The paradise of providence. That?s how I felt about Puglia in Spring. So fertile for its dry, hot climate. So uplifting with its masseria, the whitewashed farmhouses with their singular but solid shapes and spacious courtyards.
I had left the cold British spring to experience instantly its warm summer equivalent. It was so engaging and life-enhancing and my senses were alive to the many stimuli of smells, sights, sounds and sensations of the masserias. The atmosphere reminded me strongly of the sensuous film ?I Am Love? starring Tilda Swinton. Fields of poppies, daisies and yellow camomile flowers danced in stunning meadows beside ancient olive trees whose distinctive twisted trunks resembled individual sculptures. Swallows and butterflies flitted; bees buzzed through dappled courtyards and the cacti and fig trees were bearing fruit.
I stayed first at Masseria Le Carrube. It?s the passionate project and personal philosophy of Valentina De Luca and her cousin. Four years ago it was a run-down farmhouse but now there are 19 guest rooms, a dining room featuring an olive press which once was pulled in a circle by a horse and the ?sala mangiatoia?, the room that was the former feeder for the horses complete with its original trough. All very life-enhancing and sensually stimulating.
A stay of five days in Puglia was long enough for me to visit many of the local attractions and historic towns. On reaching Ostuni, ?the white city?, from the west her citadel has a dramatic precipi...