At the beginning of every year, The New York Times travel section publishes a popular list of ‘52 Places to Go’ in the year ahead. For 2019, two Italian regions have made it into the list, Puglia, which took the number 18 spot, and Liguria at 25th.
“Baroque architecture and Adriatic beaches in the heel of Italy,” says the subheading on the paragraph explaining why Puglia is featured in the list. One reason is the restoration of masserie, ancient fortified farmhouses typical of the region, which are being turned into boutique hotels. Another reason is the increasingly vivacious wine scene. Not many perhaps are aware that wine culture in Puglia goes back 1,000 years, when the Greeks settling in southern Italy planted vines. And now the legendary Tuscany-based Antinori winery, known for its Chianti production, is expanding into the region; it even opened a bistro in Lecce. The Times also mentions the 2019 scheduled opening of the Virgin Galactic spaceport in Grottaglie (Taranto), where Virgin plans to test flights of its Galactic’s passenger spaceplane, designed to take passengers into suborbital space.
See our coverage of Puglia here.
“A rare unspoiled gem on the Italian Riviera” opens the paragraph on Liguria’s Golfo Paradiso; The Times points out how, just a few miles from overcrowded spots like Portofino, Cinque Terre and Porto Venere, “remains a peaceful sliver of coastline rarely explored by travelers to the region.” (Which nowadays poses the question, what effect is the coverage from a widely popular media outlet going to have on a destination little known to the masses? The peacefulness that supposedly is the attraction will remain so?) The Times recommends such villages as Camogli and Recco, famous for its focaccia, the Romanesque Abbey of San Fruttuoso, besides the excellent local cuisine, which includes trofie pasta with pesto.
See our coverage of Liguria here.
