Things to do in Puglia
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Basilica di San Nicola
Northwest past the small Chiesa di Santa Ana is the remarkable Basilica di San Nicola, one of the south’s first Norman churches. It’s a splendid example of Puglian-Romanesque style, built to house the relics of St Nicholas (better known as Father Christmas), which were stolen from Turkey in 1087 by local fishermen. His remains are said to emanate a miraculous manna liquid with special powers. For this reason – and because he is also patron saint of prisoners and children – the basilica remains an important place of pilgrimage. The interior is huge and simple with a decorative 17th-century wooden ceiling. The magnificent 13th-century ciborium over the altar is Puglia’s old…
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Gelateria Natale
One of the best ice-creams in Lecce is available here. You might have to queue but this will give you time to choose. It’s also a fabulous confectioner, gleaming with jewel-like treats, truffles, panna cotta and dark chocolate cakes that pool like oil slicks on golden plates.
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Pizzeria Enzo e Ciro
The most celebrated pizzeria in town, tucked away down elegant Via Cardassi. The pizzas are wafer thin, the atmosphere boisterous and the beers as cheap as chips. Start with the mushroom antipasti - large frilly mushrooms grilled with a light cheese-and-breadcrumb topping.
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Awaiting Table
Silvestro Silvestori’s splendid cooking and wine school provides day or weeklong courses with tours, tastings and noteworthy lecturers.
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Osteria al Gambero
Also recommended this is a good fish restaurant close to the port.
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Teatro Petruzelli
Of all the grand theatres, it is the Teatro Petruzelli which dominates the hearts of the Barese opera-going public. It is a gorgeously grand Art Noveau music hall, with an enormous frescoed cupola, velvet seats, cherry-wood stage and golden cherubs. The opening night in February 1903 squeezed in an ecstatic crowd of 3200 people, and there was 'not a theatre box, not a seat, not a single empty place in the loggia' the newspapers reported the next day.
In the decades that followed, the theatre established itself as one of the great opera houses of Italy alongside La Scala in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Aside from the works of Italian com…
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Palazzo Pantaleo
Carry on down Via Duomo and take a left onto Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. Here you'll find the Palazzo Pantaleo , the temporary home of the city's archaeological collection. We say 'temporary' but the edited selection of artefacts on display has actually been here for seven years now. Still, it's certainly worth the visit as it exhibits the most sophisticated works of Magna Graecia that you're likely to see anywhere in Puglia.
Particularly fine are the ceramics, which Taranto precociously developed in its potteries during the 4th century and sold throughout the Greek world. There are lots of Corinthian and Laconian ceramics, but the best pieces are the superb black-and-red…
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Cattedrale San Sabino
Just north of Strada Lamberti, the tortuous alleyways open out into Largo San Sabino where you're faced with the huge construct that makes up the Museo Diocesano and the Cattedrale San Sabino. Most people assume that the Basilica of San Nicola is Bari's main cathedral but this pearly white church dedicated to Bishop San Sabino is really the main seat of worship.
Like the Basilica, the cathedral was begun during the Byzantine era (1034), but when the city revolted against William II of Sicily, he razed it to the ground. It was rebuilt between 1170 and 1178 in a simple Romanesque style with a wide nave and shallow transepts and a 35m-high cupola. Typical of the style, deep…
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Pinacoteca Provinciale
Behind the impressive neoclassical façade of the Palazzo della Provincia, you'll find the Pinacoteca Provinciale. The collection focuses firmly on southern Italian artists and the works span centuries. Pieces include fragments of 11th-century sculpture blown off churches during WWII, 13th-century icons and 15th-century Venetian altarpieces, huge canvases from the 17th- and 18th-century Neapolitan school, and a few 19th-century pieces.
In all, there are 16 rooms to wander through, but, although the collection is comprehensive in its local coverage, there are really only a few pieces that will wow an art lover. Stand-out works include Bartolomeo Vivarini's (c 1440-1499) lu…
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Porta dei Leoni
Heading north up Strade del Carmine will bring you to the doorstep of the Basilica di San Nicola, the first great Norman church in the south and the template for the restrained Puglian-Romanesque style that informed the architecture of so many of the region's churches.
At first site the façade seems shockingly plain, its odd triangular shape rearing up before you in white limestone blocks, flanked by two stunted towers (destroyed by earthquakes). It has a massive solidity and spareness about it, although here and there are some delightful ornamental details like the sculpted Porta dei Leoni on the north side, which depicts a series of chivalric scenes in bas relief. Its …
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Chiesa di San Tommaso
The cathedral (0881 77 34 82; Piazza de Santis; ;07:00-12:30 & 17:00-20:00) was built in the 12th century and its lower section remains true to the original Romanesque style. The top half, exuberantly baroque, was grafted on after the earthquake in 1731. Most of the cathedral's treasures were lost in the quake but you can see a Byzantine icon of the Madonna preserved in a chapel inside the church.
Legend has it that in the 11th century, shepherds discovered the icon lying in a pond over which burned three flames. These flames became the symbol of the city. Wrapping the icon in a sheet, the shepherds carried it back to an inn and it quickly became known as the Madonna dell…
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Palazzo Simi
Since 1999 Bari's Archaeological Operations Centre has been housed in Palazzo Simi, and until the new archaeological museum opens its doors in Santa Scolastica, the small archaeological exhibition here provides a reasonable idea of the city's history.
The palace itself is something of museum piece given there are remains of a 9th to 10th century church you can visit in the basement. The three apses are clearly distinguished, as are the remains of the altar and some fragments of fresco depicting the Fathers of the Church. Arranged over the ground floor it takes you through the early days of the city's foundation, from a model of what the initial settlement would have look…
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Cathedral
Don’t leave Otranto without visiting the extraordinary Romanesque cathedral, built by the Normans in the 11th century, though given a few facelifts since. A vast 12th-century mosaic covers its floor, a stupendous tree of life balanced on the back of two elephants. It was created by a young monk called Pantaleone (who had obviously never seen an elephant), whose vision of Heaven and Hell encompassed an amazing (con) fusion of the classics, religion and plain old superstition, including Adam and Eve, Diana the huntress, Hercules, King Arthur, Alexander the Great, and a menagerie of monkeys, snakes and sea monsters. Don’t forget to look up; the cathedral also boasts a beau…
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Cathedral
Piazza del Duomo is a baroque feast, the city’s focal point and a sudden open space amid the surrounding enclosed lanes. During times of invasion the inhabitants of Lecce would barricade themselves in the square, with its conveniently narrow entrances. The 12th-century cathedral is one of Giuseppe Zimbalo’s finest works – he was also responsible for the towering, 68m‑high bell tower. The cathedral is unusual in that it has two facades, one on the western end and the other, more ornate, facing the piazza. It’s framed by the 15th-century Palazzo Vescovile (Episcopal Palace) and the 18th-century Seminario, designed by Giuseppe Cino.
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Columns
For the Romans, Brindisi was the end of the line or, more specifically, of the Via Appia, which stretched cross-country from Rome to Brindisi. A second, faster branch, the Via Traiana, was added in 190 by the Emperor Trajan, linking Rome to Brindisi via Canosa di Puglia and Bari.
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Lido Pizzo
Gallipoli's beaches stretch in great curves both north and south of town. To the north is the Lido Conchiglie and the disco quarter, but it's south you want to go, to the long sandy stretch of Baia Verde. Between September and May the lidos (managed sections of beach with umbrellas and beds) are closed so you can enjoy the beach pretty much all to yourself for free.
In May things start to crank up, the beach is raked to perfection and the lidos are renovated and repainted ready for the hectic summer months. Gallipoli's best lidos are Punta della Suina, and further south the super-pretty Lido Pizzo, backed by whispering pine trees. There's also the tiny La Purita beach on …
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Punta della Suina
Gallipoli's beaches stretch in great curves both north and south of town. To the north is the Lido Conchiglie and the disco quarter, but it's south you want to go, to the long sandy stretch of Baia Verde. Between September and May the lidos (managed sections of beach with umbrellas and beds) are closed so you can enjoy the beach pretty much all to yourself for free.
In May things start to crank up, the beach is raked to perfection and the lidos are renovated and repainted ready for the hectic summer months. Gallipoli's best lidos are Punta della Suina, and further south the super-pretty Lido Pizzo, backed by whispering pine trees. There's also the tiny La Purita beach on …
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Pizzomunno
Pizzomunno, the unmistakable white rocky tower jutting out of the sea as you approach Vieste from the south, is a natural landmark with a tale to tell. If legend is to be believed, underneath that hard rocky exterior lies the heart of a romantic.
Pizzomunno, so the story goes, was a humble fisherman in love with the beautiful Cristalda. Jealous sirens, unable to tempt him with their wily charms, dragged Cristalda to the bottom of the sea and turned the heartbroken Pizzomunno into a rock. But the sirens weren't completely wicked. Every 100 years the rock breaks free and the lovers are reunited for one wild night.
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Museo di Arti e Tradizioni
The serpentine alleys and jumbled houses of the medieval quarter, the Rione Junno, are perfect for a little aimless wandering. The cappelletti (chimney stacks) on top of the neat whitewashed houses come in interesting designs and shapes. Models of the cappelletti can be found in the Museo di Arti e Tradizioni, also known as the Museo Tancredi after its founder Giovanni Tancredi.
Located in the former monastery of San Francesco, the museum displays agricultural equipment, handicrafts and artefacts and depictions of daily life in the Gargano, including plenty of photographs of pilgrims.
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Piazza del Duomo
The geographical heart of Lecce is the Piazza del Duomo, although it feels cut off from the city. It's a clever trick, intended by the architects who designed it; first they set it back down a small alley off the main corso, then they enclosed it with operatic buildings, leaving just one narrow access flanked by imposing entrance piers. In the past this could be closed by a huge oak door, although that is long gone.
It is quite ingenious, and even now as you walk into the square you experience a feeling of wonder as the drama of the piazza reveals itself to you.
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Chiesa di Sant'Anna
Opposite the Complesso del Calvario complex is the Chiesa di Sant'Anna, connected to the Capuchin friary in Palazzo Sannicandro. Padre Pio, canonised after his death in 1968, lived here for six months before moving to San Giovanni Rotondo. Apparently he relocated for health reasons, and because his nocturnal battles with demons kept the other brothers awake.
You can visit his bedroom - a spartan affair comprising a narrow cot, a writing desk, and cloths and gloves stained with blood from his stigmata wounds. There's even a vial of his pleural fluids on show.
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Complesso del Calvario
The Complesso del Calvario, a short walk down Via Sant'Eligio, is an architecturally interesting national monument. Built between 1693 and 1742, the baroque complex comprises a monumental triumphal arch and five small chapels leading up to the Chiesa delle Croci. Legend has it that Palestinian soil is buried beneath each of the five chapels and another legend has a splinter of the original cross inserted in the wooden cross inside the church.
The crypt has piles of skulls and bones and a small collection of religious vestments and relics.
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Tomba di Rotari
Descend the short flight of steps opposite Santuario di San Michele to the Tomba di Rotari – not a tomb, but a 12th-century baptistry with a deep sunken basin for total immersion. You enter the baptistry through the facade of the Chiesa di San Pietro, with its intricate rose window squirming with serpents – all that remains of the church, destroyed by a 19th-century earthquake. The Romanesque portal of the adjacent 11th-century Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore has some fine bas-reliefs.
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Castello Aragonese
Although Taranto’s medieval town centre is rundown, it is gradually being tastefully renovated and has a gritty and vibrant atmosphere. It is perched on the small island dividing the Mar Piccolo (Small Sea; an enclosed lagoon) and the Mar Grande (Big Sea). This peculiar geography means that blue sea and sky surround you wherever you go. Guarding the swing bridge that joins the old and new parts of town, the 15th-century Castello Aragonese is an impressive structure, currently occupied by the Italian navy.
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AGTRP
You don't need a guide to enjoy Lecce, but to the untutored eye one baroque church can look very much like another. So if you're serious about architecture it's well worth considering a local guide. Simona Melchiorre is a fluent English-speaking guide and the current president of the AGTRP. If you want to get in touch with skilled guides speaking a variety of languages visit the site. An average three-hour tour costs around €85, although it does depend on the number of people and the itinerary.
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