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Puglia - Italian Villa Vacations
Puglia
Puglia is located in Italy’s Deep South and is skirted by 800km of coast with limestone cliffs, olive groves and wild forests. Its sandy beaches have drawn attention to the travel press and it is only just starting to be discovered by international tourists who are keen on the local realestate which is made up of interesting round trulli houses. The south of Italy is strongly influenced by the seas in its history, food and culture. The Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea both meet on Italy’s heel.
Things to do in Puglia;
1) Rent a cone shaped Trullo villa that Italian Villa Vacations has available for rent in Cisternino. Base yourself there for a week so you can explore the region well.
Trulli are easily the most unusual rentals in all of Italy. Farmers built their houses in this unique fashion 2 -3 centuries ago. It became the style of the time in the Itria Valley of Puglia and maybe 1000 or so were built. The Trullo is made from the local stone. The walls are more than a meter thick to protect against the elements and there are no doors inside, only columns of stone and curtains separating the rooms (with the exception to the bathrooms where there are doors for privacy). Every year the people from this region white wash their houses up to the roof creating the look here, white stucco with grey stone roof. The Trullo was the 17th - 19th century farmer's home. The houses with their tall conic tops and white round bases look like tiny feudal towers. The effect is countryside of small white castles poking out from a thick of olive trees. Trulli served as the residence and barn during the winter and as a residence and granary during the summer. At that time it was common for the farming family to live with the animals under the same roof. On the roof top where each of the cone shaped roofs are capped with hand carved ornaments, there is always at least one stone "vada." A stone "cow" fertility symbol where the udders are four square stones coming down. All the ornaments are shaped by hand from the field stone here.
2) Visit Lecce which is a wonderful town to walk around in with many restaurants offering an abundance of fine inexpensive food. Lecce is famous for its soft lime stone so easy to work with, and is the centre for Barocco Lecesse.
3) Pay a visit to the nice port area in Gallepoli, and visit the Duomo of Otranto which is another beautiful coastal village.
4) Visit the Romanesque Palaces and seas front Cathedrals of Trani
5) Visit the old cities of Lucera, Manfredonia, and San Severo
6) Enjoy fantastic diving in the Adriatic beaches
Enjoy the weekend Jazz concert and a pizza in the local piazza of Cisternino
Sub-Regions
Cisternino
The beaches (both rock and sand) of the Adriatic are not far from the charming white washed baroque village of Cisternino, where every weekend the piazza has live jazz. A weird thing to come across in this rural, southern region. But the jazz is supposed to be excellent. The surrounding olive trees and vineyards yield an abundance of fruit, and the sun and rich red earth yield much f
