So I knew I wanted to go to Puglia for my birthday trip. But saying you want to go to Puglia or Apullia as I’ve seen it, (by the way which is correct?) and actually doing it are two very different things.
Puglia is friggin’ big!
Not to mention, I’m finding it incredibly difficult to find vacation rental possibilities in this region. The one’s I’ve stumbled across are either too big, too expensive or way too far south. Yes, I’d like to see Lecce but I don’t want to be 8 hours south of Rome – hold on…I just double checked Via Michelin and it clocks the trip at 5 1/2 hours which puts it back on the map. Well, but for the fact that it’s 350 miles which to me translates to 7 hours, so I’m not to sure.
Anyway … I’ve discovered these establishments called Masserias. Alright, I didn’t “discover” them. I mean they’ve existed all along. I just found about them. Masserias are a cross between agritourismos, hotels and even in some cases fancy spas. They started out as fortified farm houses/communities (over the last few hundred years, this area of Italy has been raided by all sorts of different groups over and over). People would live within the fortified walls of these structures and now they’re being converted to inns, bed and breakfasts and even hotels depending upon the size.
The first one I “discovered” looked fantastic – decadent. San Dominico But at a whopping 320 Euro a night, I’m thinking way out of our price range.
Then I found this place: Hotel del Levante Which seems ridiculously cheap but right on the beach. It seems like a family resort (not necessarily a good thing though when we get to travel without our kids). Yet, the more I thought about it the more I felt like it would be like staying at the Neville in Italy.
So I went back to the Masseria concept and kept searching. That’s when I found this place: Il Frantoio
Okay – really need to do some work – I’ll be back later.
