speaker-0 (00:00)
Welcome back to the Sunshine Travelers podcast. Puglia ended up being one of the hardest places we've visited to describe.
Before arriving, Melissa and I were excited about everything we had heard, but I was a little more skeptical that it would live up to the hype. Some travel blogger friends of ours had written a food guide for the region, so we knew food would be a major part of the experience.
We had seen pictures of the whitewash towns and the truly houses. We knew we were renting a car. What we didn't expect was how many different versions of Puglia we would encounter. It wasn't just beach towns, it wasn't just the incredible food, it wasn't just truly houses and postcard worthy villages. Every place felt different. Some of our favorite memories had nothing to do with the things that we had planned. So today we're talking about.
what surprises us most about Puglia, who we think this region is best suited for, and whether this might actually be the Italy you've been searching for.
So even before we officially arrived in Puglia
We made a stop at Matera on our drive from the Amalfi coast to Lecce And Melissa, this was a little bit out of the way, but it was somewhere that we really wanted to stop and see. And before anybody reaches out, we know that Matera is not technically in Puglia, that it's part of the Basilicata. But if you're traveling through this part of Italy, it's a very easy addition to your itinerary.
speaker-1 (02:06)
So Scott, let's tell everyone first of all, where is Puglia in case you have never heard of this region of Italy before?
speaker-0 (02:14)
Yeah, so Puglia's in the heel of the boot. So if you look at Italy and it's shaped like a boot, Puglia is that region that's down there in the heel in southern Italy.
speaker-1 (02:26)
Yeah, and I think it's a lot lesser known to people.
speaker-0 (02:29)
Well, I think it's becoming more well known and we'll talk a little bit about that in today's episode. But I think it's important to know that we had just left the Amalfi coast, so we rented a car and we're driving from Amalfi over to Puglia.
And so if you think of our backdrop that we're leaving, it's the one that everybody's familiar with. It's those cliffside houses and buildings that you see brightly colored that everyone posts on social media and they want to go to the Moffi Coast for that reason. Puglia is very different. You're not going to see that type of dramatic landscape over on the Puglia side.
speaker-1 (03:10)
However, the beaches and the water when you get over to the coast will absolutely surprise you.
speaker-0 (03:18)
Well, I think one of the biggest surprises really for us was how many little towns we ended up in exploring as a part of Puglia. So we had set out to stay in three different areas. We were going to start in Lecce which is the furthest south.
Then we were gonna stay in Ostuni which is kind of more on the in and away from the coast. And then we were ending our Puglia trip in a town called Bari. So we'll talk a little bit about that and the surprises that we we encountered along the way.
speaker-1 (03:53)
And the reason that we had planned it this way is because then there are lots of towns, not only those towns that Scott mentioned, but there's lots of towns to explore that are close to each one of those.
speaker-0 (04:06)
And that's part of why we rented a car. so in Amalfi, we didn't have a car. we said you don't need to rent a car. Matter of fact, you shouldn't rent a car in Amalfi. But in this area of Puglia, you're actually going to need to rent a car because you're gonna do a lot of day trips.
speaker-1 (04:26)
Yeah, and the only thing that's going to be connected by trains are really the main towns. And then even in some of those, the train station is not really super close to the old town. because that's really what you're gonna be wanting to visit in each of these places, is especially the old towns. And so it would be very difficult. I don't think it's very well connected by buses. we didn't see a lot of those, and so you definitely want.
Have a
speaker-0 (04:54)
I think it's really easy to assume that you're just gonna see some minor variations of the same towns kind of, copy paste over and over again. And that was not we found that that was not our experience at all. Each of these little towns in the Puglia region had their own uniqueness to them, whether it was in the food or the architecture or
the fact that it was maybe more out into the hillsides versus on the coast. And so I think that's part of really what we liked about Puglia in general.
speaker-1 (05:29)
In even the coastal towns I would say. So one day from Lecce we drove and visited a town called Otranto
And then from Ostuni we visited several towns one day, but we visited a town called Monopoli. And then we also visited Polyongno Omer from Bari, or you could do it on the way to Bari. But just even those three coastal towns could not be more different. They seemed to have their own, dramatic viewpoints and things like that. All three of them I think reminded us more of Greece.
than they did Italy with the color of the water and the whitewash towns, but they were definitely not copy and paste. The churches were different, just the just everything about them were different. And so that was I think made this region so unique.
speaker-0 (06:17)
Yeah, and if we compared that to like a Tuscany, I would say in Tuscany, while you have different towns and they probably have different traditions, it was a lot more of rinse and repeat and by the end of the trip it would be very easy to say, Okay, I've seen this, maybe let's move on. But just that was not our experience at all with Puglia.
Well let's talk a little bit about Lecce because that was our first stop. and Lecce is an ancient walled city. and I'm gonna tell you the experience of getting there was one of those things that
made me at least question like, ooh, are we gonna like this? 'Cause the first problem was that we couldn't drive into this walled city and we had to park
outside the gates and take our stuff in we stayed at a an apartment that we had rented and the host sent us a list and said here's the closest parking places and I don't know if we got there on a weekend and it was just busy or if
Those parking spots are always that way, but we couldn't find parking.
speaker-1 (07:24)
Yeah, we couldn't find parking, I think at the very closest one ever. And so we ended up pricking in another one that was just a little bit further walk. Not a big deal if you don't have a lot of stuff. It was always easy to find parking there. so this is just another case where you're gonna want to pack as light as possible. So it doesn't even matter if you're not navigating trains or ferries or whatever, but just getting into these wild cities. And we did notice that there were cars inside of them, but that was
for definitely for residents only that you that you couldn't get in them. So another another thing is if you do have more stuff, maybe thinking about packing in such a way where you could, leave some things in the trunk or something like that. But overall just pack light because that this was probably our biggest biggest challenge and biggest frustration is you're trying to find a place and have all your stuff at the same time.
speaker-0 (08:16)
Yeah. And just be prepared, you're gonna have to lug that stuff upstairs. Our apartment was actually two floors up and so we had to take it all up. On the first night that we got there, we were following the the food guide and one of the bars in there that we had gone to for an apertivo. while we were there we asked the bartender, like, Hey, where would you eat?
You know, if y if you were going out tonight, where would you go to eat? And we got this recommendation from him. And I don't know that's worth talking about the name of the restaurant because I don't know that we would personally recommend this restaurant that he sent us to. when we got in there we saw it was definitely a younger crowd, maybe more college age kids, and so maybe the food was
geared a little bit more to being inexpensive and just somewhere that they might eat. I will say this is also the first time that we saw donkey meat on a menu, but it
It wasn't our cup of tea, but it just goes to show sometimes when you ask people for their recommendations, they're gonna give you what they like, maybe not what they think you would like. And so, that's just how it goes. You may or may not like their recommendation. Most of the time, we hit it out of the park by doing this. I think on this one it was we said it was okay.
speaker-1 (09:35)
So we also found a cafe near our apartment where we'd have coffee in the mornings.
And they specialize in a local pastry called Pastiziato. And so in this region of Italy, we found that the custard in the pastries to be a lot thicker. It was a very dense and warm pastry. Definitely worth trying. But it was just this was I think our first taste of how different and unique and
regional the food here is.
speaker-0 (10:07)
And I think that morning was the only time that we ha actually had that pasticiato. it just wasn't something that I don't know appealed to us that much. Maybe having it for breakfast.
we did find though that they had some really good pastries at that cafe and we went back to that cafe several times for breakfast.
speaker-1 (10:27)
Yeah, but it's definitely worth trying just to see the different type of stuff because I think they also did have some other just specialty things that they made and you could go inside and and kind of see what the differences are. And really in we didn't really find that particular one except for in leche.
speaker-0 (10:44)
And so Lecce has several cathedrals that you may want to go and check out and see the inside of.
We'd seen a lot of cathedrals, I think, by this point, and we still had a lot of cathedrals left to see. so some of those were just quick stops inside. But we definitely enjoyed getting lost in the little streets and and roaming around in that old town of Lecce. And one night as we were coming back to the apartment, we took a side street.
that we thought would be a shortcut back to the apartment and it was, But on the way we came across this tiki bar.
And it looked really cool. And so we decided we'd stop in. It was a Sunday night. It was getting pretty late. I think it was probably around nine o'clock. And we walked in. We thought this place was deserted. there was nobody to be seen, just the bartender on the inside. And so when we walked in, he asked us if we had a reservation. And we
We we we couldn't help but to kind of laugh as we looked around. And we told him no. And so he said, Okay, well go up to the top of the stairs and they'll seat you. And when we got up there, we were blown away.
speaker-1 (11:53)
Yeah, it honestly felt like a Disney ride,
like where you walk through the line of a Disney ride, like come to life. It was like Pirates of the Caribbean Meets, Tiki Room, like I don't even know how to describe it. I mean there were fog effects, over the top decorations. I mean it was I mean it was just decorated.
like just so so well, just so themed. And in the room that he sent us, it was actually packed out. they had an event, they had all these people, there were live music, people s were, dancing, and you would never even know I think this even existed, hardly from the street, which was funny. So I do have to tell a funny story. So I had noticed that they had
these really cool mugs like at the bar.
But it was hard to tell from the menu, what they were gonna come in. And so I felt like, okay, this is part of the experience, right? Is to get one of those cool mugs. Cause we did see people's drinks coming out and just like plain things. Yeah, glasses. Yeah, plain glasses and stuff like that. So I just went to the bar, the first the got the bartender at the front who was making a lot of the drinks, and just asked him, What comes in this, what comes in that? And I think what really like inspired that is because
'cause there is a bar at the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
where it is like that. Like that's a big deal. Like this drink comes in this and this strength comes in that and some of are souvenirs and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, I think he was very confused because I was like, what comes in this and what comes in that? And so he was telling me, well I can make this and put it in that. Funny enough, we were the only people who had these really fun themed cups and so they were probably wondering like how did they get this? So anyway, it was just a very interesting find. It felt like you were not in Italy anymore.
another place entirely, but just very interesting.
speaker-0 (13:47)
Yeah, it almost felt a little bit out of place, but that's what made it kind of cool was because it was so out of place and there were so many people there. And they weren't tourists. I think most of them. I think they were definitely locals. we used Lecce also as a base for a couple of day trips. And one of the trips that we made was down to this town of Otranto
speaker-1 (13:58)
No.
speaker-0 (14:10)
It's about less than an hour away and it's on the Adriatic waterfront. And it wasn't so much of a historic downtown area, although there was some historical components to it, like there's an old fort there. when we arrived, if you walked along the old
Wall of the city facing the seafront, they were doing a jet ski competition. So like jet ski racing. And we saw that the most beautiful clear water though that we've ever seen. Like I'm sure you could see 20-30 feet down in this water without any problems.
speaker-1 (14:49)
Yeah, I mean honestly this area and I think it's because of where it's located, close to the Greek islands, close to Greece, but it really did have that feel. being able to see the color of that water, even just like wandering through some of the streets here as well just gave you that Greek island feel. also some churches that we popped into in addition to the fort as well.
Also, this area is then huge for seafood And so just kind of wandering through, we found a place that funny enough, they were having some kind of wedding reception on the inside. We ended up sitting outside, but just fantastic views and fantastic seafood as well.
speaker-0 (15:28)
The next place that we went to after leaving Lecce was a town called Ostuni. And like I said, it's a little bit more inward and into the countryside. And one of the things you're gonna see in Ostuni is all around Ostuni, they're surrounded by these, they call them Masserias which is essentially a farm.
And some of these masserias have been converted into like bed and breakfast, are part of agro-tourism. we talked in a previous episode about the the cheese making tour that we did, and that was at one of the Masserias called Masseria Fragnite but
We stayed at a Masseria here instead of renting an apartment this time. We decided we would we would go to and check out one of the Masserias. And to our surprise, we ended up being able to stay in what they call a truly house. And so the truly house are these stone roofed buildings that's like they've got a cone sitting on top of them. So they're round buildings with the cone on the top.
And according to some of the stories that we heard about was that these trulies were built in a time when the king had someone who had to approve all new buildings in the area. And so these truly houses were unapproved.
dwellings and according to legend is they're stacked, there's no cement, so this the the cone-shaped stone roofs were stacked in a way where there was a single brick or stone at the top that held everything together.
And if you moved that brick out, then the whole roof would fall down. And so when the king's inspectors would come around, because they didn't pay taxes on these dwellings, they would pull that stone out, the roof would fall down, and so therefore they were not in violation of the the tax laws.
speaker-1 (17:25)
Yeah. And so legend has it. They don't know if really the story is true or not, but it's a very I mean it's a very interesting story. they're absolutely beautiful. So a single one we learned was a trulo, and then if you have them plural, it's the trulys. And I think the most well known town of these is called Alberbello. it has become very popular on social media and blogs and different things over the past
Few years, and I think that's where you'll find the highest concentration of them, such that the town is actually now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But you'll find the truly houses spread throughout the region. The place where we stayed, we think it was actually like a newer place to where they were built like that. So they were very comfortable, kind of scattered around. You had outdoor seating, you could have your breakfast outside,
So it was just a very neat little place. But Scott, our favorite thing, while as much as we loved, you know, sleeping in the little Trulli or the Trulo house, our favorite thing was not having to walk from a parking area into a city.
speaker-0 (18:33)
Yes, that was nice. part of this three month trip and so we're traveling with more stuff than we normally would. And so having to lug all that, from outside the city walls and inside and up in the apartments, it just got old for us at at one point. And so this was a nice break.
be able to just pull into the masseria, unload our bags, go straight into the little Trulo house. but it was also just it was very cute. So the walls are all like cement, plastered walls, and it was a nice comfortable temperature.
inside there. we had a nice comfortable bed. I I think we just loved everything. the setting is on a farm and so we have all the farm life around us. And I think this just felt like a very different part of Italy that we landed in for those few days.
speaker-1 (19:29)
Yeah.
it was very quiet, very comfortable. It was actually very, very large as well. You we walked in, we had like almost like a sitting area and then a whole bedroom. I mean it really was a massive. and like I mentioned, she they had breakfast there for you and all set up. It was honestly if the weather was really nice and warm, it could would be a place where you could just stay. It was called Masseria Cappuccini.
And they had a swimming pool where you could just honestly just completely chill out. Now what we chose to do from there is there's lots of little towns, Alborbella being one of them, Ostuni being one of them, that we decided just to kind of drive around and explore. When we got to Ostuni, we actually decided to, near the parking, they actually had some tuk-tuk, little tuk-tuk tours that I think were maybe 30, 45 minutes, something like that, that would
Take you up into the old town. Now I'm really glad we did this because it ended up being quite steep. but he could very quickly navigate through several areas. And we haven't really done a tour in a while. we've kind of mentioned this before, being on such a long trip, it's not like you want to do a tour every single day. And I'm really glad that we joined this. it was a local guy. he does this as a side job. He's a
med student and he really took a lot of pride in his town. He told us about how Ostuni specifically had been spared from having such widespread death from the Black Plague because they painted the houses, the buildings with the white limelash, which ended up actually saving the people.
from the disease and let this town survive whereas other ones were just completely wiped out. So they have some churches here. They actually have the I think it's the largest rose window in Europe. Unfortunately he said just because the town is so small and they get so many tourists, it's not open every single day. So we couldn't and if you know anything about the rose windows, we've mentioned up here on the podcast before, you see the beauty of them from the inside.
just look like a plain window from the outside. But they also have like a it's the same as like a like a bridge thing as in Venice and just lots of neat features that I think that we would have missed if we hadn't have done the the tour with him.
speaker-0 (21:49)
Yeah, he told us a story about that bridge and it was something about the prisoners would walk across this bridge and this would be their last
breath of fresh air potentially, their last view of the sun sunshine, before going in and facing judgment. And so, that was part of the story of that bridge. But, one of the things that was so sad was he told us that they don't open this church to tours because the tourists don't treat it like it's their own. And they go in there and disrespect it and
vandalize it and just don't take care of it and that's so sad to hear from anywhere that has visitors that come in is that they had to close off something that they're so proud of because the tourists didn't take good care of it.
speaker-1 (22:40)
Yeah, and it just kind of it's sad because like we and we've mentioned this too, like we just appreciate these churches so much. Some people just pop in and out and take pictures and we end up spending a lot of time in there. and it is sad that you don't have the opportunity to visit those places.
speaker-0 (22:56)
but I loved also the story that he told that it's now law that these buildings have to be painted white to keep this tradition around. And it's been that way I think for centuries. So these buildings have been that bright white lime paint.
and that the grandfathers are now the ones who are teaching the grandsons and and granddaughters how to make that limewash paint and how to apply it and all of those things to make sure that that tradition continues.
speaker-1 (23:33)
Yeah, and I just appreciated so much. I think that he appreciated that heritage and appreciated that tradition as well.
speaker-0 (23:40)
So from a Stooney, we're now gonna go to the town of Bari. And Bari I think was probably one of our biggest surprises of the whole trip.
And it's started exactly the same way as Lecce. So it's another ancient walled city. You had to park outside the the gates. And when we drive through town, we realize that all of the parkings down by the ocean front, and it's parallel parking, which isn't really a problem except for.
Like this is bumper to bumper style parallel parking. And the only spaces left were extremely small. And it's like we had a compact car, but it's like we were even asking ourselves, how are we gonna get this car in there? And then if we get it in there, how are we gonna get it out if someone parks, front us or behind us? And so
it's like, gosh, this is our first experience with these towns is we've gotta fight this parking situation and being able to pay for it. Right. So they have all these parking meters where you have to go and and and pay. I think Melissa finally figured out that there was a app that we could use. But even that you're like, Well did I did I do it right?
And and maybe we didn't because somewhere we've gotten a ticket along the way, but I think that was in France.
speaker-1 (25:07)
So what's funny is it's like, can you not all just use the same parking app system? Like then sometimes the signal is not so good and you have to download some app. a lot of times you can do it there, but there's a line now not particularly here, but on some of the other smaller towns. and so it's like, okay, is it faster to use the app or is it faster just to wait in line and then half the time the buttons don't work or so it's just definitely a challenge. I mean I mean it's
figure outable people end up helping each other. but in this particular case because we were parking for several days, it was like, okay, when do we have to go? Because I think this one you had to do it there. It was not an app because we had to go back out to the car and add another 12 hours, 24 hours, what you know, whatever it was. And it wasn't a long long, but just like keeping up with yeah the parking situation.
speaker-0 (25:57)
You know, that kinda reminds me because all these parking meters, we did learn later that a lot of of have an English button. But if you didn't know the Italian to learn that there's other languages, then you wouldn't know to choose the the different language. But I've got another funny story. we rented a car and normally you don't wash a rental car.
But this car that we rented in Salerno, over on the Amalfi Coast, this was the dirtiest car that I've ever seen in my life. It looked like it had been parked under a sap tree or something.
speaker-1 (26:31)
Well, and the funny thing about it was they had to bring it to the rental office. So I don't even know where they went and got it. So it wasn't like the traditional rental car where you're getting a lot and you can see the cars, like you did all the stuff and they brought the car to you.
speaker-0 (26:44)
And so I had told Melissa, I was like, we need to stop at one of these gas stations that has a car wash on them, and we need to wash this car because I it's embarrassing to be in such a filthy car. And so we went to the car wash and we pull up
And normally in the US when you go through a car wash, you don't get out of the car. you you stay inside it. So we were sitting in this car trying to figure out, okay, what do we do to make it start? And so I told Melissa, I say, get out and go, go feed the machine and see if you can make it start. We could not get it to start.
speaker-1 (27:19)
Well, and unfortunately I ended up buying a bunch of tokens first of all, which were for the like the one where you spray it yourself and all that kind of stuff. So I ended up with these tokens. And then this car with an elderly couple came and pulled behind us. And so I was just like, let's just like
speaker-0 (27:23)
Yeah.
Let's go. Let's just get out of the way. Or let's get out the way and watch And so the guy was he he was trying to tell Melissa that he would help her, but they didn't speak, each other's language. And so I had pulled out by that time. And so he pulled in, we watched him, and they got out of the car, they they pulled in, then they backed up.
to a certain spot and got out of the car and came and started operating the machine. And it's like, huh. We would have never thought to get out of the car automated
speaker-1 (28:11)
Or to even have this Yeah,
and to even park it in the place where the brushes are. Like you just don't do that in the US. So he you literally parked it in there and then went to to pay.
speaker-0 (28:23)
But it was so great because then he stuck around and helped Melissa walk through the the settings and stuff like that on the machine. and we finally got this car washed, but it was just one of those fun travel stories and not a typical one because, like I said, I've never washed a rental car before.
speaker-1 (28:44)
Yeah, that's true.
speaker-0 (28:45)
So in Bari, like I said, this this is gonna turn out to be one of our our favorites, I think, and maybe one of our favorite places in Italy outside of Bologna, because I really like Bologna. But in Bari we had rented an apartment. same thing,
You've got the old town, and then outside the old town, you've got this the the newer areas. And I just I don't know that we felt like we were just gonna love Bari, but that night we decided we'd walk to dinner and there was a restaurant that we were going to, and this restaurant served
what they call the assassin spaghetti or killer spaghetti. Yeah, pasta assassina. And
speaker-1 (29:26)
Pasta assassina?
speaker-0 (29:30)
And so this is this is a spaghetti that is fried inside of the tomato sauce. So there's no water ever added to this pasta. It's a dry pasta, and they don't add any water, they just fry it inside of an iron skillet with the tomato sauce. So, you know, there's parts of it that's still kind of crunchy, parts of it that are a little bit charred, and then of course, lots of the pomadages.
Sauce that had a little bit of a chili flake in it. This was hands down some of the best food, if not the best food that I had in all of it.
speaker-1 (30:07)
And we had read about this as part of Puglia. I don't think we realized how regional specific it would be to Bari. We never saw it anywhere else in Puglia.
speaker-0 (30:19)
Yeah, matter of fact, one night in Lecce we thought we had ordered it. and it came out and it was just spaghetti. So we we then learned later that it's gotta be that spaghetti al Assassina. but on the way to dinner that night though, we walked down along the waterfront
and we stopped. There was the little harbor with all the little boats inside there. just this beautiful reflection of the boats on the water.
and then as we stayed there, there's a lot of people that were hanging around. Matter of fact, there's a place where you could grab drinks if you wanted to. I think a lot of the fishermen who would come in after they cleaned up their boats and stuff would stop in there and have a drink. and they just sat around that waterfront. And I think that's kind of when we started to warm up to
Sorry just a little bit.
speaker-1 (31:12)
And it wasn't like we really knew anything about it, good or bad, before we went. It was just we knew that this was going to be the biggest city in the Puglia region because it's also the regional capital of Puglia. and as we have have told you, like we're just not huge city people. And I think after being in some big cities in Italy, it's just like, okay, we like these really smaller places. but it really felt like a like a medium-sized
I guess especially once you get into it, and then I think just with it being in the waterfront, and it was just absolutely stunning with the sun setting and then also the lights starting to come on and walking to this restaurant. So this particular restaurant is not in the walled city part, not in the old town, but is
Called Al Sorso Preferrito. It's actually thought to be the home of or the origin of that pasta assesina. We didn't have a reservation. Thankfully, we were able to get in, no problem. But like Scott said, we had it there. We ended up having that at lunch at another little place, like right by where we were staying. But I think it probably comes in at our favorite, one of our favorite things we tried in Puglia.
speaker-0 (32:21)
Another interesting story about Bari is the neighbor next to our little apartment, like when we first got in there, they were looked like they were setting up some kind of lighting system or something. We weren't sure what was going on. We come out the next morning and it's a full on movie set. I mean, it is full on movie set out there. And matter of fact, they were like,
Come on, you need to get out of here
speaker-1 (32:46)
And then I had forgotten something and I was like, I need to go back and get I don't know what it was and they were like, No, no, no. And so I showed the key and so they were like, okay, okay, you can go. but it was just really funny to be like, it's like, okay, what if we stepped into we're in the middle of a show.
speaker-0 (33:01)
And so
later we came back by and all this stuff was gone. But there was several little ladies sitting outside, and and this is very typical of Bari. I think the older generation, they sit out by the front doors. Yeah. And it's probably because, they don't have air conditioning in their homes and it's cooler outside in the evenings. And so they were sitting out there, and I just kind of mentioned
lady I said, you must be famous. There was a lot of cameras here. And she didn't speak English, but we started using Google Translate and trying to talk back and forth to one another because she was very friendly.
speaker-1 (33:36)
And her granddaughter was there too.
speaker-0 (33:38)
Granddaughter was
she called her granddaughter to come help her. I think she thought her granddaughter spoke more English than she did, but she at least knew how to use Google Translate. Come to find out, this lady was pretty famous for the area. she plays like the matriarch in all these movies. And the granddaughter said that she's worked with some famous US actors. we couldn't quite make out who they were.
But in in movies and that she's usually known in those movies for cooking in the kitchen. And so anyhow, she was doing a T V show and they were actually cooking in her kitchen with her and she was making a regional dish of like greens and beans or something like that. And
So it was just a neat little story. And matter of fact, we went back and I had one of our business cards from the podcast and I said, we're not quite as famous, but here's who we are. And they all, started looking it up and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was a neat, neat little story about Bari.
speaker-1 (34:40)
So I think
we should probably add that in recent times I think Bari has become famous as like the pasta grannies or the pasta grannies for the orchetti. So that's one other thing we have not mentioned is that oricetti in this whole region of Puglia is famous. we didn't really see I don't know if we just went down different streets, we didn't really see like the I would say any of the famous pasta grannies they say nowadays they don't really they don't make them.
speaker-0 (35:08)
making them but what they sell is not what they made that day.
speaker-1 (35:11)
And we did see one little person's apartment where they had some things for sale. I guess the the struggle with this is a lot of people who come are not gonna have kitchens and things like that for and the people to buy and use I mean we didn't really in this particular one it didn't have like a it had like a little kitchen at, but not any place to like cook food.
speaker-0 (35:31)
Yeah, and the oricetta, I think, it translates to little ears or something like that. And it's a specific rounded pasta that's supposed to be good for scooping up the sauce, as you get a fork full of it and you get the sauce on there.
speaker-1 (35:47)
So we have a couple of other, I guess, memorable stories about Bari. Bari was one of the places where we needed to seek out laundry again. And we were trying to find a laundromat. funny enough, this region of Italy is also still very steeped in the tradition of things closed during lunchtime. and so, like we even tried to find we also
needed like a a packing tube type thing at like a something like a UPS store or something like that. And while the hours may say that things are open, they're not necessarily open or they're not quite ready to open. There was a lady in that UPS store but she still had the lights off. We she said no we don't sell that. We saw some but she was like no those are ours. Like they weren't going to sell those to us. So it's just very it's just very interesting. So we did find a laundry. It was a place though where you leave the laundry and they do the laundry.
for you, which was perfectly fine. We are always happy to do that. It was actually raining a little bit. We found a coffee shop just to hung out hang out in and he told us exactly when to come back. We came back exactly then and there was nobody there.
speaker-0 (36:51)
Yeah, it was closed. It was locked. And we could see our laundry inside there. We just couldn't get to it. Yeah, it was all done, folded. he had he had done exactly what he said he would do except for being there. but this was so cool because they just had all these little post it notes on the inside of the door with phone numbers on them.
in names. So we pulled out WhatsApp and started just, you know, reaching out to all the phone numbers. And finally this guy comes flying in on his little scooter and was like, I'm here, I'm here and he opened it up and, we paid him and got our clothes and and headed on. But
For a while there we were just like, what are we gonna do? Our laundry's there and they've closed this place and I think we were leaving the next day.
speaker-1 (37:36)
Yeah, I was like, well, thankfully we're not leaving early. Maybe we but it wasn't a quick it wasn't it was kind of a far walk from where we were staying. I mean not that bad. I guess we could have gotten the car and driven, but it was like, okay, what are we gonna do? But it always worked out. So I think that's just I guess two things that if we haven't mentioned this before, if you travel anywhere internationally, download WhatsApp before you go. Like anywhere they're gonna typically use WhatsApp. It's just fast, it's easy.
you can do groups, it's fast and easy to send pictures and messages even when it's harder to to text and things like that. But then also just like thinking about, I think just being aware of, there's these post-it notes and here's, some phone numbers and maybe just trying to think about, okay, how can we how can we problem solve this situation?
speaker-0 (38:24)
Yeah, and we we say this pretty often, even though in sometimes we might compare things to the way that they're done in the US, don't expect everything to be done the way that the that it is in the US. And like this laundromat, they closed early.
But they had somebody that, answered the phone eventually and came over on his little scooter and opened it back up and let us get our laundry.
So looking back, I think I wish that we had more time in Bari, maybe another whole day. I think we spent two full days there. we definitely could have used a third one. but I think it's also because we just really enjoyed it and and liked it.
speaker-1 (39:02)
Yeah, there was just lots of streets to walk down. There's definitely several churches that you can go in. There's a fort. So there's quite a few things that we didn't we didn't do. We walked part of the way along the old city wall but didn't really have time for the other side. And so I think there's there was a lot of things that we could have explored.
speaker-0 (39:21)
And we were a little bit later getting there because we had done that masseria Fragnite, the the cheese making tour on our way. We were supposed to do it a day earlier, but they called and said, Hey, we've got a school group. Can you come the next day? And then funny enough, when we get there, there's a school group, so I'm not sure why we needed to move it. But we did and it worked out fine.
so we were a little bit late getting to Bari, so maybe if we'd had that time back it'd been good. But I I feel like Bari is one of these places we would even go back to even still. Yeah. And spend more time there. And and really just slow down there.
speaker-1 (40:00)
For sure. And that was the other thing I was gonna say is we also we had an afternoon flight or an early evening flight, but
We wanted to go down and explore Poliagno Amare. We didn't have a chance to do that. it would have been easy to explore also from Ostuni area where we were, but it was also easy from Bari. But that is another little coastal town that does have dramatic cliffs. Clear blue water. we didn't end up swimming because we were going to the airport, but it was funny to kinda watch I don't know if we wanted to would have wanted to swim though. We watched the people
No one very cold. but there was like some little grotto cave looking things and but it was another one that just reminded us so much of Greece as well.
speaker-0 (40:34)
It's more fun to watch.
It's it's like these high walled caverns and there's a little beach area right in between there. And we were there during shoulder season and this beach was packed out. I mean it was shoulder to shoulder, so I can only imagine what it's like during the summer there. But once again, the clearest water you've ever seen in your life, it did look very inviting, I will say.
speaker-1 (41:09)
One thing to note is that if you want to do boat trips to see it from the water, those leave from Monopoli We had seen those. Monopoli is just south of this town. and so you could I think for pretty inexpensive you could do like a little boat trip. But we saw lots of people where they would they would come up to that area on the boat and and just kind of see that clear water.
speaker-0 (41:30)
And from the town there's a couple of places that overlook this and have stunning views that you can take pictures from of this space. You can also walk around to the other side. There's a
There's like a statue there and I d I don't remember what the statue was, but I think it was like some kind of victory statue. The guy's got his hand raised and but you can walk down below that. It took you out onto the rocks.
in these rocks are where we saw people jumping into the water. So, the the cliff diving was from over on that side and you could you could be right there watching it up up close and personal.
speaker-1 (42:10)
And so right there at that place where Scott mentioned was the statue. the Via Francingina that we had actually walked part of in Tuscany actually passes through this town and other towns on its way down to the very tip of that boot as well. So that was neat just to to see part of that trail again.
speaker-0 (42:30)
I do want to talk a little bit though, because we skipped over this when we were talking about Al Robello.
There was a restaurant there in Alborbello. we had we had stayed kind of late over in the little village looking at the Trulli houses. And as we were leaving, we noticed that the restaurants were all starting to close. And so like Melissa said, they closed down for lunch, but they also closed early. This wasn't a this part of Italy is not a late night spot.
and so we were like, no, what are we gonna do? And
There's a little restaurant there called La Lira Facacheria. And I don't think this thing probably would have grabbed our attention, except for all the other restaurants were closing and they were still open. And we go down in to this little small restaurant and it's a guy behind the counter and he's got like a
glass window and there's some small pizzas inside there, but these pizzas aren't your traditional pizza that we had seen, real thin crust. These were made and had a facaca crust on And we love focaccia bread, so
it piqued our interest. Well, we noticed there was a window to the side and every few minutes they would hand a new pizza through this window and he was like,
Yeah, it's kind of first come, first serve on these pizzas. And every few minutes we have a different one who that comes out. And so if you don't like what we currently have, just wait a minute and the next one may be something that you enjoy. And so we tried some of the ones he had, and then he would tell you like the next one should be this or that type pizza.
And we just absolutely enjoyed it. And this is one of those places that like I said, we wouldn't have gone to, we have totally missed, but ended up being kind of a highlight of that part of the trip.
speaker-1 (44:24)
And he called them Foca Pizzas. And he also did tell us that if you wanted to order something specific, they would fix it for you. But you had to you had to buy the whole thing and then you would just have to wait until it was ready. And funny enough, it was they weren't gonna be open very much longer either. And so he was just like, just keep up like get with what you want and then you can come back and get some more and then you can just pay at the end. Well then at the end he was having trouble like
you had this and this and this. And I thought to myself, how does he keep up with this? But he did tell me, he said, during the day we're so busy that you pay as you you have to pay as you go. But he said, since we're not very busy right now and there's not a lot of people, I'll let you do it this way. but just just very interesting. it was, yeah, that really became, I think, one of our most memorable. The other thing that they sold there, so they have in this whole region they have little
they're crackers but they're in they make the dough before they bake it in like a rounded shape and you can get them plain or they do them with different herbs and things like that but we had some of theirs and ended up carrying them with us and they became one of our very favorite snacks they're absolutely delicious
speaker-0 (45:36)
So who would you say that Puglia is good for?
speaker-1 (45:40)
So I think if you really love food and want to try some just really unique and authentic Italian food that's very not only I wouldn't say regional but absolutely hyper regional. I think that's wow I keep describing this. The food and the the things that we saw in lecce versus
The food that we saw and tasted in Lecce was different from Ostuni, was different from Bari, was different from the coastal towns of Otronto, which were more seafood. It's just really very specific regional. And I think that just comes from, you know, many, many, many years ago, the towns it being hard to get from one place to the other. and then you had just the different food traditions and things like that. I think if you
really are looking for a very authentic Italy. that so while the towns do get busy with different tour groups and people doing day trips, it's very different from being in Rome or Florence or big places like that. And so if you've never been to Italy and that's kind of what you're looking for, I would recommend it on a first trip. Or if you've been
Italy and you've done Rome and you've done Florence and you really want to have a taste of a very local, authentic, regional place, then definitely put Puglia on your list.
speaker-0 (47:02)
I'd say it's also good for slow travelers, people who want to come, unpack their bags, stay a while, and just do some of those day trips to see very unique and different places. And I mean, technically you could drive most of Puglia in it as day trips, but I think staying in those little regional areas that we talked about.
You know, Lecce in the south, Stuni in the central, in Bari in the north. that gives you the opportunity, if you'll just stay there for a little bit of time, unpack your bags and just enjoy those towns. you would really like Puglia. there was one town called Cheglia Mesopica.
And we went there and it was in the heat of the day, everything was closed, and I was like, this place is a wash, let's get out of here. And Melissa convinced me to go back in the evening, and we did. We found this little restaurant. We ducked in there, the owner greeted us at the door.
He even kinda joked, asked us if we spoke Italian. and then he told us in English that he only speaks Italian. He doesn't speak any English. ⁓ he was definitely a jokester, but you know, you could tell he was hands on in the running of this restaurant. the menu was written on the wall.
speaker-1 (48:17)
He was a joke.
speaker-0 (48:27)
chalkboard and that was the menu. It changed every day and it was just the ingredients that they had. And it was all local cuisine and I think just little surprises like that along the way. I think that's exactly what you can expect from pool.
speaker-1 (48:45)
You also are not gonna find any big hotels or hotel chains or anything like that. besides I think like most people finding the Masserias or different little apartment rentals and things like that. I don't did you ever see any hotels really or anything like that? If so, they wouldn't have been in the old town where you
Like with where where you'd really want to be. Where you would
speaker-0 (49:11)
There
were hotels but I think they weren't the chains that you would see in other
speaker-1 (49:16)
And so the other
thing I would say is we also found Puglia to be especially with the places to stay very inexpensive. probably the food in line with the the other places we have been or slightly, less expensive than other places in Italy too.
I also would definitely try to go not in the heat of the summer. I think it would get very hot unless you are there specifically to go to those beaches when the the water might be a little warmer.
speaker-0 (49:44)
The the cleanest, clearest water I've ever seen in my life. So I would go there in the summer just to swim in that water.
So is Puglia the Italy that you've actually been searching for? Maybe. Not because it's better than other parts of Italy, and not because it has the most famous landmarks. Puglia reminded us that there isn't just one Italy.
We arrived expecting whitewashed towns, truly houses, and great food. We left with stories about a med student preserving traditions in a stoony, a tiki bar hidden in leche, where you didn't expect it, foca pizza in Albarobello, an actress next door in Bari, and a scooter rescue mission to recover our laundry.
If you're willing to leave room for a few detours, Puglia might just be the part of Italy that you didn't know that you were actually looking for. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Sunshine Travelers Podcast. And until next time, safe travels.
Speaker 1 (50:49)
Well that's it for today's episode. Wherever you're listening from, we hope we've added a little spark to your travel dreams today.
Speaker 2 (50:56)
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Speaker 2 (51:23)
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