4668 Gargano et al

Well, I have only visited Puglia once, and I suppose I stuck pretty well to the tourist trail - the Gargano peninsular, which I found quite the lovliest bit of coastline I have yet seen in Italy (though I haven't visited Conero, or anywhere further south than Puglia); the trulli at Alberobello; Ostuni; Martina Franca; and Castel del Monte - but what struck me most about the houses and farmsteads on the roads I travelled was how extraordinarily stockbrokerbelt-ish it all was! I had expected "visible poverty" - but I found quite the opposite.

The whole of Puglia is festering with wonderful castles, mostly built by Federico, and the sea defences (not only at Bari and Taranto, which are particularly famous) are fascinating. You can be walking along a nice bit of entirely deserted beach and suddenly come upon an ancient watchtower, in the middle of nowhere - just waiting for an invader.

One place I didn't visit (though I have since been told the old town is very interesting, and the castle is spectacular) is Manfredonia. The trouble was, I approached via a road which was lined with oil refinery, and dismissed any thought of breaking through this "industrial belt" to investigate what lay beyond.

I think any visit will be more rewarding if you do a bit of research beforehand - I suppose that is true for everywhere - but Puglia doesn't seem to have the same level of "tourist signposting" as, say Tuscany, and it would be a shame to miss somewhere like Manfredonia.