 5 pm which is a bit late for taking good photos. We walked around for hours and after that we had a seafood dinner and a bottle of local white wine; it was a lovely ending to the day and we very much enjoyed it. We headed back to the Trullo on the highway road on the seaside which took us about an hour to reach home.

We planned to visit Lecce before going to the seaside. Unfortunately, we were behind schedule as we woke up late and we also had to pick up my friend’s luggage at the airport so we did not have enough time to see Lecce which I regret. After lunch in Lecce we drove a long the seaside and we stopped a few places included Grotta Della Poesia. It was a beautiful place with crystal clear water. We also stopped at Sant’ Andrea and swam in the Mediterranean for the first time! It was cool but refreshing. We ended our day by having a fantastic dinner (with a few glasses of Prosecco) at Sant’ Andrea with a stunning sunset. We very much enjoyed the seaside even though we did not make it to Otranto as original plan.

We planed to visit a few towns but we ended up visiting only one town which was Taranto. We took the last day quite easy as we wanted to return to the Trullo earlier than the first 2 days to enjoy the last evening at the Trullo. My friend prepared dinner and we were talking about our trip and the old days. For dinner we cooked horse meat which we bought in a local supermarket! Our first taste ever of horse meat; quite tender and not strong tasting – similar to beef. But I don’t think I’ll be buying it again.

It was a very relaxing and chilling evening with 3 (!!!) bottles of local wine. We very much enjoyed the wine even though we had to run to the airport like zombies at 4 am on the next morning and we even lost 10 Euro in the petrol station automatic machine without getting any petrol because of the 3 bottles of wine! What a fantastic ending!

Puglia is very different than other parts of Italy, very rural, authentic, full of history, beautiful and it’s probably the most economical part of Italy for tourism. I found that Puglia was not too busy with tourists compared to other parts of Italy which is one of the things I loved about it. We hardly saw any Asian tourists – we were probably the only 2 Asians in Puglia! The weather was perfect during our stay; it was 25-28c day time and the temperature dropped to 15-18c in the evening which was cool. If you want to travel affordably and love history, architecture, countryside, sea, sun, sand and enjoy drinking wine then you can’t miss out Puglia in summer!

After 3 weeks of travelling I finally arrived at my friend’s wedding in Piacenza. It was a traditional catholic ceremony in a church and after that we went for a reception lunch in a very beautiful castle called “Castello Di Paderna”.  I also found out that Italian people are very good at dancing and seems they have a lot of energy when it comes to dancing. After the first dance of the couple, everybody joined the dance but I did not have a partner to dance with so, I invited the father of the groom to dance with me, after he spun me 3 times I was sweating! It was a mistake to invite him! He was too good at dancing but I was not.  The party ended around 11 pm and it was very enjoyable wedding. It was a good memory with which to end my European trip.

Hope you enjoy reading!