Day 3 - Puglia Experience

Day starts at 9.30am. First stop was a visit to an olive oil mill. I was thinking ‘exciting!!!!’ But I was wrong as it was very informative and I am gob smacked to think the oil we are using is good olive oil but it isn’t.

Puglia has over 50 million olive trees and the average age of the trees are approx 600years old.

The olive trees at this mill are young approx 200 years old.

We were shown the process from start to finish of the oil making process. Angelo also gave us

helpful hints on what to look for when buying good olive oil. If the bottle has the word ‘frantoio’ this

means it comes directly from a mill and is good. The letters s v l on the bottle are not good meaning they are from a big company and often includes a blend of oils and the letters s n c = small company which is also good. I don’t think I will tell you what some big companies use when blending their so called olive oil as it might put you off your dinner if eating.

Next stop was a family run winery not very far from Gioia. This winery used to be an old farm house and the main room where the wine is stored for maturation was the old stables of the house. A beautiful old building.

Gorgeous old buildings and the actual wine making area was pristine

We were treated to a wine tasting of the local wine, Primitivo, which was very nice sitting in the

lovely gardens of the small estate.

Next stop a visit to Polignano a Mare, another town with lots of history and a beautiful sea view. I was going to say ocean view but we are on the Adriatic Sea. The water here is crystal clear and a gorgeous colour.

The main beach in the middle of town

If you look across the water there are two white umbrellas. This is where we had a beautiful seafood lunch.

Near this spot is where they have the ocean diving championships

Beautiful coastline
After lunch we all needed a siesta but when on a tour the downside is you have to keep pushing on. So we headed for another very famous town in the Puglia district called Alberobello. This town is famous for the Trulli. A Trullo is a traditional Apulia dry stone hut with a conical roof.

The trullo’s dry wall construction, without mortar, was used so that the settlers could dismantle their shelters in a hurry to avoid taxes, however, some historians say that the building technique came about because of the abundance of limestone in the area.