in Puglia
Discover with us
the Mediterranean
charm of Puglia !!
2013 tour dates |
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Tariff: NZ $3,580.00 / person for 7 nights |
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Tariff includes:
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Locorotondo
For an itinerary
and more information
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Additional Tours with the Gables |
2013 Tuscan Tours
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Guest relaxing at trulli
Swimming in Adriatic
Group with Murgesi Horses
Guests at Alberobello
Puglia Tours 2013
 Martina Franca |
The compact hill-top towns are a tangle of narrow streets, crowded with white-washed houses, joined by arches and supporting balconies of cascading geraniums. The classical civilizations all came to Puglia, always a meeting point between east and west.......the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, French, Spanish.....leaving their mark on the people, the landscape, the architecture and the table.
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 Olives at a market |
The gastronomy of Puglia is characterised by an ideal of simplicity using
the noblest products of the region.....huge variety of wonderful cheeses,
meats, seafood, new olive oil from old trees, wood oven baked breads and
biscuits, magnificent fruit and vegetables, almonds, walnuts, legumes
and famous wines. The outstanding produce markets are like heaven for
us when shopping and planning our menus. Every dish is a fragment of history
and civilization.
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 Pool at trulli |
Accommodation
Along with the olive, trulli have become a symbol of Puglia. Only found
in a small area of Puglia, these unique circular based buildings, with
thick walls, tiny windows and a conical roof of overlapping limestone
rock are dotted around the Valle d'Itria and we are delighted to be able
to host our groups in a collection of trulli in this valley. These carefully
restored trulli retain their character but at the same time provide all
necessary modern comforts. The private pool is wonderful to return to
after a day of sightseeing.
Itinerary
Situated in the area of the Murgia and in the Valle d'Itria our trulli
are very close to many beautiful towns including the UNESCO World Heritage
Site of Alberobello with hundreds of trulli making a fairytale atmosphere.
The round town on a flat topped hill of Locorotondo we think is one of
the most beautiful towns in Italy and produces a good white wine.
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 Locorotondo |
Baroque Martina Franca is a very elegant white town famous for wrought
iron work, art and opera. Wood-fired ovens at butcher shops of Cisternino
cook your chosen meat to eat at the casual tables scattered around the
alleys or to to take home as part of your meal. What a great idea and
it is delicious!
Then there is the gastronomic town of Celeglie Messapica, the ceramic
town of Grottaglie, the gorgeous old town of Polignano a Mare on the dramatic
Adriatic Coast, the grottoes of Castellana...........
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We will also spend a day at fascinating Matera, actually in the neighbouring region of Basilicata, where we will visit the 'Sassi" or stones. A town of caves with house fronts built one against the other added onto the front of the caves in more recent years. The caves were lived in, with their animals, from prehistoric times until the 1950s when the people were rehoused.
We will learn all about olive oil from a producer, cook pizza and bread in the wood fired oven at our trulli, taste local wines, watch mozzarella being made, enjoy Sunday lunch in a family home.....and much more.
Francesco will take us for a horse and carriage ride around the Itria Valley with his magnificent murgese stallion, Victor, and little dog, Berlusconi.
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 Martina Franca donkeys |
Lyn Baynes & Chris Broome
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 Group at olive oil press |
Guest Comments
In 7 days you have managed to distill Puglia! I wish I could bottle the experience to take home. I will never forget the wonderful people, food, animals you bought to me. Thankyou.
A totally lovely experience and the first time we have been on an organised trip and we are totally spoilt. This is the way to go! you make a wonderful team. Congratulations and thankyou for a fantastic experience. Loved meeting your local friends and all of the animals and seeing the wonderful scenery and villages.
Thankyou for showing us 'slow' Puglia. I am amazed at the diversity of style and specialty in such a relatively small region. Your hospitality and cooking is amazing too and the way you show us the people as well as the place is totally unique. It has been a week to remember which will keep me going through the Dunedin winter.
Thoughts of Puglia...sparkling white-washed trulli, potted geraniums, fresh regional food prepared with love, limoncello, coffee and gelato, a long lunch, a long cooking class and dinner, architecture, ceramics, olive pressing, cave dwellings, grotto and harvest-time. Murgesi horses and trap - riding through the most romantic country lanes complete with stone walls and wild flowers. The memory bank, along with the tummy, has had it's fill shared with warm, happy, generous-spirited people. What more could I want?
We have had the most magical time and have fallen in love with the people and landscape of Puglia. Thankyou for your knowledge, outstanding driving and your kindness that has created so many friendships within the area. The food and wine has been second to none and your generous hospitality has well and 'trulli' exceeded our expectations. Our memories of Italy will be fond ones and we hope to visit again one day!
This is our second trip with you and hopefully not the last. Although the food, the tour, the friends you introduced us to are very special, the real beauty of our stay is the relationship that you both have which is sober, peaceful and quiet elegance - which all of your cuddled and spoiled demanding guests notice and appreciate. Joan and I have been to Italy too many times to count and we miss it every time we leave, but since we met you we miss YOU more than Italy itself. I can honestly say that this time it was like staying with friends in Italy.
It's been a privilege to be a guest of the Spalluto family through your perfect mediation, together with your perfect driving, guiding, cooking and good cheer. A very different experience from your Sardinia week, and just as unique. Grazie mille.
Sardinia was not enough- we just had to experience your magic in Puglia. While we knew what to expect of your hospitality we knew nothing of Puglia - and what a fantastic surprise that has been. The food as always has been exceptional - thankyou so much.
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 Trulli pinnacles |
