Calling all Italophiles and culinary adventurers: there’s a new trip to bella Italia that you may well want to add to your summer 2015 vacation lineup. This June, chef Donatella Arpaia—TV personality, restaurateur and cookbook author—will host two tours of Puglia, the sun-bleached heel of the Italian boot bordered by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, that has curiously (and gloriously) remained relatively untouched by tourists. The seven-day journeys, set against a staggering backdrop of olive groves, cerulean seas, sprawling farms and ancient ruins, aim to provide guests with a true taste of Italy via an indulgent immersion in la dolce vita of this unparalleled and unsung region, paying homage to its extraordinary cuisine and richly storied history.
The itinerary boasts a host of enviable, insiders-only foodie experiences, designed to showcase the countless tasty delights that Puglia—where Arpaia's mother was born, and where she spent summers as a child—has to offer. Besides strolls through some of the many prestigious vineyards that stud the Puglia countryside and produce more wine than any other part of the country, other planned outings include a trip to Bari for a lesson in the art of making the region's famous orecchiette (little ears) pasta, followed by lunch with Arpaia's aunts at their home. There’s also a visit to the majestic seaside town of Monopoli to browse the seafood market and feast on the catch of the day, and a tour of an organic olive orchard and underground mill that has been producing olive oil since the Bronze Age.
A stunningly restored 17th-century manor house, Masseria Lamacoppa, will play host to Arpaia’s guests. Located just outside the baroque center of Ostuni, an architectural jewel whose historic old town is known in Italian as Città Bianca for its white-painted buildings, the villa sleeps 17 in atmospheric luxury and comfort.
After an afternoon spent making small-batch mozzarella and ricotta in Alberobello—a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its trulli, hobbit-like limestone dwellings that remarkably exemplify prehistoric mortar-less construction and make for a fairy-tale landscape—you can lounge by the vast pool in the Mediterranean sun, loll around the walled courtyards within the Moroccan lemon grove, or unwind in the Turkish hammam. Chef Arpaia will also host three cooking classes at the villa during the tour.
Arpaia’s latest enterprise is a nod to both the growing popularity of culinary tourism and the emergence of Puglia as a comparably novel tourist draw versus the rest of Italy. According to 2013 statistics (latest figures available) from the World Food Travel Association, over 39 million leisure travelers are considered “deliberate culinary travelers,” meaning they choose a destination based on its cuisine. And in Puglia they’ve certainly come to the right place: its flat, fertile, sun-soaked geography and iron-rich soil make it one of the most bountiful agricultural regions in Italy, whose embarrassment of riches in the gastronomy department is already unrivaled by any other nation (in this avowed Italophile’s biased opinion). Puglia produces between 250,000 and 300,000 tons—some 40%—of the country’s olive oil each year, and its grains and vegetables stock Italian larders nationwide.
Throughout the ages, many from all over the world—including the Greeks, Romans, Turks and French—have fought for (and feasted on) the region’s bounty; in 216 B.C., the ancient village of Cannae was the site of one of the worst Roman defeats of all time, when the Imperial Roman Army was crushed by General Hannibal (one of the greatest military strategists of antiquity) and his troops. Meanwhile, the Adriatic port of Brindisi, where guests of Arpaia's tour will fly into, has provided a gateway to the region for more than 2,000 years, marking the southern end of the Appian Way, the Romans' highway to the east. It was also the harbor from which the Crusaders set sail for the Holy Land during the 11th to 13th centuries.
The tours, hosted in partnership with Puglia-based experiential travel provider Southern Visions, are limited to 17 guests and depart on May 30 and June 6, 2015. Click here for more information or to book your spot.
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