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The colours of Puglia

PUGLIA BY COLOURS

Visiting Puglia is like walking through a vibrant landscape painted in hues of greens and blues. But like our food, the colour palette is seasonal. And as tastes and dishes change as you travel across our region so too do the colours of Puglia.

Specchiolla

A stretch of beach between Torre Santa Sabina and Torre Guaceto. The colours of Italy are all around.

The Big Guide to Beaches

Presidenza Regione Puglia

The offices of the Presidente della Regione Puglia sitting on the Lungomare Nazario Sauro are a prominent feature of Bari’s seafront.

The Big Guide to Bari (coming soon)

For the love of food

Food as art. The colours of Italy are all around.

Discover more

 Three colours green

You may still be planning your trip to Puglia. Or you have already arrived (Big Puglia where to stay FAQ). After a few days relaxing on the beach now it’s time to discover the diversity Puglia has to offer.

Let the colours of Puglia be your guide ...

Heritage green

Lecce | Serranova | Torre Incina

The creamy white of the limestone Baroque buildings that dazzle when the sun shines and the azzurro of the Salento sky that frame them may well be the colours associated with Lecce. But look a little closer and you’ll discover the old town’s faded history. The lost glory of a once prosperous Baroque Lecce, sleepy in the summer heat.

Lecce’s old town has many interesting corners. Follow the footfall. It will take you from Porta Rudiae (see where to park for free in our Big Guide to Lecce) to Piazza Sant’Oronzo. The perfect way to enter the old town and pass through its heart.

Take time to amble along the streets that sit in the inverted triangle formed by connecting lines drawn from the duomo to the amphitheatre on the piazza Sant’Oronzo and from each of them to Porta San Biagio.

Follow the colours of Lecce.

Lunch | Doppiozero | €€ - €€€
Dinner | Bar Moro | €€ | Tabisca | €€€
Shopping | Society Limonta | €€€€€ | Uru | €€€

Olive green

Lecce | Serranova | Torre Incina

Puglia produces about 40% of all of Italy’s olive oil, with an estimated 60 million olive trees, including some extraordinarily ancient ones.

Visit the groves running along the road from Serranova to Torre Guaceto, some 8km or so towards the south-east of Ostuni.

The best trees - some over a thousand years old, their trunks wrapping around the gnarled base before splitting and walking away from their other parts -  sit in the section just before and after the railway track between Serranova and the coast.

How to get there | Take the Serranova exit on the SS16 (the same exit for the Torre Guaceto reserve). From Brindisi cross the bridge over the inland side of the highway which is the SP37, from Bari turn right onto the SP37. After about 1 km you will start driving through the olive grove.

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Aqua green

Lecce | Serranova | Torre Incina

Cala Incina sits by Torre Incina between Monopoli and Polignano a Mare. Popular with locals from both towns it has a small sandy beach although most bathe on the rocky shelves around the cove.

Along the cove on the Polignano side of the tower is one of the Valle d’Itria’s best known gay and nudist beaches. Park by the tower, but instead of heading down to the main beach walk towards Polignano a Mare.

Torre Incina beach, situated between Polignano a Mare and Monopoli is a narrow rocky cove. The beach is popular with nudists and has a gay nudist beach | Photo © the Puglia Guys for the Big Gay Podcast from Puglia guides to gay Puglia, Italy’s top gay summer destination

Facilities | none.

How to get there | From Bari take the last exit on the SS16 for Polignano (Polignano Sud area craft), cross the junction and get on the complanare (the road that runs in parallel either side of the highway) sea side towards Monopoli. After about 3 km you will see the tower. Turn left for the parking area. The main beach is down to the right, the nudist beach further along the cove on the left. | From Brindisi exit the SS16 at Monopoli Nord onto the complanare sea side. The tower is about 600 m towards Polignano.

Torre Incina beach, situated between Polignano a Mare and Monopoli is a narrow rocky cove. The beach is popular with nudists and has a gay nudist beach | Photo © the Puglia Guys for the Big Gay Podcast from Puglia guides to gay Puglia, Italy’s top gay summer destination

GO DEEPLY INTO PUGLIA

The endless olive groves stretching as far as the eye can see and clusters of trulli are both reasons to visit the Valle d’Itria. Indeed, no trip to Puglia would be complete without visiting Polignano a Mare, eating seafood by the old port in Monopoli and exploring the trulli. But even with a dash of Lecce and shot of Otranto you would still be experiencing what most of Puglia’s visitors experience. And while the Valle d’Itria may draw the majority of Puglia’s visitors, it’s Salento that puts the “extra” into extraordinary.

"We are in Puglia."

~ Angela Merkel