Puglia Beach Weekend

The weekend before our Week in Italy tour this past month we decided to take Puglia beach weekend. We used to go to the beach in Puglia every summer, when the girls were little. Way down at the tip of Puglia, we’d stay in an all-inclusive resort that was perfect for a family with both toddlers and grandparents. Somehow, once we stopped doing this, the whole Puglia-beach-family-vacation fell off the radar. Both girls plan their own trips now (being adults!) and Domenico and I usually manage a few days somewhere much nearer to Rome.

Since both Sophie and I needed to be in the area near where our tour started, early Monday morning (Manduria) that was my starting point when I started to research where to go. I also knew the beach called Punta Prosciutto was supposed to be gorgeous. (Actually, I knew that from Sophie’s Instagram!) Want to know how I found a place to stay? Just looked on google maps on this general area and started clicking on all the hotels and/or b&b’s.

I found a lot of sorry looking places.

This confirmed what I already knew: while Puglia is gorgeous and has great beaches, it’s hard to find some place really nice to stay. This is one of the most common questions both Sophie and receive: do you know of  a cute little town, with great restaurants, near a nice beach, with great places to stay.

To answer the first question: there are lots of small towns, but most of them are not what you’d consider ‘cute.’ Yes, there are the well known cities and towns like Ostuni, Lecce, Monopoli, Gallipoli etc. But in between, the small towns that dot the landscape, are charming in that semi-ugly kind of way. In other words, they are full of buildings constructed in the seventies and eighties, usually without any planning or design. We find them charming (and Sophie spends a good portion of her time in one such small village) but it’s not a place we can really send clients to. Usually there are no hotels, and if there are any places to rent they are beyond simple.

The second question: great restaurants. This is an even harder one to answer. You’d think that the hinterland of Puglia would be full of great restaurants. You’d be wrong. While there are good restaurants dotted here and there (and as I find them I add them to my app Eat Italy), many places are just mediocre to bad. This is changing, for sure, but still, it’s not always easy to find a place to eat, beyond a rostiscceria or a bar with panini, in many of the towns.

The beach part of the question is equally challenging. Puglia has kilometers and kilometers of pristine beach and some of the cleanest clearest water in Italy. But knowing how to navigate yourself to a beach where you will find access, parking and possibly not hoards of crowds is an art.

All this to say, that I still don’t have an easy general answer to the question. But I do have this very specific itinerary which you are welcome to follow. And which may come in handy next time you want a beach fix in the south of Italy.

Friday:
Domenico and I took the train from Rome to Brindisi where we picked up our rental car.
Train: Make sure you reserve on one of the fast trains, called Frecce. There are only 3 per day leaving Rome for Puglia, and they fill up fast, especially in high season. So go online and make sure you purchase your ticket ahead of time (at least a week if not more). I always get the BASE fare, since that is changeable and refundable (you never know) and I also reserve 1st class because I am a grown woman and well, that’s just what I do.

Car: While you can certainly pick up a car in the center of town, near the train station, the offices close at 1pm. This means you will probably have to take a taxi to the airport to pick up the car. (Don’t worry, Brindisi is not that big)

Driving to the other coast: This part of Puglia is a maze of small roads, so Google maps is definitely your friend. We took the route that led us through the town of San Pancrazio Salentino. We were desperately hoping to find an open bar to get a coffee but it was 2pm, and everything seemed to be boarded up tight. As we were leaving town without having had any luck, we spied a small building, Chiosco Bar. Set at the edge of a kind of park, it was more kiosk (as the name implied) than real bar. There were signs advertising their special Caffe Freddo so we went with that. And it was fantastic. Evidently the owner (as he explained to us) had stayed up nights trying to figure out how to make the perfect iced coffee. He pulls an espresso, then pours it into a blender, along with a healthy scoop of coffee granita (which he makes fresh daily). He then whizzes it for about 20 seconds in one of those antique soda shop mixers. The result if a frothy, icy and slightly crunchy caffeine treat. Definitely worth stopping for.

The drive: Don’t be alarmed if Google Maps takes you on seemingly endless small dirt roads. Just enjoy it. You will eventually get where you are going.

Masseria Prisuti:
This was my last minute find when I realized I had only reserved at the other hotel for Saturday and Sunday. It may not have been my first choice, but I’m very glad to have discovered it. It’s beyond simple. There is no design going on here. But the rooms are clean, there is a/c and the family that owns it super friendly. They also have an extraordinarily good breakfast which is included in the very low price of the room. My favorite was a piece of local bread which I topped with a scoop of sheep milk ricotta and a dollop of home made apricot jam. We stayed in one of the simple rooms, but they also have small apartments with kitchens . In July our rooms were 70 Euros a night

Beach: Masseria Prisuti is only a 5 minute drive from the beach, which is why we were there. So once we checked in, we headed directly to the sea. Since it was Friday afternoon, it was relatively empty. We asked the folks at Masseria Prisuti for advice.  Beach clubs are a particularly Italian thing, and after talking with the owners Sophie decided that Lido degli Angeli would work for us. While Sophie is all for climbing over dunes to rocky deserted beaches, I prefer a lounger, umbrella and all the other things that come with Italian beach club life. (for more on stabilimenti see my books The Italian Table , Eating My Way Through Italy and Eating Rome)

Beach advice: Beaches in this part of the world get really crowded. The worst time to go is in August and just driving a couple of kilometers can be a traffic nightmare. Since we were there in July, it was just starting to heat up. Friday afternoon we were ok, and we reserved our spots for the next two days. You have to do that if you have any hope of getting an umbrella near the water. Many of the first row seats are booked way in advance. Saturday was actually not that crowded, because it was a ‘turn over’ day for nearby hotels. Sunday was packed. And we always got up early, to arrive at the beach by 9:00am at the latest.

Lunch: We had lunch both days at the beach club eating beach food which in this part of the world is great and pretty much always a combination of bread and tomatoes. (To make your own beach salad see this and this.)

Dinner: We had no idea where to go, so again followed the advice of the owners of Masseria Prisuti. Their friends had just opened a restaurant at a nearby agriturismo, just down the road. Agriturismo Africa  was so completely delicious that we immediately made reservations for the next night as well. Everything (except for the fish) came from their own farm, and someone in the kitchen really knew how to cook. This was not your ordinary farm restaurant. The dishes were beyond simple, but so well prepared. We started with their antipasto, which was a series of small plates that were mostly vegetables. Freshly cut cucumbers, pickled peppers, grilled eggplants. Little fritters, piping hot. The freshest breaded mussels. I especially loved the cheese platter which came tiny apricots, halved and filled with home made apricot jam. Our main course, since it was Friday, were perfectly grilled just caught shrimp from nearby Gallipoli. And home made potato chips. Did I mention that? The following evening the owner made linguine with sea urchins which he got especially for us.

Masseria Fellicchie: We stayed here, just down the road, for the next two nights. Masseria Fellicchie is so completely different from any of other places nearby. A quick visit to their website showed minimally and perfectly designed rooms, set within a working farm full of ancient olive trees. They only have five rooms, each one its own little apartment. We had Casa Bianca and Casa Vacari, two of the oldest rooms. They have recently added two new ones, Casa del Pastore and Casa Caminetto, which each have a private garden and more modern bathrooms. But they are all great. Big roomy and full of beautiful details. We definitely could have stayed 3 to one room, but decided to splurge. If you do stay there, make sure you do a bit of grocery shopping in nearby Avetrana before you arrive to stock your kitchenette for breakfast and any other meal you want to have there. We made ourselves delicious breakfasts  on our private terrace. The rooms are located on a 300 hectare estate of olive trees which stretches all the way to the sea. It’s a gorgeous place, and if you can get the owner to show you the view from the roof of the main building, like we did, you can see how large and beautiful this farm is. Also make sure you ask to see ‘Il Barone’ the largest and one of the oldest olive trees in Puglia.

Pizza: Our final dinner was in the nearby town of Torre Colimena. A friend of Sophie’s from Turkey, who had been in the area, recommended it saying it was ‘interesting.’ And that it was. Pizzeria da Giorgio kind of sums up everything that makes it difficult to send clients or friends to this part of the world. You have to have a big sense of adventure and not care too much when things don’t work out perfectly. The place itself was just what we were looking for: a pizzeria right on the water. Complete with an upstairs terrace filled with plastic furniture and lit by neon bulbs, it was packed with locals. After looking around at the other tables we did what they were doing: ordered a cold beer and a platter full of the best gratineed mussels. Truly amazing mussels. It was only when we went on to pizza that things started to fall apart. Not only did it take ages and ages for the pizza to show up. It was just mediocre once it did. (turns out the staff was in the back, partying it up themselves, so that kind of explained things). But in the end, we just enjoyed the experience and having a dinner watching the moon rise over the sea made up for any kind of average pizza topping, right?

The next morning Domenico drove back, via Bari, to return the car and get the train. Sophie and I headed to nearby Masseria Potenti (which is beyond fabulous) to start our Week in Puglia with Elizabeth Gilbert.

So now I’ve give you a  ‘do it yourself’ trip to Puglia , which is great if you want to take things in your own hands. If not? You can always join Sophie and me on one of our Week in Italy Tours. As I mentioned we just finished the Week in Puglia with Elizabeth Gilbert where we divided out time between Masseria Potenti in Puglia and Sextantio in Matera. We’ll definitely be repeating a version of this workshop with another guest host next year so stay tuned (and make sure you’re signed up for my monthly newsletter to find out first). But in the meantime we have our regular Week in Puglia Tours (as well as Rome, Umbria and soon to come Sicily) which you can read about here.