Puglia

The heel of Italy's boot: flat, sun-bleached, intensely agricultural, with an olive oil tradition that goes back to the Greeks and a coastline that alternates between the Adriatic's clear blue and the Ionian's warmer turquoise. The trulli of Alberobello are the most photographed buildings in the region; the baroque city of Lecce, built in a local sandstone so workable that the builders carved it into lace, is among the most beautiful in southern Italy. The burrata was invented here, as was the orecchiette that is still made by hand in the streets of Bari's old quarter on Tuesday and Friday mornings.Our Puglia coverage moves through the region from the Gargano promontory in the north to the Salento peninsula in the south, with full attention to the food and landscape that make it one of Italy's most rewarding regions to explore slowly.