Gourmet Puglia

Welcome to Italy! Check into your hotel. The rest of the day is free for you to explore with the help of the CosmosGO app. Tonight, meet your Tour Director and travel companions.

Start your Puglia discovery with a guided sightseeing tour of Bari. This seaside city skirting the Adriatic Sea boasts Italy's longest waterfront and an interesting maze of alleyways, courtyards, and historical palaces. When strolling through the narrow streets of Bari vecchia (old Bari), pause to marvel at the local women preparing typical Apulian orecchiette pasta, made traditionally by hand. Today's Distance: 46 mi/ 75 km (B/D)

Get to know the host town of your Puglia foodie adventure on an orientation tour. Discover local cheese and "capocollo" ham. Of course, you will have an opportunity to taste some of these traditional delicacies. Today's Distance: 13 mi/ 20 km (B)

On the included half-day excursion to Alberobello, discover the iconic Trulli. These dwellings, dating from as early as the mid-14th century, are made of roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighboring fields. Characteristically, they feature pyramidal, domed, or conical roofs built of corbelled limestone slabs. These remarkable Trulli houses were included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in 1996. The rest of your day is at leisure. Today's Distance: 17 mi/ 28 km (B)

Spend some time discovering Martina Franca on your own, rest, or consider an optional excursion to Altamura, city of ancient palaces, churches and cloisters, known in Italy and beyond for its loaves of bread baked in wood-burning ovens and prepared according to ancient tradition; and Matera, one of the oldest, still inhabited cities in the world preserving evidence of human settlements since the Palaeolithic period in its natural caves carved into the rock. (B)

One of the highlights of this tour is the included day trip to Lecce. This seaside city enchants visitors with an unmistakable style, boasting monuments dating back to Roman times and, most notably, extraordinary baroque buildings that proudly bare the characteristic blonde colour of the local stone. The city centre's vibrant and bustling atmosphere will entice you with its elegant, timeless alleyways and delicious local delicacies, such as the "pasticciotto," made with sweet short pastry and typically filled with a delicious Italian custard.

Learn more about regional food by joining the exciting, included cooking class, to learn hands-on how to prepare traditional orecchiette pasta and savour it with other local specialties, paired with local wines, and good company. Today's Distance: 62 mi/ 100 km (B/L)

Learn about olive oil and acquire a taste for different olive oil flavours on the included tour of a local olive farm. Continue the exploration of local towns with great traditions by spending time in Ostuni, where the ancient citadel was built on top of a hill and fortified by walls. The town is commonly referred to as "the White Town" (La Citta Bianca in Italian) for its white walls and its typically white-painted architecture. Today's Distance: 37 mi/ 59 km (B)

Your Puglia holiday ends with breakfast this morning. (B)