Experiences
Be a traveller, not a tourist!
If you are looking for famous spots to take instagram pictures, if you want to eat the best club sandwich or the best flat white, if you have a list of places that you want to tick off… well probably you landed on the wrong page! As travellers ourselves, we like real authentic experiences! We realise that what we often talk about telling our travel stories are those moments when something happens unexpectedly, a person you have met, a religious or traditional event you ran into… problems even! The best memories are linked to moments of everyday life, authentic and genuine, that are usually not planned!
This is what we try to offer with our tours and guidance! Of course we plan! Of course there are things that we keep repeating, but our attitude is to live them as it was the first time!
This is what the word “experience” means to us! This what you can experience if you travel with us!
Wine
Travelling throughout Puglia (and Basilicata too) without talking about wine is quite difficult! Did you know that the 20 percent of the Italian wine comes from our area?
There are so many ways to include a wine experience in your trip: visiting one of the local wineries and sample their products, going for a “wine tour” where besides the actual visit of a town you stop trying different wines, arranging a proper wine tasting in a local wine bar or a meeting with a local expert to talk about the local production…
Let us know what you are up for and we will plan with you a unique way to enjoy a memorable experience!
Cheese
Hard time for all lactose intolerant people! Cheese plays an important role in our culture! We aren’t really famous for Parmigiano or Gorgonzola and in general for rich, aged cheese typical of Northern Italy. In Puglia, Basilicata, and all over Southern Italy we tend of preferring daily made products!
Probably due to the fact that in our humid and hot environment is hard to age things for long, but you will be impressed by the amount of mozzarella (especially cow milk) and ricotta we produce every day and you will notice all the tracks that every day deliver milk to the “caseifici” (cheese producers).
Have you ever wondered how burrata or mozzarella are made? what about ricotta? Would you like to see how this world works and to try some fresh cheese just made?
Olive oil
Even though we are facing a terrible disease killing million of olive trees, Puglia is still the biggest producer of olive oil in Italy and olive oil, for us, is more that just a way of dressing a salad; olive oil is absolutely part of our culture! If you ask a local mum she will tell you to drink a tea spoon of olive oil in the morning because it is helthy, to spread on your belly if you are pregnant, to use it for you hair to nourish them…
Besides trying learning how to find out is an olive oil is good quality, you can also learn to taste different flavours for different dishes and find out where the pit (the stone) goes during the production!
Did you know that olive oil in the past was produced underground? Well… it wasn’t actually meant to cook with, but used as fuel and lubricant all over Europe… If you are now curious enough, plan to add an olive oil experience to your trip!
Cooking
All over the world people eat to fuel up, to have energy during the day and being productive. In Italy, in Southern Italy in particular, eating is part of life… I know… everybody says that… But what is the actual meaning? Let start from the ingredients: if your tomatoes come from a person that you know or a plant that you see growing in your back yard, I am sure that will be more than just food; if you start cooking using fresh simple ingredients it will take time and time means sharing and chatting with whoever is with you; cooking for someone is also an act of love, it is the way to show that you really care; cooking is also eating together, building relationships, making new friends…
Now you know why we love sitting at the table (not on the couch) for so long, now you know why we talk about food all the time and share recipes with people we like… This is what a cooking class is supposed to be! Not only a practical way of learning some cooking tricks, but especially becoming part of a culture, experience and getting in touch with our country and our people!
Workshops
The 95% of the Italian businesses are family businesses. There are several reasons for that (if you want to ask more about you should book a cultural walking tour), but for sure one of them is that we are a country of craftsmen! There are still a lot of small producers and designers that create unique objects.
During our walking tours we always like to talk about some iconic artisanal traditions, but we also like to focus even more the attention on this specific aspect and we organise moments where a craftsman is at your disposal to teach and work with you putting hands on. This can be extremely fun also for kids!
Talk to us
Have any questions? Book your TOP GUIDE! Find a local expert to show you all the secret corners and to explain you our art and hystory.