FOODIE PUGLIA

After arriving at Bari airport (BRI), make your own way to your stunning hotel, La Chiusa di Chietri (or similar four-star), in the lush Itria Valley. After dropping your bags in your room, it’s off for an authentic Puglian dinner and drinks at a local masseria, where you’ll get to know your fellow travellers.

After breakfast at your hotel, you’ll be picked up and driven to the town of Alberobello, home to Puglia’s famous trulli huts. You’ll be met here by our Local Insider, who’ll lead you along flagstone-paved streets, lined with the whitewashed trulli buildings – many of which have been repurposed as boutique craft shops, delis and fairytale-pretty homes. From Alberobello, it’s onto the day’s main course – literally, with a pasta-making class at an authentic masseria. You’ll learn how to make the region’s signature shapes: orecchiette, cavatelli and strascinati, before tucking into a homemade lunch with wine. After lunch, it’s onto the whitewashed city of Ostuni, rising out of the landscape like a crumbly meringue. Here, our Local Insider will take you on a meandering tour of its artisanal shops, baroque churches and spectacular viewpoints. After the tour, you’ll return to your hotel for the evening.

You might want to take it easy at breakfast today, as this morning it’s all about Bari and its street food scene. After being shuttled to the city, you’ll meet up with our Local Insider, who’ll introduce you to the city’s signature snacks – from salty, oily, still-warm focaccia, to meaty salami and refreshing gelato. Still hungry? Take the free lunch break to sniff out anything you might have missed. From Bari, it’s onto pretty Putignano, famous for its biscuit-coloured baroque architecture and annual carnival, thought to be the oldest in Europe. You’ll have time for a wander around the atmospheric streets, before heading off for your final activity of the day: a mozzarella-making workshop at a rural masseria. It’s surprisingly hungry work, which is why you’ll be well fed with homemade panzerotti afterwards – a fried, calzone-like snack, and a Puglian speciality.

Set your alarm an hour earlier this morning as, after breakfast, you’ll be whisked across the sunrise-gilded countryside to an olive oil mill in Cisternino. Here, you’ll not only get to see this ancient tradition in action (and how it has been modernised in recent times), but you’ll get to sample the peppery, freshly pressed olive oil – Puglia’s pride and joy. Wheels greased, next is a short hop south to the hilltop town of Locorotondo, which sits like a white crown on a green velvet cushion of vineyards and olive groves. Wander its medieval centre, a honeycomb of laundry-hung alleyways and plant-filled piazzas, with a spectacular church at its heart. After a break for lunch, you’ll head onto the Pastini winery, where a tour of the vineyard ends with a wine-tasting session in the cellar. The rest of the afternoon is yours to spend however you like – by the pool at your hotel, perhaps, with a glass of wine in hand?

Today’s your last day, so after a final hotel breakfast, spend what’s left of the morning making the most of that Puglian sun. After check-out, make your way to Bari airport (BRI), where you’ll say so long to the gang before heading off on whatever adventure comes next.