Episode 4 Getaways

Welcome to Getaways, the show where you lot call the shots.

And this week we're in Puglia in southern Italy.

On our website,

we asked you to share your top travel tips for this part of

the world and you've been e-mailing and texting your suggestions.

Puglia, also known as Apulia, is one of Italy's lesser-known holiday destinations.

With its olive groves, whitewashed towns and unforgiving heat,

it can seem more Greek than Italian.

But when it comes to the food, make no mistake...

-ITALIAN ACCENT:

-We're in Italy.

-Mm-hmm.

In this week's programme, we visit a unique town.

Try our hand at Italian cooking...

Venture underground to explore an impressive cave system...

And I'm taking a short break closer to home to discover

what's on offer around Strangford Lough in County Down.

To get to Puglia, there's a three and a half hour flight

from Dublin into the city of Bari, the region's capital

and the main gateway for holiday-makers

arriving in this part of Italy.

Our trip to Puglia begins with a visit

to one of the region's main tourist attractions.

It's a town that looks extraordinary.

This is Alberobello, famous for its whitewash buildings

known as trullo houses.

There are trullo houses dotted all over the centre of the region,

but a lot of you left comments on our website saying we should come

to the capital of trullo country, the village of Alberobello.

Samantha Flaherty from Galway was so impressed with this quirky

architecture she described it as a magical place.

And you're not wrong, Samantha.

When you walk around, you do kind of expect to bump into a wizard

or a wee hobbit or something. It's fantastic.

A trullo is a simple dry stone, walled,

conical construction with a domed roof topped by a cone or pinnacle.

Now, you've obviously heard of dry stone walls from back home,

but this is taking it to another level.

Now, the land was given free, but to avoid paying housing tax,

the residents built these houses without mortar.

Basically the stones are freestanding.

The most important part is this kind of conical

sort of stone at the top known as the keystone.

You take that out, the whole thing collapses.

But there is no chance of that happening, because this

entire site is now UNESCO-protected as a World Heritage Site.

The original trulli were basic shelters for peasant farmers,

who worked the land around Alberobello.

There are around a thousand trulli here,

subdivided into two neighbourhoods.

One remains residential with private homes

and the other is full of trulli that have been converted into shops

selling souvenirs and local crafts.

And...

Not only do they look a little like igloos,

they work in the same way, too,

keeping the place warm in the winter

and keeping the sun out in the summer.

Puglia has two coastlines - one on the Ionian Sea

and the other on the Adriatic.

In fact, Puglia has more shoreline than any other region in Italy.

There are huge variety of beaches all the way along the coast,

with plenty of rocky little coves where you can take a dip.

The further south you head there are more wild beaches,

because they are protected from overdevelopment.

So, you can find a little place that's completely isolated

and it feels like you have the beach to yourself.

From April to October,

days spent at the beach are a way of life for Italians.

This beach of Monopoli is free to use, but rocky in parts.

But for a few Euro you can always go to a Lido or a beach club.

It's very family friendly, the water is clean and safe

and you will find plenty of food, drinks and water sports on offer.

This is the Lido Pellerossa,

which was recommended by Ruth and Tony from Dublin.

It costs 16 Euro to rent a sun lounger and an umbrella for a day.

Puglia really is a hidden gem.

And another of the striking towns in this region is Ostuni,

or La Citta Bianca.

Ostuni is one of the most beautiful cities in southern Italy.

Perched high on the hill, it's surrounded by white defensive walls

and whitewashed houses and is known simply as the White City.

With a coastline full of beaches,

it's the perfect place to base your holiday.

Ostuni's streets and alleyways are full of small gift and craft shops

where you might pick up leather goods and antiques.

La Citta Bianca's had a very dramatic and indeed violent history.

It was completely destroyed, rebuilt by the Greeks,

occupied by the Romans, then the Ostrogoths, then the Normans,

it was attacked by the Turks and sold to a tyrant.

But it is the churches and the castles, built in the Middle Ages,

that have survived intact and dominate the landscape here.

We recommend you make your way to the top of the old town,

where the cathedral on the tiny square is a rare example

of Gothic architecture in a land full of Romanesque churches.

Away from the coast, the landscape is dominated by olive groves.

And according to Steffi Kapoza from Dublin,

Puglia has the best quality olive oil in Italy.

In Puglia you don't just get to eat the food,

you get to experience the culture that produces it.

And nothing defines this region more than the 60 million olive trees

dotted all the way around from north to south.

The sheer size and volume of trees is amazing,

but some of them are actually over thousands of years old.

I met up with Armando Balestrazzi to find out more about the tradition

and heritage of olive growing in this region.

When you drive around Apuglia, there are olive trees everywhere,

the biggest olive trees I've ever seen, they look really old,

but they're still abundant, they are still creating olives, right?

Apuglia is the only one region in Italy of 21 regions,

no river, no lake, no sweet water.

-Three months, four months, five months without rain.

-Mm-hmm.

Everything dies. Everything yellow.

The olive trees survive, absolutely, no problem.

We say no Puglian man has ever seen a dying olive tree,

because we normally live only 100 years.

-They, 2,000 years, never die.

-ANGELA LAUGHS

And never stop to produce.

120 people from all over the world have adopted our olive trees.

They are given the name of the grandson of the grandmother,

we put the label with the name,

they go away with the photo, the certificate, with the T-shirt

and to receive the production of this olive tree.

And Puglia produces over 40% of the olive oil that's

exported around the world.

The main producer in Italy, 40%,

the main producer in the world, 12% of the world.

As well as running the olive grove, Armando also owns a masseria,

a converted farmhouse where you can come to stay.

Most of the masserias in this area have been transformed and converted

into luxury accommodation for tourists to stay in.

With their own vineyards, olive trees and vegetable gardens,

guests get to eat the produce grown on the estate.

It's a really authentic and brilliant experience

that's utterly unpretentious and totally indulgent.

One major reason you're likely to visit Puglia

is to treat yourself to the area's amazing food.

The region is known for its cookery schools where foodies can

pamper their passion for all things pasta and more.

I'm making a visit to another masseria to visit a cookery school

where guests are shown how to use home-grown ingredients to create authentic Italian dishes.

Thank you!

What do we call these cherries, what kind of cherries are these?

We call these cherries the ferrovia, which is perhaps...

Marina Saponari offers individual or group classes

to tourists who cook and then eat the dishes that she would

prepare daily for her own kitchen table.

So, when did you open this as a cookery school? How long ago?

Er, we started in 2011, with two people,

one coming from the UK and one from the Netherlands.

How does the food in Puglia differ to the rest of Italy?

It's different because we use above all many vegetables.

You know, Puglia originally was a very, very poor region

and the main resource coming from agriculture.

-Marina, I'm guessing because you have me stoning many cherries...

-MARINA LAUGHS

-we're going to be cooking the cherries today?

-Yes.

-OK, what are we having?

-Now we will prepare...panzerotto.

Panzerotto generally is filled with mozzarella and tomatoes

but we are in the season of cherries, so we will

stuff our panzerotti with cherry jam and fresh ricotta cheese.

-And this is just a flour and water dough?

-Yeah.

-No eggs?

-No, no eggs.

Absolutely, only flour.

Olive oil.

And prepare a small ball to work...

We need just to prepare the filling with the fresh ricotta cheese.

Cinnamon.

-Oh, wow, that smell is great.

-Yes.

-The smell of the cinnamon is amazing.

-Our lemon.

We'll mix all together...

All right.

..with one yolk.

-So, you can mix together.

-Sure.

So, the filling is ready.

Now to roll.

-Ricotta cream cheese.

-What do you think of that, good enough?

-Yes.

And one teaspoon of cherry jam.

Press...very well with your finger.

-Right. Not quite as good as yours, but...

-That's good, that's good.

For a first time it's all right.

-You can just press all panzerotti in the sugar.

-Sure.

-Just dip them in each side?

-Yes. One each. Yes.

-From both sides, yes, be careful because they are hot.

-Yeah.

Wow. They look fantastic.

The proof of any pudding is in the eating.

Mmm!

It's so simple, just ricotta cheese, cherry made into jam.

That is heavenly. I can see the appeal of this.

Tasting something you've made with your own very hands.

Molto bene.

Next on my list of sites in Puglia are the caves of Castellana,

found half an hour south-east of Bari.

Tara Burns from Dunleary was just one of you

who recommended visiting the caves.

This is the entrance cave, La Grave.

It was largely undiscovered up until 1938.

There was a giant hole on the surface that people knew about,

but they were terrified to enter because of the mist

and the bats that came from below the surface.

Back then, it was known as the entrance to hell.

This is one of Italy's most spectacular natural underground networks.

And it's one of the area's biggest tourist attractions.

Over 15 million tourists from all over the world

have visited these caves.

You can take various walking tours of the cave system,

which will cost from ten Euro.

All along the route there are columns,

stalagmites and stalactites.

It's like a great underground cathedral.

This is the White Cave and it's the highlight of the tour.

It's apparently the whitest and the brightest cave

in the entire world, and it's pretty magical.

Well, if you fancy something a bit closer to home,

check out this week's short break.

I've come to the very tip of the Ards Peninsula in County Down

to find out more about what's on offer

along the shores of Strangford Lough,

the largest sea inlet in the British Isles.

This is the southern end of Strangford Lough

in the pretty town of Portaferry.

This part behind me is called the Narrows

and connects Portaferry here and the place I'm headed for over there.

The Strangford Ferry is the oldest continual ferry

service in Ireland and connects Portaferry and Strangford

with regular crossings every half-hour.

It takes a breezy ten minutes.

As you'd imagine, there is a strong sailing tradition here,

which is in full flow every summer during the Portaferry Gala

and the Narrows Regatta Series.

Strangford Village is popular for day-trippers

looking for a hearty lunch or a pint of the black stuff.

And just beyond Strangford Village is where I'm headed for.

Towards one of the most famous addresses on the Lough.

Castle Ward is a walled domain running along the Lough.

Its 820 acres are made up of wooded areas,

landscape gardens and historic buildings.

The centrepiece has got to be this 18th-century mansion,

once home to the Ward family.

It was built by the first Viscount Bangor and his wife,

who had, let's just say, very different views on things.

To find out more about what makes this house so intriguing,

I met up with tour guide Clare Rose.

It's a gorgeous house, just in terms of its architecture,

but the special thing about here at Castle Ward

is the fact that it is split directly in half

between the two sides of the house that built it.

So, Bernard Ward, the first Viscount of Bangor and his wife,

Lady Ann Ward, who came over from Bath.

So, they didn't agree on a lot of things,

but one thing they compromised on was this house.

So, one side of the house,

inside-out, up-down is his classical Georgian style

and the other side, inside-out, up-down, is her Gothic side.

This is the entrance hall. It's Classical Georgian in style.

But this way, it's a very different story.

DOOR CREAKS

The boudoir.

This is probably the most notable room on the Gothic side

and it's quite amazing.

Same fabric all over the walls, on the curtains.

Look at the ceiling.

It's amazing.

There are guided tours available in the afternoons in summer.

A 15-minute tour costs £6.50.

Make sure you don't miss this unique two-sided house.

In the grounds you'll find the original stable yard with

coach houses and even a Victorian laundry.

There is also a gift shop and cafe.

And the historic barn and farmyard at the back of the estate

have plenty for kids with indoor and outdoor play areas.

And if this place looks rather familiar,

it's because Castle Ward was used as the location for Winterfell

in the hit series Game of Thrones.

And if you fancy becoming an extra,

then you can learn a very handy skill.

You even get to dress up and these lads take it pretty seriously.

Yeah, don't worry, I got this.

Where did that go?

Oh...

Not so good.

After a couple of near misses, I'm getting the hang of it.

Boom! SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my God, that was beautiful.

As well as archery, there is another activity to try here,

as 21 miles of new cycling have just opened.

I'm taking the short trail today, which brings me

right along the edge of the Lough and it's geared towards families,

so apparently it's not too difficult.

Let's see.

There are three colour-coded trails to help you decide which

track best suits you.

The all-ability trail I'm following is flat and wide,

suitable for even the rustiest of riders.

Cycling is a perfect way to take in the views of the estate

and they are serious.

Around every single corner, there is something wildly different.

If you're looking for something a little more difficult,

try the boundary trail, which has climbs and takes a bit more skill.

This is Audley's Castle, also seen in Game of Thrones

and the movie Dracula Untold.

It's pretty cool, it's like I'm actually on a film set.

If you want to stay in Castle Ward overnight,

then you can try some camping pods.

A standard pod costs from £38 per night

and you need to bring your own bedding.

There is also a site for pitching tents or pulling up a caravan.

If you're staying for a while and fancy a paddle,

why not hire a Canadian canoe?

This is the perfect way to explore the Lough.

It's a little bit misty, but it kind of makes it even more beautiful.

A half-day hire of a canoe, paddle and buoyancy aid costs from £14.50.

This week we are in Puglia in southern Italy to discover

more about a destination that is a bit off the beaten track

in Italian tourism terms.

So far we've toured the magical town of Alberobello

to see its quirky trullo houses...

..visited some of the world's oldest olive groves,

and gone underground to explore the magnificent caves of Castellana.

Our next stop in Pavilion is Lecce,

home to some of the best Baroque architecture in Italy.

The soft, pinkish limestone of Lecce is easy to work with.

From the 15th century,

Lecce was one of the most important cities in southern Italy.

By the 17th century, its buildings and monuments

were covered in ornate Baroque carvings.

Lecce is a small town in the south of Puglia and for its size,

it's well-known for its high concentration in Baroque architecture,

mainly in its 100 churches.

I mean, you literally cannot turn a corner

without seeing some example of chiselled magnificence.

So much so that Lecce has become known as the Florence of the South.

BICYCLE BELL RINGS

But one thing Lecce doesn't have

that Florence suffers from are the crowds.

This Puglian town is much easier to navigate than its Tuscan cousin.

By the end of the Baroque era, when their skills were no longer

required on grand buildings, the impoverished craftsmen

turned to cheaper and more accessible materials

such as clay and paper to create smaller objects.

This led to the tradition of producing toys and dolls

out of papier mache.

Papier mache is generally something we associate with children's

birthday parties or maybe art projects in school,

but here in Lecce, a tradition has turned into a little industry.

It started back in the 1700s

when they created religious iconography,

little figurines for cribs and they still do that

and they are available here, but they also have local peasant

figures, bouquets of flowers and little clowns

and they are all starting from ten quid,

so you can have your very own piece of Lecce art.

And it lasts forever.

This is the Duomo of Lecce,

probably the finest example of Baroque architecture here.

If you're only here for a day trip, you only have a couple of hours,

I still would highly recommend you pay a visit.

The Cathedral of Lecce was built in 1144.

Five centuries later in 1670, it was fully embellished

in the decorative Baroque style known across Italy as Lecce Baroque.

In every town and village in Puglia, you'll find a great

restaurant or cafe which makes it a fantastic place for a foodie tour.

I've made a special visit to another little town.

Polignano a Mare, especially to visit Mint, a restaurant which you

recommended for bringing a veggie spin to traditional Italian cooking.

Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, I've headed to Cisternino

for a very different, carnivorous experience.

Lisa Barrett from Dublin told us we should come here

and try its famous grilled meat.

Lovely, thank you very much.

The temptation when you are on holiday in Italy is to eat

pasta and bread and drink wine for breakfast, lunch and dinner

and to basically roll home, but there are alternatives.

Really light, wonderful produce and Puglia has got

so many amazing vegetables and they are using them.

This one is a zucchini tagliatelle.

Really light. Delicious.

So I'm told. Here goes.

That is delicious.

It tastes like pasta, al dente.

Really creamy sauce and all raw.

Don't worry, I'll be offsetting it with some ice cream later.

Ciao, hello.

OK, can I have one of these, please?

Eh...ah. Two of these.

Yeah.

Grazie.

Back in Cisternino, once you've given your order to the butcher,

the meat is cooked in the kitchen next door using traditional grills.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Grazie.

You know...

Speaking as a former vegetarian...

This is worth falling off the meat wagon.

Unreal.

I don't think Joe would consider this

a full meal without a side of chicken, but for me it's perfect.

On our website, Ciara O'Doherty from County Carlow

got in touch to recommend that we spend a few hours

in the old town of the capital Bari, and if you only have a few hours,

the best way to see the place is in a rickshaw.

-Hello.

-Ciao! Com es tai?

-Buona, grazie.

You can hire a rickshaw for 15 Euro per day,

take your time and do your own pedalling.

Or pay a bit more and for 35 Euro, you get an hour's guided tour

and someone else does the hard work.

It's a good way to explore the tiny, narrow backstreets.

Everywhere you go in Puglia, food is a big deal.

And one of my most memorable sights is the lovely ladies

hand-rolling fresh pasta in the streets.

They're making orecchiette or little ears.

And they sell this fresh pasta to local restaurants.

You don't have to enrol in a course to have a foodie holiday here.

There is culture and food down every side street.

Most people fly into Bari and head straight for the surrounding

countryside, but there's plenty to see in the city itself.

Here in the Piazza Mercantile you will find the Colonna Infame

or the Column of Shame.

Back in the 15th century, if you were guilty of theft,

owing a debt or bankruptcy, you were brought here, stripped,

your hands tied behind your back and made to straddle this lion.

And any spectators were positively encouraged to spit on you while you were there.

I think that's a bit harsh, frankly.

Bari's a walled city

and your rickshaw tour is a great way to see the fortifications.

Grazie.

This is the Basilica of San Nicola,

the finest example of Apulian Romanesque architecture in Bari.

It is the only church in the world where both Orthodox

and Catholic Mass can be celebrated at the same time.

And this church holds the relics of the patron saint of Bari,

San Nicola, also known as St Nicholas the Wonder Worker.

This saint actually became the inspiration for... Can you guess it?

..Santa Claus, thanks to his good works and generosity.

So, where do you stay in Puglia?

There is plenty of choice, from countryside villas to small B&Bs.

Farmhouse villas or masseria options are very popular,

especially for large families and groups.

At the top end of the market is Villa Masseria Torre Spaccata,

a 17th century estate built around an olive mill.

I particularly liked the gardens that not only have a rather

swish swimming pool and outdoor eating area,

but also a surround sound system.

The Masseria sleeps up to 14.

As well as the main house, there are four individual cottages

scattered across the estate.

Now for the bad news.

It costs from £5,700 per week.

This is a luxury option and for mere mortals, you're going

to have to rope in a few friends to share the hefty price tag.

If you split the costs between six people,

you'll be looking at paying around a grand each per week.

If you prefer to stay in a hotel, a good option in a countryside

location is the Grand Hotel la Chiusa di Chietri.

It's located on the outskirts of Alberobello.

This is a big complex with a good pool,

and as you'd expect in this part of the world, a very good restaurant.

If you want to stay here, then a standard double will cost

you from £85 per room per night for bed and breakfast.

If you're looking for a good value room in a busy location,

then we'd recommend Antico Mondo, a cute bed and breakfast

right in the centre of Polignano a Mare.

It's got a great rooftop terrace with a gorgeous view,

the perfect place to chill out with a sneaky grapa.

A double room here costs from £50 per night.

We organised our trip with Discovery Puglia.

There are two direct flights a week in the summer from Dublin to Bari.

If you'd like any more information, then please visit our website:

Like, I knew nothing about Puglia.

I knew like one person who's parents had been here, right?

But, as loath as I am to use the F word, this is a foodie's paradise.

Lots of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, beautifully prepared

-and I thought very reasonably priced.

-Absolutely.

And...what I love is that most people reference Tuscany

when they come to Italy, and for me, Puglia has everything

and more that Tuscany has, except you melt in more easily.

You become a local more, at least you feel that way, within days.

-It just feels that bit more authentic, doesn't it?

-Definitely.