Six things you never knew about Puglia

Pick a region. Any region in Italy. There are twenty to choose from.

No matter your choice, I can promise you there will be incredible history, amazing food, traditions, artisans - all entirely different from one region to the next. This is just one of the things that I love about Italy and the reason why every journey every year is full of new experiences and never fails to surprise.

Here are some wonderful surprises about Puglia, a region that stretches down the southeast coast of Italy that has a culture connected to the water. It has coastlines on two different seas, the Ionian and the Adriatic. Just think . . . lunch on the Adriatic Sea and dinner on the Ionian Sea. Yes! That is what happens on a Ciao Italy tour of Puglia.

The singer of “Volare” is from Puglia

Volare, oh-oh

Cantare, oh-oh-oh-oh

From the chorus of the hit song “Nel blu dipinto di blu”, better known as “Volare”, these words have painted a clear image of Italy since their release in 1958. The original recording artist and writer is Pugliese local Domenico Modugno. He was born on 9th January, 1928 in the fishing village of Polignano a Mare. When first released, the song topped the charts in Italy, France, other European countries and the United States, the first time for an Italian song.

The biggest win came in 1959 at the first Grammy Awards, when Domenico Modugno took home the first ever Grammys for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In 2009, a bronze statue of Domenico was placed on the seafront.

Cliff Diving World Series

Polignano a Mare is also famous as the chosen location in Italy for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Since 2009, the Italian round has taken place here, usually scheduled at the end of June. The male and female athletes dive from two platforms at heights of 21 metres and 27 metres. To reach the platforms, they have to enter a house built on the cliff and walk through the living room!

Puglia helped create the world’s most giftable soap: Savon de Marseille

The amazingly scented, pastel coloured, rounded blocks of Savon de Marseille are some of the most recognizable, and most gifted, soaps in the world. However, this famous soap company actually has its origins in Puglia’s port town of Gallipoli. The method of making soap with a base of olive and laurel oils originates from thousands of years ago in Aleppo, Syria. This soap found its way to Medieval Europe, and there was no better place suited for its production than the land of olive trees in southern Italy.

Soap production took hold in Gallipoli and the inhabitants traded their soap to the rest of Europe. Many Gallipoli locals who worked in soap were sent to Marseille, Naples, Livorno and Genoa to begin similar production there.

In the 16th century, Marseille became a headquarters of French soap production, using the techniques and often the oil from Puglia.

The breadbasket of Italy

Carbs rule in Puglia! With never-ending wheatfields of ancient grains and over 100 different types of local breads, Puglia has earnt the nickname of ‘tavoliere’, or ‘breadbasket’ of Italy. Archaeological evidence traces bread baking in Puglia back to the Bronze Age, while Greek colonists arriving in the 8th century BC left their mark with the introduction of beloved favourites like taralli, small ring-shaped crackers still treasured today and a great salty snack with aperitivo.

Under Roman rule, Puglia emerged as a vital wheat supplier, its bread acclaimed for its high quality and long shelf life thanks to durum wheat flour. This legacy still exists today, with Puglia remaining Italy’s leading producer of durum wheat, a heritage that’s also nurtured the region’s rich pasta culture.

Not to be missed is Focaccia Barese. Unlike its Ligurian cousin, a region famous for focaccia, this one is softer, denser, thicker and topped with intensely sweet cherry tomatoes, briny olives and a sprinkling of oregano.

Flea markets

Italy has a reputation for great markets from the leather markets of Florence to the antique markets of Arezzo, and Puglia doesn’t disappoint. Pugliesi people are masters of their crafts. They know and appreciate beauty enormously and their benchmark for quality is incredibly high.

In Puglia, Sunday is sacred: for mass, pranzo (lunch) and mercati (markets). The markets rotate through different locations on each Sunday of the month and include 3-4 towns every Sunday. For those of you joining me in Puglia in October, we can catch the market in Ostuni on our third day there, which just happens to be a Sunday.

Beware of Puglia’s sea urchins

The sun-kissed, coast endowed region of Puglia is seafood heaven. On the docks of seaside towns, sailors and fishermen display the days catch - octopus, scallops, oysters, mussels, razor clams, sardines - from plastic buckets atop Peroni crates or wooden pallets. Someone might be tendering freshly caught polpo (octopus) by bashing it right on the pavement or shucking a couple of oysters from a plastic bucket. This is where you find the locals: snacking on raw fish, caught just hours before eating. It’s a beloved practice that dates back to ancient times, tied to the habits of the fishermen themselves.

The most prized of these raw delicacies is ricci di mare, or sea urchins. However, due to overfishing, the harvesting of ricci di mare in Puglia has been at the centre of a legal drama in recent years, resulting in a ban for fishermen to harvest the sea urchins until May 2026.

If you do see it on a menu or in a market, it’s probably not from the region and may have been caught illegally.

To read more about Puglia:

Puglia - the land of 50 million olive trees.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb