Lunch in Taranto before heading home to put Puglia Guys countryside HQ. Spaghetti cozze €4,50 Involtino di cavallo €7 We love the mussel of Taranto. Puglia’s finest.

Borgo antico, Taranto, Puglia.

Taranto’s Christmas season starts on 22nd November, the feast of Saint Cecilia. The longest Christmas season in Italy. Santa Cecilia is processed and local residents open their doorways to offer pettole, small golden fritters, to passers-by. Christmas in Puglia has officially started.

Addio a Ornella. 1934-2025.

Today’s lunch was another restaurant we probably won’t include in our guides. Food, service and value was top! But it’s really local, for nearby workers and residents. The prices reflect that, and while tourists would certainly love it, we don’t think that it’s fair. Doing the right thing?

Quite a busy restaurant, not one that would be on most tourists’ radar. Two things we love about the menu: 1. Certain dishes only on certain days. 2. Local prices - just take a look. #Taranto #Puglia

A first for us. Looks like an English fry-up breakfast pizza. We have yet to find out where… but we are certainly up for it! Just add some Daddies or HP brown sauce!

Tomorrow’s Feast of Saint Cecilia, marks the start of Taranto’s Christmas celebrations, the longest in Puglia. At 3am bands begin their march through the city streets. As daylight spreads, fried pettole, dusted with sugar or drizzled with honey are offered. www.pugliaguys.com/2025/11/03/c...

Visiting Puglia? We just write about our region. We are not tour guides, trip advisors. We have no product or services to sell. Yet, ours seem to be valued and helpful guides for those planning a vacation in Puglia. Here’s what our readers have to say. #Italy #TravelAddicts

Ooops! I thought that I was buying Lucozade, the one for the poorly. That my Scottish Nonna would give me, when I was very under the weather, and away from home. Not in Puglia. Turns out that my purchase was not Lucozade. 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️ #Prosecco

Locorotondo in the Itria Valley is distinctive for its whitewashed buildings with cummerse roofs (from Latin cum vertice), steeply pitched-roofed houses. These structures are found almost exclusively in Locorotondo, and a few nearby hamlets, creating one of the most distinctive skylines in Puglia.

Rainy days in Puglia are well suited to a pizza lunch in Locorotondo. Pizza “sciamanìnne” (dialect for “let’s go!”) Pomodoro, fior di latte, salame piccante, peperoni. Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, spicy sausage, peppers. € 9,00

We are always thrilled when someone feeds back on how helpful our suggestions for a visit to Puglia are. Whether you’re planning a visit, or looking for recommendations when you are here, our Puglia Guys guides to Puglia are packed full of local tips and insights. #TravelAddicts #ItalyTrip

A very Puglia breakfast. Including fior di latte mozzarella, capocollo di Martina Franca and a pasticciotto (or two).

Yesterday in Locorotondo we enjoyed a classic Puglia cucina povera antipasti for lunch. Simple, local, delicious.

Puglia travel tips for 2026. Looking for a central base with easy access to public transport, and train connections via Brindisi to Bari and Lecce, and to Taranto? With a vibrant and compact historic centre, but off the main tourist track? How about Mesagne? www.pugliaguys.com/2025/11/14/m...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Puglia. Locorotondo in Puglia’s Valle d’Itria is well known for its festive displays and Christmas lights. It starts off, in mid-November, Puglia’s Christmas season. Next stop: Taranto for a 4am start on 22 November when we celebrate St. Cecilia.

Mesagne, Puglia - population just under 27,000, number of churches, just over 50. This is the Chiesa Matrice. The mother church, dominating Piazza IV Novembre.

Puglia, Italy. A happy place. Where we live.

Foggia doesn’t get much love. Not many visit from elsewhere in our region, nor do many tourists, unless to trace family roots. But Puglia Guy team member Andrea studies there, and Henry (the dog) rather liked it! Read about Henry’s visit below.

Mesagne, Puglia. Or as locals fondly refer to their home town, Mesangeles. #WeAreInPuglia #Italy

New Puglia Podcast episode. Not everyone visiting Puglia wants to go it alone. Some travellers prefer the security and structure of a guided experience. We speak with Luca Oliva of Puglia With Locals, a specialist travel designer and certified tour leader. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Welcome to the South. #Puglia #Mesagne

Lunch today was super delicious. On the point of ordering something else, the server suggested something off menu. Truly a celebration of Puglia. And with the mussels from Taranto, making it totally a celebration of surf and turf. Spaghetti with cime di rapa and cozze tarantine. #ItalianFood

Today’s Puglia road trip will take us along and put us on the Via Appia, somewhere between Tarentum (Taranto) and Brundisium (Brindisi). If you haven’t yet discovered the most comprehensive Roman Road project, be sure to visit itiner-e.org #ItalyTravel #TravelAddicts #TravelBloggersCommunity

Tomorrow’s destination for some more baroque churches in Puglia.

What a difference a week makes. Our dried fruits, enjoying a pre-Christmas bath in their favourite Puglia liquors. We’re just a week away from the start of our Puglia Kitchen Christmas baking.

Tomorrow a few of the team are taking a 16km trip to a nearby town that we regularly visit. But this time we’ll stay overnight to experience it as a destination for our Puglia guides. Because we always pay for accommodation we do a lot of travelling off season for more affordable accommodations!

Orecchiette with cime di rapa, garlic, anchovy and chilli is Puglia’s signature winter pasta — simple, bitter, salty and utterly satisfying. A seasonal favourite in our Puglia Kitchen. #ItalianFood #recipeoftheday #FoodSky www.pugliaguys.com/2025/11/08/p...

Orecchiette con cime di rapa. The most iconic of Puglia’s regional dishes. Our #PugliaKitchen recipe will follow shortly- after we have digested and enjoyed this queen of Puglia’s dish!

For lunch in the Puglia Kitchen we are cooking Puglia’s most iconic pasta dish. Orecchiette with cime di rapa (and no, it’s not turnip tops)! Luigi has decided that Lulu doesn’t have the #caturday monopoly on the cime: he loves it too!

You can tell Lulu is a Puglia cat. She loves her cime di rapa! #Caturday #PugliaKitchen

Fish on Friday in the Puglia Kitchen.

Another rustic but flavour packed lunch at the most local Of local spots in Ostuni. After some discussion we have decided against adding it to our Puglia Guys Ostuni guide. It would change the nature of the place, and it would be lost to the locals!

From late November through early January, towns and villages across Puglia light up for Christmas. One of the first to officially welcome Christmas is Taranto. At 3 a.m. on 22 November, the bands strike up and the city wakes to the scent of frying pettole. www.pugliaguys.com/2025/11/03/c...

There’s nothing better than a Halloween film. One that creeps, or slashes. But the scariest film that we watched this Halloween was, by far, and probably for many years (and at least the next 3-ish), A House of Dynamite.

Our Christmas baking is a little behind schedule. Suddenly it’s the day after tutti i santi, and we need to get back on schedule. Soaking our dried fruits (including our Puglia Kitchen garden dried figs) with a very Puglia liquor: Elisir San Marzano, from the town of its name in Taranto.

Cooking in the Puglia Kitchen. The soffritto - it’s not about sweating the trinity of onion, carrots and celery. It’s slowly frying it off until it becomes fragrant and starts to stick to the base of the pan. Slow and steady, like life in Puglia. Herbs added 15 mins in. #ItalianFood #foodie

We’ve known for days what this week’s Puglia Kitchen Sunday lunch is going to be. Now it’s Puglia’s “not-summer” season, comfort eating soul-food comes top of the list. #ItalianFood #recipeoftheday #foodsky www.pugliaguys.com/2025/03/01/p...

We finally got round to updating our Taranto guide with an excellent further accommodation and restaurant recommendation following our September stay. Don Alfredo B&B Trattoria al Pescatore #Puglia #Italy www.gaypugliapodcast.com/2023/01/10/t...

Happy Halloween from our Puglia Kitchen garden.

This is Padre Pio. Who battled with demons in Puglia. Made a saint by Pope John Paul II - his troubled story tells of evil in Gargano, the spur of Italy’s boot. Pio’s stigmata bled until his death. In 1968. His was a contemporary battle against demons, one recognised by the church of Rome.

And so it is that the last of our Puglia Kitchen garden tomatoes are used to make a fresh tomato sauce (marking the last home made fresh tomato sauce for the season). #ItalianFood #FoodSky #recipeoftheday

In this Halloween special we take you deep into Puglia’s Gargano where faith and fear have shared the same mountains for centuries. From Padre Pio, the friar who bore the stigmata and claimed to battle demons in the skies above his monastery, to werewolves. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

On Wednesday we have a super exciting, spooky, podcast episode due to drop. Until then, well, enjoy the hyper-local and seasonal produce that is the regional cuisine of Puglia. Until now, Italy’s secret foodie destination. #ItalianFood #Podcast #PugliaTravel podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

We very definitely come to the end of Puglia’s “summer” season this week. October was unseasonably cold and wet at the start and during the middle but has rallied this last week. At our Puglia Guys’ countryside HQ we close off our pool. See you next year.

For those who want to take home a taste of Puglia, here’s our traditional focaccia barese recipe. Be sure to invest in a good quality extra virgin olive oil from Puglia. You’ll be grateful you did! #focaccia #ItalianFood #recipeoftheday #Italy www.pugliaguys.com/2025/05/13/f...

Two store cupboard essentials combine to make today’s Puglia Kitchen lunch - sagne ‘ncannulate with ‘Nduja and ricotta forte. #pasta #salento #ItalianFood

The city of 100 churches, the majority free to visit. A ticket is required for the most popular, and is highly recommended. As at October 2025 the best value costs 11€ (family 24€) includes one visit the each of the Cathedral, Basilica of Santa Croce, Church of Santa Chiara, Church of San Matteo.

If you are visiting Puglia you can’t ignore focaccia barese. It’s Italian focaccia, but not as you know it. This version is rather special, and specific to Puglia. Here are our suggestions where to try some in Bari, Altamura and beyond. www.pugliaguys.com/2024/10/20/l...