Puglia - Amordivino

Puglia

Population: 4.090.068
Surface (Kmq): 19362
Density (Inhabitants/Kmq.): 211
Main city: Bari (BA)
Other towns: Brindisi (BR); Foggia (FG); Lecce (LE); Taranto (TA).

Puglia (or Apulia) forms the heel of the boot of Italy and has a long coastline, facing the Ionian and the Adriatic Seas. The region is essentially a flatland with wide arid expanses, terraces and table-lands poor in water. The coastal areas are essentially high and, in the Gargano district, plunge steep into the sea; in other areas, they are sandy or rocky, but usually flat. Puglia boasts one excellent archeological museum, a host of cathedrals dating back to the 10th century, several highly atmospheric Greek and Roman ruins, a gleaming necklace of lively fishing villages, one of Europe's largest forests, a chain of medieval hill towns, and some of the very cleanest beaches and water in the Mediterranean. It also has its own subspecies of architecture, called barocco leccese. Characterised by extremely ornate carvings that cover the entire surface of churches and palazzi, its apex is reached in the delightful little city of Lecce.

In Puglia, the megalithic monuments (Dolmens and Menhirs) are numerous and Canne della Battaglia and Ignazia are two great archaeologic complexes. The Roman remains are noteworthy throughout the region. Romanesque art produced magnificent architectural works, such as the cathedrals of Bari, Trani, Barletta, Molfetta, Bitonto and Ruvo di Puglia. Interesting and majestic castles in the thirteenth-century Byzantine-Arab style can be found in Bari, Gioia del Colle, Lucera and Castel del Monte. The Baroque style attained great splendour and left some impressive examples, especially in Lecce. Lecce also hosts the Provincial Museum, with sculptures and Roman architectural remains, and the Museum of the Arts of the Folk Traditions of Salento.

In Bari, the Palace of the University includes an important Museum of Archaeology with relics of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, funeral urns, ceramics and bronze from the necropolis.Collections of coins, vases and bronzes are preserved in the Provincial Archaeologic Museum of Brindisi, while the National Museum of Taranto is the most important for the history of Magna Graecia. In Foggia there is the Civic Museum, with a notable prehistoric section and an interesting paleochristian epigraph, and the Pinacoteca, which houses works of nineteenth and twentieth-century local masters.

There is one attraction that you will see only in Puglia, and that is i trulli. These are whitewashed cone-shaped buildings of stones held together without mortar. They are visible in almost every wheat field and olive grove, where they serve as miniature barns. But they are at their most picturesque when clustered together in the hundreds, to form a town. This is Alberobello (left) and it's a wonderful sight.