Europe Rediscovered 2017 by Private Jet – Puglia, Italy

Puglia, Italy – May 25-27, 2017 – After our stop in Dubrovnik, we flew to Bari and headed out to the countryside of the Italian region of Puglia. Our hotel was a refurbished 14^th century fortified farmhouse, known as a masseria. The next day we started the morning with a visit to Alberobello and admired the unique architecture of small circular stone homes with cone shaped roofs called trulli; it has the most complete collection of these unusual buildings and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We continued our journey to Lecce, the “The Florence of the South”, and enjoyed the architectural monuments. We learned about the history of the area as we visited the Roman Amphitheater, Piazza Sant’Oronzo, and Santa Croce Basilica. We finished our day by putting on our sommelier hats and walked along the vineyards surrounding Castello Monaci. With the 16^th century castle in the background, we learned about grape processing and enjoyed traditional snacks as we tasted samplings of the estate’s most famous wines.

Our next stop was Ostuni. The Mediterranean architecture of the buildings was wonderfully accentuated by the fact that most buildings were painted a bright white. The city is sitting on top of a hill and at the very top we visited their marvelous Gothic Cathedral. We ventured to the town of Polignano a Mare, which was built on the huge limestone cliffs along the coast, and enjoyed a seaside lunch in a large grotto. We finished our day by returning to our hotel to get some rest before we re-board our private jet and fly to Spain in the morning.