As everyone left for summer vacation, I was fending off the blistering heat in Madrid. Madrid’s lack of air conditioning definitely didn’t help. Sweating and tired of heatwaves, I decided to get out of the city and straight into the nearest open body of water I could find, and the cheapest one: I found a flight to Brindisi, the capital of the region of Apulia in southern Italy.
I had been to Milan and Rome but never got to experience the slower pace of southern Italy – and just for €30. Who could pass up this offer? The catch: a Ryanair flight at 5 a.m. with no plan in mind, naturally. Well, beggars can’t be choosers.
Panicked, just three days before I left, I booked a rental car. My goal was to drive through small towns in southern Italy with no plan, only imagining the good food I was about to eat, especially the fresh pasta.
As a chronic overpacker, I struggled to fit everything in the small RyanAir-approved carry-on, but they somehow let me on after sitting on it a few times. Landing in Brindisi, I was sure I’d be denied a car without an international license, but in the south of Italy, no questions were asked. With my state-issued ID from the U.S., keys in hand, I drove past miles of vineyards and beautiful country roads. Alberobello was my first stop.
At first glance, it looked like any small town. But as I walked around, I began to see clusters of white huts called trulli, which gave Alberobello UNESCO World Heritage status. These trulli were built in the 15th century to dodge Spanish taxes — a villager’s loophole.
Just 30 minutes from Alberobello, I reached Polignano a Mare, a town above cliffs with whitewashed houses and amazing views of the water. It was almost as if I were in Greece. I watched the sunset with a bottle of €3 wine and the traditional pasticciotti dessert filled with egg custard.
Heading towards the heel of Italy, I drove to Gagliano del Capo, a hidden gem that took my breath away with its cliffs and transparent water. The Airbnb hosts told me about a place I could hike down to, along the coast, to catch a view of the Ionian Sea. The cliff was in the middle of nowhere, so I got to lay out my towel on a rock and enjoy the views in pure silence.
For dinner, I stopped in Ruffano, a town in the middle of nowhere. To my surprise, it had a Michelin-starred restaurant serving local dishes in creative ways, plating the courses like works of art. One of the most surprising was horse roast beef, a Puglian specialty. I didn’t realize it was a traditional Puglian dish, much less that it was horse, until the waiter told me. Despite my surprise, I ended up enjoying the meal.
The two-hour drive back from the south towards Brindisi revealed another world: Roman ruins and cobbled streets. Leece is nicknamed “the Florence of the South” for its limestone architecture.
As I returned to Brindisi, I didn’t think my trip could get any better. But then I took a cooking class in a historic home that turned out to be my highlight. The class turned out to be less about cooking and more about cultural exchange, giving me the chance to meet and connect with the family who runs it. The hostess greeted me with cooking classes on orecchiette, the traditional pasta shape of Apuglia and told me stories about her family’s farm while kneading pasta dough. She told me that her ability to offer these cooking classes came from her farm and her deep love for cooking, stemming from her family’s support in the field.
We shared stories and, despite the language barrier and with the help of a mini game of charades, we managed to get our ideas across. After learning to make the shape, we eventually got to try it. The hostess invited her whole family to have lunch with the class and talk about their lives. Suddenly, I was the newest member of her family.
