Puglia, explored in full.

Its land is famously level and luminous, planted with ancient olive trees, vineyards and the wheat of the Tavoliere, the great plain behind Foggia. North rises the wooded promontory of the Gargano, the boot's spur, while the Itria valley at the center is scattered with trulli, the conical drystone houses found nowhere else.

The Pugliese character is open, hospitable and unhurried, shaped by the sea on three sides and by centuries of Greek, Norman and Spanish rule. The cooking is famously poor and famously good, orecchiette and cavatelli made by hand, creamy burrata and stracciatella, the olive oil that flows through every dish, and bread so good that Altamura earned Italy's first DOP loaf.

Come in late spring or early autumn, when the sea is warm, the white towns dazzle and the harvest fills the markets.