An Italian Summer in Puglia

Part 1

Ciao tutti,

Come state? It’s been a while since I last wrote and there’s so much to share. If you’re new to my newsletters, benvenuti and grazie mille for signing up! You can find out more about me here on my blog in case that’s of any interest.

After living in Torino (way up north in beautiful Piedmont) for a couple of years, my Torinese partner and I moved to Rome at the end of April and it’s been a whirlwind few months. Between finding an apartment, and moving to getting used to a completely new city/region/way of life, and the hottest summer in Italy since 2003, it’s been pretty full on.

If you’re travelling to Italy over the next couple of months, please make sure to stay hydrated, and avoid going out during the hottest part of the day in the afternoons - it’s seriously hot! Take things slow, it’s the perfect time to indulge in the Italian concept of ‘dolce far niente’ or the sweetness of doing nothing.

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A week in bella Puglia

One of the most exciting things to happen in between it all was that I finally met my colleague Katy from Untold Italy in person! We jetted off to sun-soaked Puglia for a week in June to finalise all the details of our Untold Italy tour we’re hosting this September (of which we are now completely sold out!) When I say I’m ecstatic about hosting a tour there later this year, it’s an understatement. After 2 years of the pandemic, and a stop on international travel, it just feels incredible to think that we will be welcoming people back again this year.

Our trip to Puglia involved staying at a beautiful Masseria in the countryside, cheese farm visits, restaurant testing, cave hotel stays in Matera, discovering the best focaccia Barese in Bari, sipping on caffe’ lecesse (the only way to do coffee in Pugliese summer), feasting at a countryside Masseria with fellow Aussie turned Pugliese local Nikki Taylors (she helps foreigners buy property in Italy in case you’re interested!), aperitivo in beautiful Martina Franca, walks through gorgeous white washed towns and so much more. If this sounds like fun, have a look at our 2023 tour to Puglia next May, or my blog post on 7 favourite places to visit in Puglia.

Some of my favourite new discoveries on this trip with Katy included:

• The beautiful white washed towns of Cisternino and Locorotondo

• Stunning Altamura and friendly locals: Renowned for their incredible bread, we visited a delicious 14th century bakery called Antico Forno Santa Chiara

• Delicious raw seafood lunch on the beach at La Locanda del Riccio

• Focaccia Barese at Santa Rita in Bari

• Sgagliozze or ‘fried polenta’ in Bari

• Watching how burrata is made at Caseficio Salatino

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The fun hasn’t ended there though and there’s still another two months of summer to go! Since that gorgeous week in Puglia, I attended the Infiorata festival in magical Spello (where the locals create ‘flower’ carpets/works of art made entirely from flowers and decorate the entire town), and enjoyed a blissful long weekend in Ponza, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Plus, we’ve been exploring our new home Roma whenever we manage to brave the heat (it’s now at least 35 degrees celsius every day!)

In my next few emails I’ll spend some time telling you about each of these trips (should you want to visit yourself one day) plus more discoveries about life in Rome. It is so different to Torino that it honestly often feels we are living in another country (each fabulous, just different!)

This week I’m heading to Florence for a special lunch with some Australian friends I haven’t seen in 3 years, having aperitivo with Michele from Intrepid Italian, heading to the less traversed suburb Pigneto in Rome for dinner, and I’ll be trying out my first rooftop aperitivo in Rome with another Australian friend who’s visiting. I can’t wait!

Buona settimana!

x Liv