The Valle d'Itria, the southern part of the Murge, a charming corner of Puglia. Nature and history in one of the most beautiful corners of Italy, where white towns, olive groves, trulli, rock churches, pleasant hospitality and excellent cuisine make this splendid Apulian area, the Valle d'Itria, unique. At Christmas our children gave us a night's stay with breakfast to be chosen among the accommodations listed in one of the gift boxes that today allow you to make an unusual and nice gift, like the one our children received, thus spurring us to visit a place that had long been in our travel plans in Italy, the Valle d'Itria in Puglia. Having extended our stay to visit this southern part of the Murge, we chose to stay at the Masseria Selvaggi of Gregorio Soleti, in via Galante Menzella, Località Selvaggi in Ceglie Messàpica.
For the choice of the Masseria Selvaggi, the beautiful website had already shown us a pleasant, well-kept, spacious environment and the subsequent reviews read on Tripadvisor had convinced us that we could comfortably opt for this masseria. The strategic position of the Masseria Selvaggi was another card that played in favour of preferring it to others, as it is centrally located with respect to Ostuni, Ceglie Messàpica, Martina Franca, Cisternino, Locorotondo, Alberobello and Castellana Grotte, that is, all the places we had decided to get to know and that make the Valle d'Itria an enchanted place. Direct flight Treviso - Brindisi, rental car and in a few hours we arrived at the Masseria Selvaggi.
It was a winning, satisfying choice because it gave us great satisfaction, both for the confirmed position in the Valle d'Itria and for the carefully renovated environment, typical of the area, with its trulli and the masseria, but at the same time functional, clean, well equipped and masterfully managed by the splendid Mr Gregorio, who then became just Gregorio for his friendliness and kindness. It is precisely Gregorio who manages to win the sympathy of his guests because, with his always attentive, cordial, helpful manner, careful not to be intrusive but always ready to understand the wishes of those who are lucky enough to spend a holiday in his Masseria Selvaggi, he makes you never forget having met him, got to know him, having pleasantly chatted about anything with him, even if not strictly related to our holiday.
The tasty breakfasts with almond pastries, the homemade taralli, his mother's cheese, the friselle prepared before our eyes, the fresh broad beans and whatever else the attentive Gregorio makes available to his guests, meant that we too, like everyone who stays in his Masseria Selvaggi, felt at home. All this accompanied by Gregorio's willingness to give advice, exchange a few words, tell us what not to miss when visiting the Valle d'Itria, direct us to very pleasant little places where we could dine savouring the exquisite local cuisine, etc. made this holiday unforgettable, both for the places visited, both for the exquisite people met and both for the special helpfulness of Gregorio towards those who stay at Masseria Selvaggi.
How to get to Gregorio's is simple, following the Strada Provinciale 14 from Ostuni towards Martina Franca, at the crossroads with the Ceglie Messàpica - Cisternino, unmistakable for the statue of Padre Pio, you continue towards Martina Franca, you pass under the railway bridge and having just passed the Grotta Figazzano road sign you take the first left, another 400 metres and on the left is the gate of the Masseria Selvaggi. You have arrived at... your home. If you go to Ceglie Messàpica, don't miss enjoying the hospitality you will find at the Osteria Antico Arco, in via Celso 4 in the historic centre, a nice little place finished with exposed stone, with few seats, quiet, which offers traditional Apulian cuisine also offering customers typical products made in house, from orecchiette to pecorino, from pancetta to figs with almonds, etc.
The menu is not extensive, but what you savour is prepared home-style, respectful of the recipes of the past, savoury, tasty and genuine, all accompanied by good local wines. An excellent choice in the very heart of the historic centre of Ceglie Messàpica. A tip... talk to the mother of the young but talented restaurateur and you will find a person very happy to explain how their excellent dishes are prepared. Another spot-on choice is Terranostra, again in the historic centre, via Vico III Monte 28, connected to the Bedroom Frammenti d'Itria, it is a nice place, carefully furnished, with a welcome unobtrusive sobriety, quiet, where the internal atmosphere made us feel at ease.
The cuisine is of an excellent standard, the menu offers meat or fish dishes prepared very well and some a little unusual for the region, such as the pork fillet scaloppine with balsamic vinegar, fish in various crusts, etc. that is, dishes that break away from the constraint of tradition to offer customers unusual but always tasty flavours. The cordiality and friendliness we encountered made the dinner eaten at Terranostra particularly pleasant, as was the very welcome subsequent exchange of ideas with the manager, who explained to us the reason for his gastronomic choices, also unusual for that land, but necessary to present novelties that would win over the customers. Obviously, also in the other various places visited we found cordiality and good cuisine.
How can we forget, for example, the butcher-shops with ovens scattered around the historic centre of Cisternino, where the chosen meat is cooked on the spot and then savoured calmly at one of the small wooden tables made available by the butcher's shop itself. How can we forget the homemade orecchiette seasoned with the fragrant tomato of the south, three basil leaves and a grating of homemade pecorino. Almost everywhere we had the luck to taste the traditional Apulian cuisine, the genuineness of a cuisine capable of delighting our palates with the flavours that today, unfortunately often, we remember as those of our childhood, the ones our grandmother used to prepare for us.
We didn't feel the slightest need to visit the coastal places, the sea of the south, as more than one person asked us to, since the environment we encountered in the Valle d'Itria was of a unique beauty, an unexpected environment, where the olive trees, the trulli and the white villages create an almost unreal atmosphere, where the eyes roam among the hills of this magical valley, scanning the trulli emerging from the green scrub of the olive groves and the dominant, accentuated white purity of the villages perched on the surrounding hills. The Valle d'Itria? A beautiful journey, in an environment that fulfilled our expectations and that we recommend with eyes closed to anyone who wants to get to know this charming corner of Puglia. Have a good trip. Wanda & Giancarlo
Day 125 Apr 2010
Reaching the destination of this trip of ours, the Val d'Itria
On 25 April 2010, with an unexpected Swiss-clock punctuality, the direct lowcost Treviso - Brindisi flight took us into an environment that, however much we had seen and seen again on the Internet to plan what to visit, left us like a child discovering the surprise in an Easter egg, almost speechless at the particularity of a valley where the trulli seem almost like mushrooms sprouting among the green scrub of the olive groves. An almost childish sensation that brings the mind back to the world of fairies and elves. This was the sensation we felt wandering through the Itria Valley, in particular between Ostuni and Martina Franca, where the trullo is not a shop for tourists as in Alberobello, but is an everyday dwelling, just as a house is for us.
Having arrived at Masseria Selvaggi in the late afternoon, the time available allowed us only to meet the owner Gregorio, who, very kindly, after settling us in one of his beautiful lodgings, immediately gave us the first tips for getting to know the nearby Cisternino in the evening, where we had a preview of what would be the narrow alleys of the towns we would visit in the Itria Valley.
06-05 - Massafra - Rock dwellings
Day 226 Apr 2010
Off to our discovery of the Val d'Itria
Our wandering through this splendid part of Puglia took place from 26 to 29 April 2010, while the 30th was the return day, when a direct lowcost Brindisi - Treviso flight brought us back to the daily reality of our home. What can I say about the places visited in the Itria Valley… I have no words to describe this enchanting valley, an environment unexpected for anyone who has a stereotype in mind about the south, a wonderful valley, extremely well cared for, with enviable olive groves, a territory where the industriousness of the residents is utterly palpable, where the pride of living on this land is expressed without fear of overdoing it, precisely because the hard work needed to maintain what you experience in the Itria Valley is considerable.
Even the towns are gems of architecture typical of the south, where the blinding white of the buildings stands out sharply against the blue sky, creating contrasts that make the landscapes of the Itria Valley unique. Ostuni, the White City par excellence, but also Cisternino, Locorotondo, Ceglie Messapica are no less in having allowed us to walk through their historic centres wandering in a maze of alleys, often connected to one another by stairways, creating an up-and-down as these little towns perch on the hilltops of the local hills.
Then Alberobello with its trulli, where in the part close to the town they are still inhabited, almost as a bulwark of their real function compared to the commercial use of the opposite nucleus, where the old trulli today are a succession of shops for tourists, activities that, moreover, allow the town to live off the large tourist flow that has arisen precisely because of the presence of these characteristic dwellings of the past. The route towards Martina Franca is also beautiful, where a succession of perfectly preserved and inhabited trulli makes you understand how life unfolds inside them, where a set of rooms perfectly fulfils today's residential functions, with the thick walls also guaranteeing a thermal stability that modern buildings do not have.
Obviously not to be missed is the nearby Castellana Grotte, where the guided tour of the caves of the same name allows you to understand the evolution of the concretions that form the whole of this world of pinnacles and slender columns, all of which can be toured through very practical and safe paths that allow us to admire stalactites and stalagmites in a play of lights that brings out all their beauty. Other gems to visit, for those seeking the history of the people who lived in the past, are the rock churches scattered throughout this territory, small caves with frescoes and a stone altar where the religious functions of the past were held. With a guided tour, the only way that allows you to enter these caves otherwise closed by iron gates, we saw those of Mottola, three rock churches where those of San Giovanni and San Nicola offer the visitor the sight of well-preserved frescoes.
After saying goodbye to the guide at the end of the visit to the rock church of San Gregorio, my wife and I ended the day in Mottola visiting, only from above, the Gravina di Petruscio, a set of caves close to the stream that could be glimpsed at the bottom of the gravina itself, a sort of canyon surely generated over the centuries by the flow of water, that water that was a vital element for those who lived in these natural hollows.
The advice I can give to those interested is to find out carefully about the visiting hours because otherwise you risk arriving at the place and seeing nothing, as happened to us in Massafra, where we also wanted to visit the Farmacia del Mago Greguro and the gravine, but this was not possible because access was closed outside opening hours and we contented ourselves with visiting the Madonna della Scala, with its frescoes, in the locality of Torre Pinta, just outside the town of Massafra. All of this was done with a do-it-yourself approach that we have been using for years so as not to be tied to schedules and souvenirs of organised trips, which gives an even more particular flavour to giving shape to what had been sought over time in the great well of the Internet.
09-01 - Ostuni
Day 330 Apr 2010
The return home and the memories of the trip
On 30 April 2010, with the same Swiss-clock punctuality as the departure, the direct lowcost Brindisi - Treviso flight brought us back to everyday reality, a reality, however, that has been enriched by another piece of the puzzle of our travels, a puzzle that we will continue to enlarge because travelling also broadens the way we see the world around us every day, enriching us culturally and socially.
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