Mini Travel Guides

Follow me as I journey from the southern tip of Italy’s Puglia region all the way up to the Trento Alps. I’ll be focusing on budget-friendly travel, and I’ll rarely use a car. Along the way I’ll sample traditional foods, visit lesser-known ruins and cities, sample excellent wines, and visit local cooking schools; the entire two months living out of a backpack.

Day Five
This morning, we woke up and said goodbye to the city of Lecce. We have two bicycles, only one of which has gears (profuse apologies to my girlfriend). We’ve given our backpacks to a friend who we will meet up with in the city of Mesagne. Fortunately, bicycling in the south of Puglia isn’t very challenging because the terrain is mostly flat and there are many private bicycling paths. It is a favorite vacation spot for bicycling enthusiasts in Europe. Lecce’s tourist office didn’t have any trail maps, but I found good information through a Google search.

The wind was blowing from the south, which is known as sirocco, and it was actually pretty cold. The nights are still chilly here in early May. Fortunately, the exercise and the sun warmed me, and once the sun was up, the day was full-blown hot. This is my favorite time of year to be in Puglia, when the sun and the wind are in balance.

The roads that I’ve taken are as small as bike paths. They are lined with stone walls that make it somewhat difficult to pass cars. When two cars meet, one has to pull into a driveway. The local drivers have given us the right of way whenever they’ve seen us. Not that they’ve always seen us. Near Salice Salentino, I had to cross a major intersection where cars whipped by at nail-biting speeds. For a moment it felt like bicycling on a major highway. There was nothing to do but wait until traffic cleared, then pedal hard.

For most of the ride, the countryside has been full of grapevines, fig trees, pawpaw cactus, and 500-plus-year-old olive trees. The olive groves seem endless; Puglia produces nearly two-thirds of all the olive oil in Italy. The grapevines are mostly Primitivo, Negroamaro, and Malvasia Nera grapevines, and the city that I’m now in, Salice Salentino, is one of the most famous in Puglia for wine production. The Salice Salentino DOC (a government classification of wine) is made with 80% Negroamaro and 20% Malvasia Nera.

Upon entering the town of Salice Salentino, we parked our bikes in front of Leone de Castris winery, located on Via De Castris 56. This winery is noted for being the first in Italy to make rosé wine, and its story is fabulous. A United States general visited the winery toward the end of WWII and loved the rosé wine (rosé is called rosato in Italy). The winery didn’t have any glass bottles because of the war and couldn’t bottle it, so the general had his soldiers collect empty beer bottles around camp. The first bottling of Leone de Castris’s Five Roses rosato came in beer bottles. Today, we tasted many of their wines and talked about the future of Puglia wine with Export Manager Salvatore Ria.

Now I’m preparing for the rest of our cycling journey to the small town of Mesagne. A friend will pick us up there, and we’ll spend the night at her house in Ceglie Messapica, a small town full of the strange architectural creations known as trulli. We’ll be only a few miles from Alberobello.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com

Follow me as I journey from the southern tip of Italy’s Puglia region all the way up to the Trento Alps. I’ll be focusing on budget-friendly travel, and I’ll rarely use a car. Along the way I’ll sample traditional foods, visit lesser-known ruins and cities, sample excellent wines, and visit local cooking schools … the entire two months living out of a backpack. . . starting now.

Day One
I’m in the southern Italian city of Lecce, in the region of Puglia. Lecce and I have a long history). I left the city several months ago for a job, and though I thought I’d be back often, this is my first time back.

My girlfriend and I arrived yesterday and visited the Antica Masseria Salento wine store, run by my friend Maurizio. He was excited about a new product, orecchiette made with Negroamaro wine. The purple pasta certainly offers a colorful dining experience. Kristin and I wanted a bottle of prosecco (Italy’s sparkling wine) to celebrate the beginning of our travels. Maurizio had a bottle from a local producer. I asked if he had a couple of plastic cups, and he gave us two wine glasses, which he told us to keep.

We decided to go to the park and drink the bottle of wine over a calzone fritto: a fried calzone stuffed with mozzarella and tomato sauce. Afterward, we strolled through the centro storico, hitting all of the best architectural spots in Lecce, beginning with Chiesa di Santa Croce.

In the evening, once the prosecco had worn off, we went to our favorite wine store in Italy. Enoteca Nocco is located on Via Marco Basseo between Via Guglielmo Paladini and Via Teatro Romano, and it’s easily found thanks to the crowd of old men who are always standing around outside sipping drinks. Since I’ll be visiting friends in the coming days, I wanted to purchase one or two bottles. I exited the store with nine. The shop owner offered us two drinks, so we stood around with the old men drinking gin.

At around 10 pm, the usual time for dinner in Italy, we went to one of the most famous restaurants in Lecce: Cucina Casareccia . The food in Puglia has been shaped by poverty and most dishes are brimming with flavor, yet simply prepared. Some of the best are marinated and cooked - sweet bell peppers, polpette (deep-fried mini meat balls), orecchiette with broccoli raab, and involtini made with beef and stuffed with Parmesan and parsley. Puglia’s antipasti are absolutely massive and cannot be missed. My favorite dish of the night was the marinated and cooked bell peppers, which were cooked expertly, with the perfect amount of balsamic vinegar to balance their sweetness.

Today, I’m off to reserve a couple bicycles. Soon we’ll hit the road for Salice Salentino, where I’ve scheduled a wine tasting at the winery that invented Italian rosé. I hope to find a detailed map of Puglia’s bike paths before then.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com

A panzerotto is a fried version of a calzone that is unique to the Puglia region of Italy. Piping hot and stuffed with mozzarella and tomato sauce, eating a panzerotto is a sinfully satisfying experience. Panzerotti (plural) have crossed the Atlantic and become popular in the United States, particularly Texas and New Jersey, but tasting them at the source is always the best. Every city in Puglia has its own version, and, in this way, panzerotti are similar to Neapolitan pizza: Naples is jam packed with pizzerias, but you need to eat at a few to find your favorite. I recently went to the joint that many locals consider the best maker of panzerotti on earth, Pizzeria Romanelli di Larocca Giuseppe Carlo, in Brindisi.

Until recently, my favorite calzone fritto spot was located in Lecce. Lecce, a rising star in the Italian south, provides visitors with beautiful Baroque facades as well as delicious baked goods, such as the breakfast pastry pasticciotto, individual shortbread-like cakes stuffed with cream, and rustici, savory, flakey, croissant-like pastries filled with béchamel sauce, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. In general, the calzone fritto, aka panzerotti, in Lecce are somewhat unpredictable. However, the shop on the corner of Via Salvatore Trinchese and Piazzetta Brizio De Santis has never disappointed me. This little shop makes delicious calzone fritto from 5pm-midnight.

My new favorite spot for panzerotti is in Brindisi. Pizzeria Romanelli is located on Via S. Lucia, a tiny alleyway off of the popular Via Annunziata, which is a street known for its good restaurants. When my Pugliese friends took to this little spot, I felt like I’d just found Puglia’s version of the famous Neapolitan pizzeria Da Michele. For a food lover such as myself, this was incredible. I’d visited Brindisi multiple times over the past three years and here was an incredible, traditional food joint right under my nose. For this reason, I’m calling Pizzeria Romanelli Puglia’s best kept secret.

The little restaurant was bustling when we arrived. There aren’t any tables, just standing room at bars that wrap around the room. Soccer was playing on the TV. Everyone was eating fritta, the Brindisi-specific version of a panzerotto. To help you keep the names straight, the following terms are all synonymous: panzerotto, fritta, calzone fritto.

Each fritta is made to order. Towering boxes of fresh, rolled out dough surround the chef who begins the process. He arranges the cheese and sauce, then folds the circular dough in half, making the traditional, half-moon shape of a calzone. The fritte are then put in the over to bake for a just a minute. When finished, they are taken out and given to another chef who submerges them in frying oil. They come out golden brown and extremely hot. For my part, it took serious self-control to keep myself from biting into the delicious, dangerously hot fritta.

The dough tastes like a savory version of the fried dough, or doughboys, that I grew up with at state fairs. However, when you reach the cheesy, saucy middle, the fritta ascends to a higher place on the culinary hierarchy. It certainly doesn’t have the finesse of a Neapolitan pizza—it is more of an incredible snack than a meal—but it’s high on my list of not-to-be-missed foods in Italy. It turns out that Pizzeria Romanelli has had so much success that it opened a shop in Houston, Texas.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com

Gallipoli is a lovely town in the region of  Puglia (also known as Apulia) – the heel of the Italian boot – and is just along the Ionian Sea. This part of Puglia is known as the Salento, an absolute must-see region and one of my favourite European destinations.

Salento is best known for its beautiful, unspoiled beaches and its stunning baroque architecture. The town’s fitting name dates all the way back to that of the original ancient Greek settlement: ‘Kalé polis’ means ‘beautiful city’. Gallipoli is really a walled island attached to the mainland by a 17th century bridge.

Photo courtesy Lorenzo Milano

Gallipoli is a great town for exploration – lose yourself wandering its winding, picturesque streets.. The facade of the Basilica of Sant’Agatà, built in 1629, is a wonderful example of the Lecce baroque style developed in this region.

Other Gallipoli attractions are the Greek Fountain and the imposing castle. And don’t miss the daily fish market, just underneath the bridge leading to the old town.

Although the most beautiful Gallipoli beaches are just outside the city limits, the Seno della Purità – meaning the “Breast of Purity”, the name is taken from a nearby church –  is within the town walls. It’s a small, pleasant beach where you can take a swim during your visit.

After your swimming, climb up the town walls and sit outdoors to eat a seafood dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking this harbour as night falls – certainly the perfect ending to an enjoyable day in Gallipoli.

Don’t miss an outing to the beautiful nearby beach of Punto de suina, a short drive south of Gallipoli with pretty views over the town, white, sandy beaches and crystal-clear water.

Photo courtesy www.Puglia.info

My Europe travel tip is to use Gallipoli as your base for exploring this spectacular region.  Baroque gems Lecce, Otranto, Santa Maria de Leuca, Nardo and Galatone are all short trips from here. Visits to these architectural wonders are capped off perfectly with late afternoons and evenings swimming off the beautiful beaches of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas.  You can find the lowest rates at Gallipoli hotels using the HotelsCombined metasearch.

If you’ll be further north in Puglia, I recommend a stop at the town of Trani.

This past summer, my family and I were driving from Rome to Bari to catch a ferry. Since we were making good time (not always a given on Italian highways during the holiday periods), we decided to stop off to explore the Adriatic seaside town of  Trani ,  just north of  the city of  Bari in the region of Apulia .

This charming port town, with its long history, is a top Europe travel tip.  Trani first emerged as an important trading post during the Crusades, and later reached the height of its power under the rule of Emperor Frederick II in the 13^th century, when the town’s imposing castle was built. Today, it’s a lovely place to spend a few hours, a day or a relaxing weekend. The port itself is charming, with its picturesque fishing boats, beautiful, imposing palazzi, with their ornate carving and cool courtyards, and tempting tables of portside restaurants where you can sample the freshly caught seafood accompanied by one of the many excellent, local Apulian wines.

Most visitors come to see the spectacular Trani cathedral, initiated in 1099 and completed 1143.  The imposing bell tower was added in the 13^th century. The cathedral is built of local, white limestone, which, like other buildings in this region, changes dramatically in the changing light of day.

Photo courtesy of Trani tourism website

The cathedral is built just along the sea and, in the hot summer months, some of the windows are open and visitors can enjoy the sea breezes and the sound of the waves from the lovely interior. As in much of the architecture of Apulia, an Arab/Moorish influence can be observed in much of  the ornamental elements, particularly on the cathedral’s portal.

This charming little town definitely merits a visit. It’s a nice stop for anyone headed to the ferries departing from Bari or an easy trip or weekend destination for those arriving in the Bari airport.

The Italian city of Lecce, located in the far, far south of Italy, is a city on the rise. Voted one of the top ten cities to visit in 2010 by MSN Travel and Lonely Planet, it has tons of qualities that you won’t find anywhere else in Italy. Sure, it doesn’t have gondolas or the Sistine Chapel. Fine. It’s not even located near Rome; in fact, it’s a 5-7 hour train ride from Rome. And yeah, you do have to extend your Italian-language skills as far as they go, but isn’t that part of what traveling is all about? Of all the qualities of Lecce worth listing, there are two that I should get out of the way first: low prices and stunning architecture.

Puglia, the region in which Lecce is located, is one of the poorest regions in the European Union; this is because most of its economy focuses on agriculture. Everywhere you go in Puglia, you will find groves (more like forests) of olive trees and fields of grapevines. This adherence to tradition is my favorite attribute of the region, and you can taste it everywhere you go. Besides great food and wine, the region boasts low prices. Hotels and beautiful B&Bs commonly run 50-80 euro a night for doubles. A complete meal for two with wine can cost as little as 30-40 euro. So, unlike many of the more popular tourist destinations in Italy, Lecce won’t steal your wallet along with your heart.

Its architecture is Lecce’s primary asset, most of which came into existence during the 17th Century, thanks to a period of gentrification spurred on by the Hapsburg Dynasty. Lecce demonstrates Baroque architecture unlike anywhere else on earth. The façade of the famous Santa Croce church is a stunning mix of religious figures and mythological creatures. The church’s beauty makes it a prime location for Italian weddings, and every summer the church’s steps are carpeted with flower petals. The city’s numerous other churches are nearly as immaculate as Santa Croce, and jump out around every corner. Even the homes in Lecce tout impressive carvings and sculptures because the stone with which everything in the city is made, Lecce stone, is a high-quality limestone that is ideal for sculpting.

I began visiting Lecce in 2006. After seeing so many other cities in Italy, I hadn’t expected to find Lecce’s Duomo or ancient ruins so impressive. Furthermore, many of the other towns and cities in Puglia that I had visited did not have the sheer beauty that this “Florence of the south” promised. But Lecce pays off, and I’ve returned regularly ever since.

The best times to visit the city are April through the end of June and August 27th through mid-November. Summer in Lecce is beautiful and there are an endless number of outdoor events, such as outdoor symphonies, jazz concerts, and cultural arts of all sorts. And the city is very, very busy with Italian, Greek, and German tourists. The best accommodations are the B&Bs located in the city center. They are an unparalleled way to experience the town’s old history.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com

Puglia’s Cuisine is seafood rich and fresh, and that includes Puglia’s antipasti. Ricotta-stuffed mozzarella, swordfish carpaccio, fresh ricotta wrapped with prosciutto and dribbled with balsamic, stuffed mussels, stewed sweet bell peppers, marinated octopus, and mushroom fonduta–the parade of antipasti seems endless when dining in Puglia restaurants. Commonly listed as Antipasto della Casa or simply Antipasti on the menu, these collections of appetizers are often difficult to anticipate if you’re not familiar with Puglia-style cuisine. How could anyone predict that ordering one dish, which is named simply “antipasti” and has a  10 euro price tag, can result in 7-10 small plates of uniquely prepared food? And even if you are familiar with Puglia’s antipasti, you never know exactly what the chef has on the menu. This article will help you know what to expect from Puglia’s antipasti.

Puglia’s cuisine in often referred to as cucina povera, which means cooking for the poor, and the region’s poor economy has resulted in many hearty, vegetable-inspired dishes. The region’s proximity to the sea (especially the Salento Peninsula) results in many seafood dishes as well. Vegetables and seafood are thereby the main components of Puglia’s antipasti. Local cheeses are next on the list, including mozzerella, burrata (a delicious fresh cheese that oozes cream), fresh ricotta, cacio ricotta (an aged ricotta), and scamorza.

Every restaurant is different of course, but almost every restaurant features an Antipasto della Casa on its menu (often it also says minimo due persone, which means minimum of two orders). Depending on your appetite, the antipasti could be enough food to serve as a complete dinner. It is customary to order one antipasto per person, and the food is served family style. For example, if there are four people, then a plate with 4 small slices of Eggplant Parmesan will appear, or 8 stuffed mussels. If you want to share an antipasto between 2, it is easily accommodated for the most part, however, you may find a few dishes difficult to divide.

If you do not like seafood or want to focus only on seafood, do not hesitate to tell your waiter and the kitchen will likely be able to produce an antipasto accordingly.

I like Puglia’s antipasti, in part, because they constantly supply me with new, unexpected flavors, but I also have several favorite dishes. Mushroom fonduta, for example, is a cheese and mushroom fondue that comes in a clay pot. Unlike French or Swiss fondue, fonduta is meant to be scooped out of the bowl and eaten off of a plate. If it is fall, then it is mushroom season in Puglia, and fresh porcini, crimini, and oyster mushrooms are available. Another of my favorite dishes is baked carrots, potatoes, and artichokes, drizzled with excellent, local olive oil and topped with fresh arugula. Puglia produces 2/3 of Italy’s olive oil, and it is some of the best in the world. A dish of stewed peppers, which sounds quite uninteresting, is also one of my favorites.

In short, though restaurant menus rarely explain the components of an Antipasto della Casa, I highly recommend ordering one to sample the traditional cuisine of Puglia.

Baresi cuisine focuses on vegetables, hearty pasta, and roasted meats and it is often served family-style. To get the full effect, my girlfriend and I ate lunch at Vini e Cucina, a restaurant that is popular among locals and known for serving traditional food. The restaurant does not offer menus but simply lists the dishes of the day when you sit down. If your Italian-language skills aren’t all that strong, don’t let that stop you. The staff at the restaurant love to tell you what you want, and, luckily, they are usually right. Just sit down, let the restaurant serve you the specials of the day, and enjoy the experience.

We arrived at the beginning of lunch service, when the restaurant was still quiet. I recommend showing up early because there was a line out the door by the time we left. The restaurant is open Monday-Saturday, noon-3pm, and 7pm-midnight. The restaurant has recently gotten recognition from Let’s Go travel guide.

A board on the wall lists the prices of each course: Antipasti, 4 euro; Primi, 5 euro; Secondi, 6 euro; Dessert, 1 euro; Fruit, 1 euro; Drinks, .50 euro. My girlfriend and I did not want the Secondo course but the waiter wouldn’t have it. He explained that the plates were small portions (which we already understood) and he strongly recommended that we order the course. We had a feeling that we still didn’t want it, but we ordered it per his recommendation.

The antipasti included a selection of marinated local mushrooms, fried polenta, mozzarella, prosciutto, and frisee, which is a crunchy piece of bread topped with tomato, olive oil, and arugula. Excellent. Next, the Primi was a traditional orecchiette pasta with tomato sauce and aged ricotta cheese, known as carcio ricotta. Also delicious. The Secondi was exactly what we expected, and stuffed us to near bursting. The involtini–a roll of veal stuffed with Parmesan–was very good and I recommend ordering it. I ordered the fried calamari, which was a bit too fishy for my taste.

Whether or not you order fruit and desert, they will be served to you. The basket of fruit included a selection of apples, bananas, and locally grown clementines. The dessert was a delicious, flaky, apple-filled pastry.

All in all, the meal was very good and very filling. With wine, it came to 20 euro per person, which is a rather high price tag for lunch in the Puglia region. Vini e Cucina provides diners with a traditional dining experience and enough food to promptly put them to sleep afterward, which is itself a very important Italian tradition that is often overlooked by travelers.

Vini e Cucina
via Vallisa, 13
(Piazzale vicino al porto turtistico)

Written by Mattie Bamman  for EuropeUpClose.com

For the first part of this article, see Truffle Hunting in Italy, Part I

The olive trees puff gently with wind from the nearby Adriatic Sea as we continue truffle hunting. Giuseppe points to a place where he saw a falcon the last time he was here. It quickly becomes apparent that Giuseppe’s dog, Rot, is the more dedicated hunter. Brioche begins to run off on a different search of his own. Rot, however, persists in unearthing truffles. After a while, Brioche gets back to business.

The soil is not as dry as I would have expected with Puglia’s  nearly rainless summers. This is due to an encompassing system of underground rivers that supply the region with water. The region’s soil is primarily composed of limestone, which is easily carved. That such a strange mixture of environmental factors results in the growth of truffles is baffling.

After another half an hour, we’ve found a significant number of truffles: enough to fill both of Giuseppe’s hands. This is how he supplies his restaurant with fresh truffles. The name of his restaurant is Kebabb, and it is located in the coastal town of Torre dell’Orso. There, you can find fresh truffle year-round. You can add it to any dish on the menu for 2 euro. While nothing beats the white truffle for potency in my opinion, black truffles have an incredible flavor. And it’s nice to know that you can get a meal of fresh truffles year round in Puglia.

To conclude our expedition, we drive to his vineyards for a pick-me-up of homemade, sparkling Chardonnay. The Chardonnay vines have been trained to grow in the tendone style: the vines grow high in the air and create a canopy in order for the leaves to shield the grapes from the sun. Walking beneath the canopy of vines, I ask Giuseppe why he grows his grapes this way. He answers, “For parties.” Of course, why didn’t I think of that.

Giuseppe may be one of the only winemakers currently growing and bottling Pinot Noir in Puglia, and his arduous endeavor creates a wonderfully rustic wine. Unfortunately, I don’t see it entering the world market anytime soon: He makes his wine for his restaurant.

Seeing his small wine-making set up reminded me that Italian families have been making their own wine for thousands of years. I ate a chardonnay grape straight from the vine then drank a sip of the sparkling Chardonnay made from last year’s Chardonnay grapes. The wine-making process became momentarily transparent, the taste of one year intruding upon the next. It was as astonishing as snow in Los Angeles, and as pleasantly surprising as fresh truffles in Puglia.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com

“Every day is a good day for truffle hunting,” says Giuseppe Lolli, winemaker, restaurant owner, and truffle hunter. Giuseppe hunts for truffles in the Puglia and Basilicata regions of Italy: two regions where few people know truffles exist. Giuseppe aims to change this. He is the lead organizer of the Salento Truffle Festival, now in its third year, and says that he primarily finds black truffles in Puglia, and black and white truffles in Basilicata. Giuseppe loads his truck with his two dogs Rot and Brioche, and we strike out for the country.

Italy’s best-known area for truffles is Piedmont in the north. The city of Alba, the white truffle capital of the world, draws hundreds of thousands of food and wine enthusiasts every year. Eating fresh truffles can be a costly endeavor—the most expensive truffle cost a man from Hong Kong $160,406—and the average mark up from Alba to foreign destinations is 1,000%. Truffles are sold for lower prices in Alba, and six months prior to meeting Giuseppe, I went to the region to indulge in the incredible mushroom. Unfortunately, I completely failed.

When I arrived in Alba in April, I learned that fresh white truffle is only available between September and December, and maybe January if you’re lucky. Hotels, B&Bs, rental cars, and restaurants need to be reserved months in advance. Certainly, this rarity adds to the truffle’s greatness. Scientists have yet to discover a way to farm truffles efficiently, and white truffles grow in only select locations on earth. They grow underground, often beneath large oak trees, and it takes a very good nose to find them. In the past, truffle farmers used pigs to find truffles, but the pigs often ended up eating the truffles themselves. Now dogs are primarily used.

Back in Puglia, after a fifteen minute drive, Giuseppe pulls off the quiet paved road, on to a dirt road. We bounce along the road–which seems more path than road at times–for another few minutes. We park and Giuseppe lets Brioche and Rot hit the trail. He pulls a pointed trowel from the back of his truck and we walk into the woods. The land is populated by olive and almond trees. Abandoned stone walls run everywhere. Giuseppe points to a stone trough that is barely discernible beneath our feet and says that it was once an aqueduct. This ancient land has always been known as a land of plenty.

It only takes a moment and the dogs paw a patch of dirt enthusiastically. When they dig deep enough to thrust their hungry snouts inside, Giuseppe utters a command and the dogs cease and desist immediately. Giuseppe, with a big smile, pulls out a medium-size black truffle. It smells incredible. Not as powerful as when it’s sliced or grated, but fresh; nutty. It has the character of fresh almond, porcini mushroom, and heavy summertime humidity all rolled into one.

Tomorrow: Truffle Hunting in Southern Italy: Part II

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com