Discover the delights of Puglia
There’s a wonderful Italian word that doesn’t have an equivalent in English: scorcio. A scorcio is a glimpse of something beautiful from an occluded perspective. Imagine the first sight of Brunelleschi’s Duomo as you come down the via dei Servi, or the serene facade of the Villa Borghese viewed from between buildings on the via Sicilia. It feels like, for the first time in a year or more, we are now getting a scorcio of Italy, of her beaches and piazzas, her restaurants and gelaterie, and even though that glimpse is fleeting, it becomes clearer with each passing day.
I’ve spent a lot of time dreaming about Italy these past few months. We were lucky enough to snatch 10 days in Florence, Venice and Como last summer, but it’s the south that’s been calling to me. I’ve been remembering a February in the palatial halls of the Rocca delle Tre Contradi in Sicily, where the sun beat down so hard that we skied down from a smouldering Etna to a sea that was warm enough to swim in. We will be back in Sicily this summer – a Dio piacendo – and the thought of it has helped carry me through this dank and dismal time.
Puglia is where we’ve passed some of our happiest Italian summers. The light there is different from anywhere else in the world, searing at noon but so rich and warm in the mornings and evenings that you can almost touch it. Puglian food is now no longer a secret, but still, the variety and complexity will astonish you: sardines straight from the sea and cooked on a barbecue on the beach; tasting menus at organic agriturismos where they make their own burrata and cure their own olives; tomatoes after which no other tomato will deserve the name.
The countryside is wide-skied and glorious, the beaches a combination of secluded rocky coves and endless golden sand. We have a particular favourite, Lido Pizzo near Galliopolli, and just thinking about the colour of the water there brings tears to my eyes as I write this in the heart of a British winter.
I’ve been dreaming particularly of an extraordinary villa, Il Tabacchificio, a restored 1930s tobacco factory south of Lecce. Surrounded by acres of shimmering lawns, a grass tennis court and a palm-fringed pool, it’s as close to the perfect holiday home as you could wish for. Blushing pink whitewash on the outside, the interior is all cool white walls and stylish furniture. It’s a place you want to take people you love – then zip down the coast to Santa Maria di Leuca and launch into the Mediterranean, or dine at one of the excellent seafood restaurants in nearby Castro, or simply sit under the pergola at the long table and raise a glass to having survived the worst that life could throw at us.
If you go to Puglia, you’ll inevitably step into a masseria – the fortified farmhouses that are called haciendas in Spain. One of my favourite restaurants in the world is in a masseria just outside of Ostuni, Il Frantoio, where I’ve had meals I’ll remember all my life for their elegant simplicity, the depth of flavour that you get from food that comes out of a profound and authentic engagement with the land and soil.
Why not go a step further, though, and stay in a masseria all of your own? Masseria Canali is worth renting for the pool alone – a vast, elegant slash of turquoise surrounded by fragrant herbs and beautiful flowers. The 7-bedroom property is arranged around a series of intimate courtyards, shaded seating areas, exquisite nooks and corners in which to read, to relax, to indulge in il bel far niente, which we all need so much.
Masseria Canali is a short drive from Gallipoli, whose town beach is like something from a Fellini film – long-limbed youths taking dives from rocks while their indulgent, headscarved mothers look on. But honestly, if you’re staying at Masseria Canali, there’s really no need to go anywhere at all: just lie back, breathe in the scent of lavender and rosemary, and sip a glass of primitivo. You’ve earned it.
For more information, visit www.thethinkingtraveller.com.
