Destinations

08 Jul UNDISCOVERED TREASURES OF PUGLIA – MAY 2017

Posted at 07:51h in Destinations by Italian Tours

What a wonderful and still undiscovered area Puglia is, and our May tour this year began in the most beautiful of Pugliese towns, Lecce. We spent our first, perfect day walking with our local guide Simona, a passionate Leccese who has the ability to bring to life the stories and characters of the city she loves so much.

One of the unusual stops we made was at a workshop where they construct and restore carta pesta, the Leccese version of papier-mâché. This construction method has always been used to make religious statues. It’s popular not only because there is no marble in the area but also because they are extremely light and can be carried through the streets for processions or mounted in churches without causing structural damage. Some are up to 400 years old and need constant care and restoration. Others are made new, including smaller models for personal use in people’s homes.

We could really visualise the layers of civilisation in the city when we visited a museum that began as a plumbing exercise. Attempting to fix leaky pipes, the building owners began to dig underground only to discover an archeological treasure trove just centimetres beneath their feet. While the actual artefacts have been surrendered to the authorities who oversee national treasures, the building is open for exploration and we were able to wander though the different layers of Leccese civilisation from the Messapians to the Greeks, Romans and beyond.

Our visit to Otranto, a town south of Lecce, introduced us to a small but famous walled seaport from which crusading knights departed for the Holy Land. We strolled the walls, admiring the blue bay and enjoying weather so clear that we could see as far as Albania on the other side of the Adriatic.

We were also lucky enough to see the Tree of Life, one of the largest early medieval mosaics in Europe that is still in place in the cathedral. It covers the entire floor of the cathedral and depicts the connections of all forms of creation, with creatures as the base and God at the apex and the immaculate state of humanity free from corruption and sin. Figures to the side illustrate ways of behaviour that will help a good person avoid falling into this sinful state, a lesson for us all!

We also stopped into Galatina, a small farming town to see an exquisite complete Renaissance fresco cycle depicting the life of St Catherine of Alexandria, not only beautiful but also unusual in that Renaissance art is rarely seen in this part of Italy. From the religious to the culinary, we called in to a pasticceria to sample pasticciotto, a uniquely local concoction of short pastry filled with custard that in Galatina is still produced by the seventh generation of the pastry cooks who invented it.

Finally we moved on to Gallipoli on the other side of the peninsula overlooking the Ionian Sea. This fishing port is a popular holiday destination for Italians seeking its lovely sandy beaches; two of our intrepid travellers took to the water for a quick dip. Seated along the sea wall, we dined on fresh local seafood before our return to Lecce.

After inspecting the olive trees and presses we had to taste the oil!

Leaving Lecce on our way into the Valle d’Itria we stopped at a masseria, one of the traditional fortified farmhouses that have now been restored and are used for wine production. Our charming hostess Alessia took us on a tour to learn about Puglian wines. We wandered through the vineyards, where a crew of local women from the village were pruning the vines, and learned about the masseria’s vine growing technique. The alberello technique dates back to Roman times and allows the vines to grow as small trees rather than on a trellis.

Alessia organised one of the local village ladies to come in to cook us a typical meal, simple but absolutely wonderful: we feasted on fresh fennel, homemade local ricotta, orecchiette with a light vegetable sauce and a delicious tart, all washed down with lashings of the masseria’s wine.

For the next four nights we stayed in a country retreat near Martina Franca, a beautifully restored farmhouse. The breakfast room is built within three trulli, the typical round white buildings with their conical slate roofs for which this area is famous. Alberobello is the centre of the trulli region and our visit there provided guests with some great photo opportunities. We were also fascinated to explore an abandoned trullo that our driver knew of and see how these now mostly restored buildings would have functioned in their original state.

We also visited an ancient olive grove, with one of the most ancient olive trees in Puglia that is believed to be somewhere between 2500 and 3000 years old and still bearing fruit. The owners took us through their underground olive presses where we could see a pre-Roman, a Roman and a medieval olive press that are still intact. We did of course try the oil from the ancient trees which was very good.

On one of our days here we drove down towards Taranto to visit the MARTA, an exceptional archeological museum housing an enormous collection of artefacts from the area. The collection goes as far back as the Bronze Age, and includes items from the area when it was occupied as a Spartan colony and later roman artefacts. There are fabulous grave goods including intricate gold jewellery of inestimable value, decorated Greek pottery, fine Roman glassware and an actual tomb of one of the athletes from the Olympic Games and his winnings: four huge urns of olive oil!

Looking down on the ravines in Matera

We headed towards our next base at Trani via Bari, where we stopped to explore the rabbit warren of the medieval centre with our local guide and to visit the Basilica of St Nicholas, where we mingled with the pilgrims who come from all over the world to visit his tomb. Although this is a Catholic Church, St Nicholas is revered by Greek, Russian and Romanian Orthodox Christians, who are encouraged to pray over his relics at least once during their lifetimes. Interestingly, to facilitate this the Catholic Pope had just sponsored the loan of one of his bones to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.

Back on the coast in Trani and we stayed in a lovely hotel overlooking the fishing port; from the terrace we sipped aperitivi and watched the sun go down. What bliss!

The unquestionable highlight of this part of the trip was our visit to Matera, where for centuries people built their dwellings into the rock faces of the ravines. In fact, this city is the third oldest continually occupied urban space in the world. It was originally settled by pre-historic local tribes and remained inhabited until the 1950s, when a slum clearance program removed the inhabitants. Our guide Antonio grew up with grandparents who lived in one of these fascinating dwellings and shared his memories of life during that time. Today the Matera is undergoing a resurgence and the dwellings are now filled with boutique hotels, bars and shops, as well as some local residents who are returning to live there.

Our final base was on the Gargano peninsula in gorgeous accommodation overlooking the Bay of Mattinata, so called because it is bathed in morning sunlight. This is area of spectacular natural beauty, with limestone cliffs rising up from water so clear that you can see right to the bottom.

The land rises steeply from the coast to a cooler, greener agricultural landscape, with beautiful forests and cream Podolica cattle, wearing collars and bells around their necks. The pilgrim site of St Michael is located here in an underground cave that is entered through a church above. We descended the steep steps to the grotto beneath, sharing the moment with dozens of visiting pilgrims. Driving back down to the coast again, we finished the day at an old fishing outpost called a trabucco where we had dinner by the waterside as the sun set.

On the last day of the tour, we took a private boat trip along the coast looking at the limestone cliffs, chatting with local fishermen, exploring caves, and arriving finally at a pebbly beach where we had a private picnic lunch overlooking the symbols of Puglia, white limestone outcrops that form islands in the blue bay, the ‘faraglioni.’ We could not have asked for a more perfect way to end our tour.

Our September 2017 trip to Puglia is booked out, but we will be running the tour again in May 2018, so start planning your next holiday in Italy now!

14 – 28 May 2018 – click here for the full itinerary!

10 Jun GORGEOUS GARDENS … AND MUCH, MUCH MORE

Posted at 13:04h in Destinations, Gardens by Italian Tours

Spring in Rome is just about perfect weather for exploring gardens, and this year our group of nine travellers saw Rome at its best.

We spent our time in Rome with our fantastic local guide Sara, an art historian who took us to the little town of Tivoli to explore its two landmark attractions: Villa d’Este and Villa Adriana. These are serious historical sites. Villa d’Este and its completely over the top gardens with their famous fountains, were the creation of a troublesome cardinal who was relegated to this Roman outpost to keep him from interfering in the politics of the Vatican at the time. It’s a real statement of his wealth and power. Villa Adriana was the summer palace of the well-travelled emperor Hadrian, an accomplished architect and art lover. Sara brought the whole landscape to life with her stories of these ancient sites.

May 1 is a national holiday in Italy and the streets of Rome were thronged with people and parades. Sara joined us again to explore some of the major sites of the Eternal City, including a brief but miraculous interlude when we were almost the only people in the normally overcrowded Pantheon. It was a special day mingling with the locals on Piazza Navona and exploring the back streets of Rome with a Roman insider.

A third great highlight was our visit to the Vatican Gardens, only accessible by tour and a welcome escape from the crowds of people queuing outside the Vatican Museums. We found ourselves wandering through peaceful gardens, so quiet that we could hear birdsong, and enjoying the rose gardens that contain flowers of particular significance to the Catholic faith, including one variety chosen by Pope Francis himself.

That afternoon we travelled to Giardino di Ninfa, south of Rome, an abandoned medieval village that is tucked underneath a mountain range and has developed its own microclimate.

On our way to Florence we stopped in at a castle in a medieval town called Vignanello, known for its historic box hedge garden. We visited the castle and rubbed shoulders with Italian aristocracy: the utterly charming princess who owns the castle showed us around!

We had a lovely lunch at a little restaurant that’s been in business since the 1500s, and were introduced to cucina povera, the traditional food of the common people. The verdict? The common people ate well: we had an outstanding meal including a delicious bean stew that formed the staple diet of the local people.

We always love going to Florence because it gives us a chance to spend time with an old friend, Lior, who is one of the city’s best guides. Lior is always keen to tailor our walking tour to the interests of the group, and this group was interested in the history of Italian art. Lior was delighted: his special interest is in Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque art. He explained the differences between these fascinating art periods and took us to Santa Trinita in the centre of Florence where we learned to look at paintings by artists such as Monaco and Ghirlandaio in a completely new light.

Despite the influx of tourists, Florence retains plenty of unique gems, such as the pietre dure workshops that Lior took us to visit and, some of the group would say, the absolutely world class shopping that many of us indulged in during the free hours we had!

There are several wonderful villas and their associated gardens in and around Florence, and during our time there we visited several of them: the Torrigiani, the largest private garden within a European city, where the marquis himself took us on tour and regaled us with family stories; the Bardini garden high above the city where you feel as if you can reach out and touch the rooftops; Castello, where Cosimo de Medici grew up and where our group was charmed by the high school students who were practising their English by guiding visitors around the gardens; and Villa Gamberaia, beautiful even in the rain!

On the way to Verona we stopped in at a traditional acetaia outside of Modena, where we learned how Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is made, sampled some of the goods and contributed to Italy’s gross domestic product with our purchases.

We arrived in Verona to rain and more rain but this did nothing to dampen the group’s spirits. Brandishing umbrellas, our intrepid travellers set off to explore the cityscape with its fabulous urban architecture, glorious red marble pavements peppered with fossils, its central Roman arena and its piazze buzzing with street life.

Of all the cities we visited this had to be the group’s big favourite. And the city rewarded us: on our second day the sun came out. What better way to see Giardino Giusti, a little marvel hidden away in the centre of Verona, with is maze, low box hedges, lines of cypresses that were planted by the original owner to remind him of his Tuscan origins. We climbed the hill for the gorgeous view back to the city. From Verona we took a day trip to Villa Pisani, the fabulous Palladian inspired Veneto villa, which truly took our collective breath away. Our keen gardeners found unusual specimens in the gardens, including an English wood complete with wild flowers; we were also fascinated to learn about the lifestyle of the Venetians during the period in which these villas were built and how the architecture functioned.

The final stage of our tour took us north to the lakes, to Bellagio on Lake Como, where we enjoyed its spectacular scenery, visited the gardens at Villa Carlotta and took a day trip to Lake Maggiore to visit what might have been the favourite garden of the trip, Isola Bella. This fantastic and arguably over the top Baroque garden, complete with white peacocks strutting the paths, was built by the Borromean family on an island in the middle of the lake.

Lake Como turned on the most beautiful weather for the last day of our tour, and we departed Bellagio and Lake Como on a glorious sunny day. The group had discovered not only the beauty of Italian gardens, but the joys of Italian wine and food as well – as one member of the group said in parting, ‘It was much, much more than the gardens!’

We’re running our Great Gardens of Italy tour again in the Italian Spring of 2018 when we’ll be including Castel Gandolfo, the location of the Pope’s summer palace, for the first time.

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01 May AND WHAT DO TRULLI HAVE TO DO WITH TAXES?

Posted at 02:03h in Architecture, Destinations by Italian Tours

When people think of Puglia, one of the first images that springs to mind is a vision of quaint whitewashed, dome-roofed, round houses called trulli.

While the trulli architectural style dates back to pre-history, many believe that the passion for more modern trulli construction developed as an early and sophisticated means of tax avoidance. During the middle ages, landlords instructed the farmers to build the dry stones roofs of the trulli with a removable keystone in the middle and the walls without mortar. When the tax inspectors appeared the farmers would pull the keystone out, collapsing the building – thus allowing the landowners to avoid paying any taxes in what some would describe as an enduring Italian tradition!

The largest concentration of these pretty buildings is in Alberobello, but they are also common across the whole of the Valle d’Itria area, a region of farming and agriculture. In their simplest form they are used as farming sheds and are dotted amongst the fields.

The town of Alberobello is undeniably a tourist magnet but with good reason and well worth a visit. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has hundreds of trulli, many of which are original.

Today the charming rounded shapes and conical stone roofs of the Pugliese trulli are so appealing that many of them are used as restaurants and visitor accommodation.

On our The Road Less Travelled tour of Puglia we not only visit Alberobello, but stay in a beautiful hotel in the Valle d’Itria, Masseria Fumarola, where some of our lucky guests get to sleep under these typical conical roofs!

We’re running our Puglia tour later this year in September and again in 2018:

14 – 28 September 2017
14 – 28 May 2018

12 Apr 5 REASONS TO VISIT THE VALLE D’AOSTA

Posted at 06:19h in Destinations, Food and Wine by Italian Tours

Valle d’Aosta is the most mountainous region in Italy and is tucked away in the northwest corner of the country. Its capital is Aosta, known as the Rome of the Alps because of its archaeological heritage, and it lies midway between the Italian city of Turin and the Swiss city of Lausanne on Lake Leman. The area has become a glamorous ski resort in winter and an unparalleled walking destination in summer.

This beautiful area is off the beaten track for most tourists, however, we feel it’s certainly a region that bears some serious investigation for a number of reasons:

1. Roman ruins
Aosta was once a principal town on the main Roman trade route between the Italian peninsula and northern Europe. Wagons bearing cereals, wine and olive oil moved northwards while precious metals, marble and other building materials travelled south. The roads and bridges that the Romans constructed are still visible today.

Aosta itself was founded in the 1st century BC and retains an archaeological treasure trove from that time including its Roman theatre, the Arch of Augustus and a recently excavated cryptoportico (a covered portico or passageway). The bridge at Pont-Saint-Martin in the valley below was built in the same period and used for traffic right up until the 19th century. Visitors can still walk across this beautiful structure.

2. The Gran Paradiso National Park.
This was Italy’s first national park, established in 1922 on land donated by King Victor Emmanuel III that was originally part of his hunting preserve. The park measures 703 square kilometers and provides a protected area for the alpine ibex, which can sometimes be seen grazing on the lower reaches of the mountains, big-horned sheep, marmot, chamois, and the occasional rare bird such as the golden eagle.

With fifty-seven glaciers, dense forests and lovely alpine meadows, the park also offers visitors beautiful alpine scenery and excellent remote, high altitude walking with the opportunity to witness an abundance of wildlife. A small section is still used for agriculture and pasture and can also be extremely picturesque.

Combined with the neighbouring French Vanoise National Park, it represents the largest protected area in Western Europe.

3. Castles, castles, castles!
A stupendous eighty-two fortresses line the main road from the entrance of the valley at Port-Saint-Martin to Courmayeur in the far northwest at the foot of Monte Bianco – or Mont Blanc depending on where you are looking from! Many of these fortresses and castles are open to visitors and provide an insight into the lives of the aristocratic families who once controlled the territory.

Two particularly interesting sites are Fénis Castle, a mediaeval building dating back to 1242 and built by the Viscounts of Aosta, and Issogne Castle, a Renaissance castle built by different generations of the same family. Visitors can hire a car and a tour guide to visit these sites.

4. Monte Bianco/Mont Blanc
This is the highest peak in Europe and not to be missed, especially on a clear day when the views are utterly spectacular into France, Switzerland and Italy. From Courmayeur it’s possible to take a brand new cable car up through various stages to close to the summit. Adventurers can even alight and walk down onto the glacier.

5. The wines of Valle d’Aosta
There are more than twenty varieties of grapes native to the Valle d’Aosta and the real challenge is to find and sample the wine from them all! Travellers can visit dozens of small family run vineyards to sample their products and of course enjoy the unique taste of Valle d’Aosta wines at lunch and dinner. Our favourites are the Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle and the Valle d’Aosta Petite Arvine.

We spend 3 wonderful days exploring all the highlights of the Valle d’Aosta in our Tastes Tour which runs from the 1st to the 15th October 2017. The tour also takes in Turin, the Langhe wine region and beautiful Lake Maggiore. We still have a couple of places available for 2017 – enquire now!