Puglia

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Puglia, or Apulia as the English usually prefer, the pointed heel of Italy's boot-shaped outline, consists of the expansive Tavoliere Plain to the north with the city of Foggia roughly at its centre. To the east, the steep hills of the Gargano Peninsula and its beautiful coastline is a magnet for Italian and other European holidaymakers. South of here the coast is dotted with several large towns and cities, with the main commercial centre of Bari being the largest. West of Bari the steep...
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Puglia, or Apulia as the English usually prefer, the pointed heel of Italy's boot-shaped outline, consists of the expansive Tavoliere Plain to the north with the city of Foggia roughly at its centre. To the east, the steep hills of the Gargano Peninsula and its beautiful coastline is a magnet for Italian and other European holidaymakers. South of here the coast is dotted with several large towns and cities, with the main commercial centre of Bari being the largest. West of Bari the steep hills of the Murge occupy a central area of Puglia, while further south towards the extreme tip of the heel, the Salentine Peninsula contains a range of contrasting towns and landscapes. Its traditional economy of farming and fishing has relatively recently been augmented by the development of industry and by its growing popularity as a holiday destination. However, it is still a place that has largely escaped the broad sweep of global tourism eventhough , with the longest coastline of any Italian region, you are never far from the sea.

Pointing out into the Adriatic on one side and the Ionian Sea on the other, Puglia is only about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Albania and 100 kilometres (62 miles) to Corfu at their closest points. For centuries this region has served as a link between Rome and Greece and beyond with the Via Appia stretching across Italy from Rome to Brindisi underlining the importance of this connection with the Eastern world. Since the time of the first Greek colonists invaded the early Daunian inhabitants over two thousand years ago, the Ionean coast around Taranto became a centre of the wealthy and powerful Magna Graeciae civilisation. Romans took control of the area from the third century onwards until the decline of the Empire saw invasions of Puglia by Byzantine invaders who made Bari their centre of power. Around this time, in the ninth and tenth centuries, Slavs, Saracens, Greeks and Jews came to settle in the area as well.
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