Italy's Southern Charm - A Road Trip Around Puglia

Twelve days across Puglia from the spur of the Italian boot down to the heel, which is the longer and more thorough of the operator’s two trips through the region.

Mattinata opens it with two nights below Monte Sacro, giving access to Gargano National Park. This is the limestone promontory that forms the spur, with sea caves, coves and the old fishing villages of Vieste and Peschici, and it is a quite different landscape from the flat olive country further south. A caciocavallo cheese tasting at Monte Sant’Angelo is included.

Matera follows for two nights across the border in Basilicata, where the cave dwellings have been continuously inhabited for something like nine thousand years, making it one of the oldest settlements on earth still in use. The private tour covers the Sassi and the rock-cut churches with their Byzantine frescoes.

Noci then gets four nights at a restored seventeenth-century masseria, which is the base for the best part of the trip. Ostuni comes by private tour with its fifteenth-century Gothic cathedral and an olive oil tasting, and the Trulli Trail covers Locorotondo, Martina Franca and Ceglie Messapica. Trulli are conical dry-stone houses built without mortar, reputedly so they could be dismantled quickly when the tax inspector came. Lecce closes the trip with three nights, a Baroque city sometimes called the Florence of the South, and a guided food and history walk. Original Travel include the hire car, accommodation, the private tours and tastings, concierge access, a 24-hour helpline and carbon absorption. Flights and most meals are separate. Prices run from 3,200 to 4,150 pounds per person.