We are excited to learn more about one of our retreat locations, Puglia (pronounced "pool-ya"), a southern region forming the heel of Italy’s “boot”. It is known for its whitewashed hill towns, centuries-old farmland, olive trees, and a gentler pace of life with hundreds of kilometers of Mediterranean coastline.
On retreat we tour through Puglia's famous "trulli" (white, cone-shaped houses) in the town of Alberobello, a UNESCO heritage site where the main concentration of these trulli still stand. There are over 1,500 of these Smurf-like buildings built from large limestone slabs.
Puglia is probably most famous for its olive oil production, producing more than 40% of Italy's olive oil and 12% of the world's! When you consider the temperate climate of southern Italy, with its long dry summers and warmer winters, it makes the perfect environment for over 50 million olive trees to grow.
In terms of pasta, Puglians pride themselves on their orecchiette, little ear-shaped shells that are still produced by hand on a daily basis by many signore. The pasta itself is made rigorously from durum wheat flour, water and salt. Eggs, once considered a luxury, are not used in traditional Puglian pasta-making. We are always sure to fit in a cooking class when we visit!
If Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world, it is largely thanks to Puglia, which produces more than any other Italian region, about 17% of the total! Puglia now boasts 25 different DOC areas and some excellent vintages of its own. The most widely grown grape variety is Negroamaro (literally ‘black bitter’). Almost exclusively cultivated in Puglia, Negroamaro is used to produce some of the region’s best wines. Discover all this region has to offer with the wine tastings we have scheduled throughout the week on retreat.
Our home for the week when we are on retreat is the fabulous new ultra-chic boutique hotel Ottolire.
Deep in the heart of Puglia’s rolling, romantic Valle d’Itria, the conical whitewashed buildings of the famous trulli houses pierce the velvety blue sky. Hewn from the dry stone of the valley and topped with a handmade pinnacle – a signature from the stonemason – these former farm dwellings have become fashionable places to stay for travellers seeking quirky lodgings in the sun-beaten south. The once-derelict trulli houses of Ottolire Resort captured the attention of a local couple in 1973, and after a family affair of painstaking reconstruction, their children have transformed the settlement into a tranquil resort.
Located in the Valle d’Itria, which is one of the prettiest areas of Puglia, (the sun-splashed heel of the Italian boot), this villa is surrounded by olive groves, ancient fortified farms and whitewashed towns spilling down the rolling hills towards vineyards and orchards. Outside are terraces encircled by chestnut and olive trees, a pool that’s large enough for laps, and an organic garden where fruit and vegetables are grown for the restaurant. It’s a stylish slice of rural Italian life, a place to savor simple delights: dappled sunlight on your skin, a poolside siesta in the shade of a prickly-pear tree, a glass of local wine at sunset, and the chatter of birds from the hotel’s surrounding estate.
We hope this little overview has sparked your imagination and that you will join us one day on our retreat to Puglia!