Apulia. Art Nature History Flavours

Testi di Stefania Mola

Traduzione di Christina Jenkner

Apulia is a diverse region in terms of geography and morphology as well as regarding its historical and cultural aspects. In fact, there is still somebody talking about this region in the plural, “Le Puglie”, referring to the many microcosms composing its complex identity. This mainly flat region extends along the sea, poor in bodies of water and yet rich in underground water and karst phenomena. A tormented landscape made of limestone, red soil, monumental trees, dry riverbeds and endless cultivated plains. A history and culture epitomized by its “subregions”: Capitanata and the Gargano, Terra di Bari, Murge, Valle d’Itria and Salento, which are not mere geographical names but rather the elements of a fascinating mosaic formed – across time - by the meeting of different civilizations favoured by the Mediterranean Sea. A mosaic made of sand and rock, lush mountains and wheat fields, orchards and olive groves, rocky hills, still lagoons and underground cavities. Over the centuries, this landscape has been transformed by man’s hard work, making this eternally dry land fertile and rich, marking it with numerous dolmens and menhirs, castles and cathedrals, abbeys and sanctuaries, museums and palaces, villas and “masserie”, watchtowers and “trulli”.