Ostuni and surroundings

Name: Arcuève
Address: Via Cesare Abba, 17, Ostuni, Br, 72017, IT
Telephone: +39 391 186 3958
Price range: $$

Ostuni: the beginning of our long journey, from where it all started…
Walking the narrow streets of the historic center of Ostuni (the Rione Terra) is an experience not to be missed. After visiting the Cathedral, a Gothic expression from the 1400s with one of the largest rose windows in the world, attention moves to the Benedictine convent, with the adjoining church of St. Peter.
This monastery that you meet along via Gaspare Petrarolo is considered an important example of Apulian Benedictine art.
Churches and stately homes follow one another in the old city surrounded by the Aragonese walls where Porta Nova and Porta San Demetrio open. As you leave the city, the Bishop's Palace and the Seminary, other small churches, archaeological sites and the masserie (ancient fortified farms) leap to the eye.
And there is a corner of Puglia that has not gone unnoticed by most Instagram users: it is the "gate of Salento", the suggestive blue door between prickly pears and white lime photographed and shared on social networks by thousands of users.
Discovering the Valle d'Itria:
The Valle d'Itria in Puglia is perhaps the most authentic Puglia, with its low dry stone walls, olive trees everywhere and trulli scattered across the countryside. Why yes, if you think about what to see in Valle d'Itria, the first thing that comes to mind are the trulli. Particular constructions that certainly have a unique charm. Like all territories that do not have clear borders, the Valle d'Itria extends between three provinces: Bari, Brindisi and Taranto.

Ostuni lies on three hills,
just 8 km from the Adriatic coast,
where the Blue Flag waves.

And much more: Alberobello, Locorotondo, Cisternino and Martina Franca

In Alberobello was born the famous building painted with lime, with the conical roof of "chiancarelle" of limestone, always called trullo. It is here that over 1000 trulli, tightly packed together, form a real town, so much so that Alberobello has been called the "Capital of trulli"
A few kilometers from Alberobello is Locorotondo, a town with a perfect circular plan (from which it takes its name: round place) perched on the top of a hill. It is a village made up of tall, narrow houses, with a medieval center of concentric streets, sloping roofs and Baroque palaces, enclosed by immaculate walls and which has remained intact over the centuries.
The atmosphere you breathe in Cisternino is more rural, almost an oriental village with whitewashed houses, hidden courtyards and a continuous intertwining of labyrinthine alleys.
At the foot of Cisternino extends the valley dotted with trulli and farmhouses framed by oak woods.
Just 6 km away, Martina Franca. Once a town of nobles and brigands, Martina Franca is one of the most interesting cities in Puglia for its natural landscape; good food including the excellent meat and the excellent capocollo (seasoned and particularly tasty pork salami); the particular late Baroque architectural style; the international interest that the Valle d'Itria Festival, a major annual opera festival, attracts.

…and again: Grottaglie, Villa Castelli and the beautiful sea!

A wedding favor set with a ceramic heart, Grottaglie, an ancient town with a precious soul. Home of ceramic works of infinite shapes and colors, a city from time immemorial, the museum in the Bishop's Castle bears witness to this. The art that comes from the land of this splendid town in the province of Taranto, where in the historic center we still find over 50 shops dedicated to the production of these real works of art. The shops in the historic centre, which produce exclusively world-famous ceramics, undoubtedly represent the most fascinating element of this city and make it the homeland of terracotta which has become famous all over the world.
Located a few km from Brindisi, framed by vast expanses of green and centuries-old olive groves, Villa Castelli is one of the most characteristic and welcoming Apulian villages.
Crossroads of other fascinating and easily accessible places such as Martina franca, Ceglie Messapica, and Francavilla, it also overlooks a real balcony of the Taranto plain. This ancient town still preserves the ancient finds of the ancestors who lived there, in fact there are several cultural attractions such as the Pezza Petrosa Archaeological Park and the Palazzo Ducale.
There are about 40 km of coast where there is no shortage of famous beaches on this stretch of coast of the Upper Salento known as the "Riviera dei Trulli", from Savelletri to Torre Guaceto, where beaches of dunes and Mediterranean scrub alternate, sandy bays and cliffs. Here an Aragonese coastal tower which gives its name to the locality on which it stands and to the state nature reserve of Torre Guaceto, a wetland of international interest and WWF oasis. In the coves, marine bays, ponds and woods alternate, in a fantastic natural area of the Adriatic coast surrounded by large olive groves.

Grottaglie