A slow guide to Puglia — trulli, olive groves, and a very long lunch

Puglia is the region I keep going back to when I need to remember why I do this work. It is not fashionable in the way Tuscany is fashionable. It does not photograph itself. You arrive, and within a day the light and the pace start doing the arithmetic for you.

The base I always recommend is a masseria — a converted farmhouse — somewhere between Ostuni and Lecce. Stay at least four nights. Rent a small car, but plan to use it lightly. The pleasure of Puglia is not covering ground; it is choosing a town in the morning and letting the afternoon go long.

Alberobello gets the postcards, but Locorotondo is the town I send people to first. Whitewashed lanes, one good enoteca, and a viewpoint at the top of the old town that catches the light around seven. Have an aperitivo there and then walk down for dinner. Do not book anything before nine — you will not be hungry.

Lecce is the other essential day. It is a small baroque city built entirely of a soft yellow stone that glows at dusk. Give it a full afternoon and evening. The trick is to skip the main square once you have seen it and get lost in the streets behind Piazza Sant'Oronzo — that is where the wine bars are, and where a woman named Anna makes pasticciotti that I still think about.

The food, honestly, is the reason. Orecchiette with cime di rapa. Burrata that arrives with a smear of anchovy underneath. Wild fennel. A tomato from Torre Guaceto that tastes like it has been waiting for you personally. If you are staying at a masseria, ask for one long lunch — a pranzo — in the garden, with the family, on a Sunday. It is the trip inside the trip.

A pace that works: two nights in Ostuni for the coast, three nights at a masseria in the Valle d'Itria, one night in Lecce at the end. Beach in the morning if you want it, town in the evening. Between them, an afternoon in a cool kitchen, or a nap. Do not overplan.

What to skip: driving all the way down to the tip of Salento unless you have a full week. It is beautiful, but you will spend more time in the car than in the towns.

What to say yes to: the fig the owner insists you take home, the second glass of primitivo, the invitation to the neighbour's oil mill. This is a region that rewards you for slowing down and, more importantly, for accepting things.

If you would like me to build the whole itinerary — masseria, dinners, one or two small experiences — write to me. Puglia is the trip I never say no to.