The un-tourist’s guide to Europe: Puglia

Editor’s note: Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan has long been one of our favourite writers and people. She also has the greatest virtue of a traveler: a wide-ranging curiosity and interests. Meenakshi is most serendipitously living in Berlin—so we shanghaied her into writing a series of personal, unique, ‘un-tourist’ guides to cities in her backyard.

In this guide to Puglia, the “heel of the boot”, she takes us through this beautiful region in southern Italy where time slows down and you can gorge on exquisite food, bicycle your way through the countryside, and discover hidden parts of yourself.

Written by: Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

*****

Last summer, in one of those strokes of luck that occasionally brighten up your life, we got a chance to stay for two weeks for free in the “heel” of Italy’s boot. Apulia or Puglia is gorgeous and rural, kilometres of coastline, delicious local food and white stone villages dot the entire region. It’s quite far flung and can be a little intimidating, so I thought I’d break it down for you so you too can have a “dolce vita” holiday, eating fresh figs off the trees, swimming in the calm blue Adriatic and ending each day with a large light meal which will spoil you for Italian food anywhere else. 

A disclaimer

This is a very specific holiday and won’t be fun for all—for instance, if you enjoy your time in Europe traipsing around museums or otherwise getting some culture in, or if you’re travelling in a large group especially with small children, or less mobile adults, and none of you has a driver’s license. I’d recommend it instead for solo or smaller group travel, if there are two of you, it’s perfect. I’d also say if you’ve done Rome (see the travel guide here) and Venice and all those other Italian bucket list places, if you want a place to unwind. If your travel goals don’t go beyond reading everything you stockpiled on your Kindle, eating large plates of food and having a regular afternoon siesta, then come, we can chat about Puglia. 

(For the rest of you, I have other travel guides to busy cities, which also I love!)

You can read Meenakshi's guide to the Spanish Coast here, or her guide to Berlin here. And don't miss out on her guide to Warsaw, of course!

Where to stay

First, pick a place to stay. Our stay was in the Brindisi district, very close to a small whitewashed town called Ceglie Mesapica. This was a nice place to stay because it wasn’t too far from the main road, although it was tucked in, which meant we could catch a bus when we wanted to get in and out. (See getting around below.) However, it was just remote enough that had we not had access to our hosts’ electric scooter, we wouldn’t have been able to do any grocery shopping let alone go to the beach (several kilometres away.) What you have to decide on, in the end, is if you’d rather have a coastal experience or a rural one. There’s something to be said for both.

The tiny coastal towns (I’d suggest Monopoli or Gallipoli for classic Italian small beach town experience, the other town close by is Bari, but it’s relatively big in comparison so feels already like you’re in a city) are convenient, depending on where you stay you can walk down to the beach or there will be local buses. If you have a license—you might have to convert your Indian one into an international permit—you can even rent a scooter and zip around, feeling very Audrey Hepburn the entire time. But these are town-towns, if you know what I mean, they’re idyllic but busy, lots of local commerce, lots of tourists, both Italian and from around the world.  

One amazing thing about Italy is the introduction of something called “agroturismo” which, like it sounds, is a farm stay. There’s a neat little website (here) and you can search for wherever you’d like to stay. Some are posh—with pools and spas—others are just home stays, but they’re peppered all over Puglia (and the rest of Italy too for that matter) and can be literal oases for an area with not that many good hotels. Plus often you get the whole farm experience without actually having to be a farmer, the hearty home cooked meals, the livestock outside, birdsong in the morning and so on. There were several of these stays on the same road as our house sit, so we often saw people lounging by the pool out by the olive trees. (Yes, I was jealous, but I solved it by going to the sea.) 

Getting around

Of course, the easiest thing is if you have a valid driver’s license and you can rent a car for the duration of your trip. You can fly into Brindisi or Bari and drive into wherever takes your fancy. You already know this, and so I don’t need to spell it out.

But what of the rest of us? Is rural Puglia ruled out for us forever? Thankfully, no! To get to Puglia is very easy, trains connect almost all of it, and in our case, we took a train down from Rome to Brindisi. From there, there are regular buses, not super-frequent, say once every half an hour during a busy time and once every hour otherwise, which run into the village. (You’ll need to look up a time table a little like this one.) To get to the beaches if you’re inland requires some more savvy planning—you might have to change buses and walk the last kilometre—but it’s not impossible. However, I’m not going to sugarcoat it: it’s definitely more fun with some method of getting around, even if it’s a bicycle. The roads are actually quite safe, so there’s no need to worry on that account. Bear in mind if you’re going in summer, the days are hot and the nights are sometimes jacket-wearing cool, so dress appropriately. 

One last thing: brush up on your Italian or make sure your phone data is adequate because this is a part of Italy frequented mostly by Italians, so you may have to communicate with a combination of sign language and Google Translate, especially with the older people. 

What to eat

Normally I’d have a “what to do” section that included museums and walking tours, but this is rural Puglia we’re talking about. The best cultural experiences you’re going to have here are through the mouth. I suggest you start by watching the Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown episode set in Puglia. (Watch for free on YouTube here.)

Orecchiette translates to “little ears” and you’ll find it all over the region, with some squares filled with grandmothers rolling it out right in front of you. This is simple food, you might even think it’s a bit dull compared to the heavy sauces and rich flavours of other Italian food that’s so famous around the world. Instead this pasta, made with just flour and water, is tossed with a little tomato and olive oil. Sometimes there are variations of this, but it’s essentially that sort of dish, chewy and delicate, it goes very well with fresh veg and cheese or with a light tomato sauce.

Seafood! You’re so close to the coast, it would be a shame not to eat any fish. Especially try the mussels, and don’t be shy to use your bread to soak up the last of the sauce. 

Panzerotti is sort of like an empanada, sort of like a large samosa, a deep fried dough pocket stuffed with mozzarella and tomato, perfect for snack time. Speaking of snack time, don’t sleep on the Italian brands of chips, my favourite is called San Carlo which I grew quite addicted to, buying several bags at a time in all the different exciting flavours.  

This is where burrata, that silky melting mozzarella adjacent cheese comes from, and so all the supermarkets and local shops will sell you a packet, with the cheese resting in liquid that you throw out and then just eat the whole ball with bread, if you must, but I could also just devour it with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and then go to work with my spoon.

And for sweets, try pettole, fried dough balls sprinkled with sugar—but they also do savoury versions. 

Benvenuta as the Italians say! Have a wonderful time. 

*****

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan is the author of eight books, across genres: literary fiction, mythological reinterpretations, young adult and short stories. Her latest book is ‘Soft Animal’, published by Penguin Random House in 2023. She lives in Berlin and writes about it in her newsletter The Internet: Personified.