Puglia, the remote heel of Italy's boot, dramatically combines fairytale cottages, Baroque churches and Pagan dances. This captivating region is served by two airports in the towns of Bari and Brindisi, but the area is not an obvious destination for foreign visitors. Italian families return every year in July and August to the half-board hotels, campsites and tourist villages that proliferate the coast. But handsome Baroque towns such as Martina Franca and the engaging Lecce - the 'Florence of the Baroque', see only a handful of visitors each day. And if you decide to explore some of the area's more remote Basilian chapels or prehistoric dolmens, you will be gloriously alone.

NEAR FASANO
BORGO SAN MARCO
Contrada Sant'Angelo 33, Fasano (00 39 338 613 0268; www.borgosanmarco.it). Borgo San Marco has been in owner Alessandro Amati's family since the 18th century, and since 2002, the property has been run as an agriturismo, open from April to October (the rest of the year it operates as a farm), with eight suites in the main building and four in converted stables. Two new suites are due to open in the summer 2005. Although some restoration work has been undertaken, the look is tastefully bare: limestone floors, exposed stone walls and wooden shutters, and antique (or antique-looking) furniture. ££

MASSERIA SAN DOMENICO
Strada Litoranea 379, Savelletri di Fasano (00 39 080 482 7769; www.imasseria.com). This is Il Melograno's main competitor, situated 15km further down the coast in Savelletri di Fasano. A sort of hyper-masseria, the San Domenico was built by the Knights of Malta in the 15th century. It is run with clockwork efficiency and has a driving range and putting green, tennis courts, a fitness centre and a huge, landscaped seawater pool. Overlooking pretty, manicured gardens and paved walkways, the 50 rooms range from doubles and junior suites (with outdoor terraces) to the San Domenico Suite, housed in a 17th-century building, with two double bedrooms and a 25-square-metre terrace. The hotel's spa offers thalassotherapy on a grand scale as well as treatments using the Masseria's own range of olive-oil-based products. There is a private beach 500 metres away on the rocky coastline and transport around the 100-hectare estate is by golf buggy. £££

MASSERIA TORRE COCCARO
Contrada Coccaro, 8, Savelletri di Fasano (00 39 080 482 9310; fax: 482 7992; www.masseriatorrecoccaro.com). Set within the olive grove region of Puglia's Fasano planes, the hotel has 33 rooms each with its own private little garden. Two rooms are set in ancient caves, one of which has a private pool and its own orchard. Antiques from local markets and upholstery fabrics in neutral linens and wine-red silks decorate the rooms, while the sitting rooms are hung with art on loan from a gallery in Bari. The lake-style pool slopes down from the outdoor bar/restaurant to a little diving platform and the subterranean Aveda spa has a Jacuzzi and steam room. ££

MASSERIA TORRE MAIZZA
Contrada Coccaro, Savelletri di Fasano, Puglia (00 39 080 482 7838; www.masseriatorremaizza.com). Bought in 2005 by the Muolo family, this 16th-century, fortified farmhouse originally stood guard against invasions from Saracen pirates. The family have restored it well, whitewashing the walls until they dazzle, and reviving all its historic features: the stone olive press is now used as a table. Just outside the farm's perimeter, the lovely bedrooms and suites are housed in a one-storey block which you would never guess was built two years ago. They have thick walls and traditional fireplaces and are decorated in an elegant palette of black, navy and cream. Maizza's look is much more contemporary than that of its sister hotel Coccaro (see above), and it attracts a younger crowd. The outdoor bar, perfect for an aperitif, is furnished with teak Balinese sofas and huge white lanterns, the restaurant serves delicious risotto with Gorgonzola and orecchiette pasta with tomatoes, followed by beautifull presented, tender lobster and beef with rocket and truffle oil. There is also an Aveda spa. Nearby is the medieval walled city of Ostuni, with its narrow, stone streets and hilltop citadel. Masseria Torre Maizza was featured in The Hot List 2007. ££

IN GALATINA
PALAZZO BALDI
Corte Baldi, Galatina (00 39 0836 568 345; www.hotelpalazzobaldi.com). Few of the region's three-or-four-star hotels rise above the local norm; one of the few exceptions is this four-star hotel, a tasteful renovation of a 16th-century bishop's house in Galatina. £

IN LECCE
PATRIA PALACE HOTEL
Piazzetta Riccardi 13, Lecce (00 39 0832 245 111; www.sheraton.com). This is the hotel of choice in Lecce. Although targeted mainly at businessmen, its central position, between Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the Basilica di Santa Croce, makes it a prefect base for tourists. The sober five-star décor is given a twist with Art Nouveau detailing including a marvellous stained-glass skylight. £

IN MARITTIMA DI DISO
IL CONVENTO DI SANTA MARIA DI COSTANTINOPOLI
Via Convento, Marittima di Diso (07736 362328). Lord and Lady McAlpine's B&B, situated in a tiny fishing village on the coast of Otranto. B&B could be a reductive term for this converted 15th-century convent whose eight guestrooms are filled with Moroccan carpets, Indian ceramics and Aboriginal paintings from the family's extensive collection. Informality is the key and paying guests should be prepared to join in the house-party atmosphere. Breakfast is a landslide of fruit, pastries, a dozen types of jam, fresh yoghurt and herbal teas. The colonnaded courtyard is the heart of the house, where guests waft in and out to lie on cushions, or drink mint tea. Books are everywhere, but nothing so intrusive as a newspaper, televisions or telephone. Il Convento di Santa Maria di Constantinopoli was featured in The Hot List 2004. ££

NEAR MONOPOLI
IL MELOGRANO
Contrada Torricella 345, Monopoli (00 39 080 690 9030; www.melograno.com). This is the pick of the crop, a converted 17th-century masseria (fortified farmhouse) set back from the coast near the fishing port of Monopoli. Owned and run by art collector Camillo Guerra and his family, the hotel extends around an arcaded courtyard coloured by bougainvillea, lavender, stone pines and the pomegranates (melograni) that give the place its name. Behind the vaguely Spanish main building is a small swimming pool and an ancient, walled agrumeto (citrus grove) with orange and lemon trees. The in-house restaurant does excellent gourmet versions of Puglian specialities. The hotel's only downside is its fussy, chintzy furnishings, which clash with the Mediterranean simplicity of the exterior. Guests (who have included Giorgio Armani) also have access to La Peschiera, a beachside restaurant in a converted 17th-century Bourbon fishery, with a large seawater pool and thalassotherapy spa. In May 2003, eight delicious cream-and-pastel rooms and three suites with ironwork four-poster beds were inaugurated here, all with sea views: unless you turn up well out of season (La Peschiera is only open from April to October), these are definitely the rooms to go for. ££

NEAR OSTUNI
IL FRANTOIO
SS16, km 874, Ostuni (00 39 0831 330 276; www.trecolline.it). Those on a tight budget should explore the numerous aziende agrituristiche (farm-holiday centres) that Puglia offers. One of the more welcoming is this old, whitewashed olive farm, complete with underground olive press, and not far from the 'white city' of Ostuni. Courteous, scholarly owner Armando Balestrazzi is a fount of local knowledge. The bedrooms, decorated with ornate cast-iron bedsteads and rustic antiques, open onto book-lined communal spaces. Based on products from the farm or sourced from the immediate surroundings, meals are sensational, nine-course marathons masterminded by the mistress of the house, Rosalba Ciannamea. £

LA SOMMITÀ RELAIS CULTI
Via Scipione Petrarolo 7, Ostuni (00 39 0831 305 925; www.lasommita.com). Alessandro Agrati, founder and creative director of Culti, the Italian interior-design company that specialises in pared-down furniture and accessories, bought a derelict 16th-century palazzo high up in the whitewashed hill town of Ostuni in Puglia and meticulously converted it into La Sommità Relais Culti. The contemporary interior, which uses a palette of white, ecru and mocha, compliments the vaulted ceilings and exposed stone of the original structure; and the nine suites have an open-plan feel, with bathrooms separated from bedrooms by a glass screen. The laid-back lifestyle promoted by the Culti stores is replicated at the hotel: guests take their à-la-carte breakfast whenever they please. Bread and muffins with fruit plucked from the hotel's garden are baked; alternatively, the chef can prepare a favourite breakfast dish. The lunch and dinner menus feature southern Italian recipes, with an emphasis on fish and the hotel's organic vegetables. At the spa, local olive oil and mandarin have been added to the Culti treatment oils. Book Suite 8, 'La Palma', with its wide, stone balcony and sea view. ££

NEAR OTRANTO
THE APULIAN FARMHOUSE
Book through Hush (0161 492 1392; www.hush-italy.com). Built in 1878 in the quiet countryside outside Otranto, the Apulian Farmhouse has recently been restored to its former glory. All 29 rooms have elegant iron beds and sofas, and open directly onto the garden, which has a large pool. T'ai chi classes and massages are available, and there are bikes for local exploration.

IN SANTA MARIA DI LEUCA
VILLA LA MERIDIANA
(00 39 0833 758 242; www.attiliocaroli.it). This is one of the coastal resort's eclectic belle-époque villas, which has been turned into a luxury, two-bedroomed suite surrounded by a garden which gives onto a private beach. The Caroli group, which runs this and other hotels on the Salento coast, also acts as middleman for a selection of other quality Puglian rentals, including accommodation in trulli in and around Alberobello, and a six-berth yacht. £

Puglia sums up all that is best about Mediterranean cuisine: top-quality local produce (including olives, tomatoes, courgettes, chickpeas, some of Italy's best cheeses and a succulent range of fruits) combined and prepared in the simplest of ways, without fancy sauces. Friselle - crunchy bread rings, softened in water, are best sampled with a topping of tiny local tomatoes, olive oil and oregano. The traditional local pasta - Orecchiette or 'little ears' - is classically served with cime di rape (turnip tops). Puglia's historic links with the Arab and Byzantine worlds led local cooks to experiment with spices, chilli (which goes in olio santo, the local, fortified olive oil) and aubergines. White fish was always a rich man's luxury, but 'poor' seafood such as mussels, sea urchins and anchovies have a solid place in the regional tradition.
Some of the best local restaurants are family operations that have gone upmarket without betraying their home-cooking roots.

IN CAROVIGNO

GIA SOTTO L'ARCO
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 71 (00 39 0831 996 286). Owner Teodosio Buongiorno took over this traditional osteria from his parents in 1998 and turned it into one of Puglia's top restaurants. The interior is jazzily elegant, the cuisine is adventurous but still faithful to local tradition in dishes such as pasta with ricotta and wild fennel on a base of sour tomato sauce and pigeon with redcurrant sauce. The desserts, too, are a treat, and the final bill is gratifyingly light. Closed Monday.

IN TRANI

TORRENTE ANTICO
Via Fusco 3 (00 39 0883 487 911). This is the fiefdom of chef-sommelier Savino Pasquadibisceglie, who has one of the longest wine lists - not to mention surnames, in southern Italy. Inside, a few tables are laid out in a small, barrel-vaulted room with bare sandstone walls. The menu varies according to the day's catch; raw oysters with walnuts could be an improvised antipasto; a primo might consist of a delicate tagliolini with courgette flowers, mussels and mint, while secondi are dominated by fresh grilled fish and seafood. Closed Sunday evening and Monday.

IN LECCE

PICTON
Via Idomeneo 14 (00 39 0832 332 383). This does a fine line in upmarket local cooking, both land- and sea-based, at a surprisingly reasonable price. Closed Monday.

Puglia also has an army of unpretentious osterie where you can eat well at a reasonable price. These include:

LA TRADIZIONE
Via Imbriani 11-13 (00 39 0883 691 690). Located in Minervino Murge, not far from Castel del Monte, this is a good place to try two local autumn specialities, tunacedde snails and cardoncelli mushrooms. Closed Thursday.

L'OSTERIA DEL TEMPO PERSO
Via Tanzarella 47 (00 39 0831 303 320). At this osterie in Ostuni, the selection of antipasti are a meal in themselves. Evenings only, closed Monday.

OSTERIA PERRICCI
Via Orazio Comes 1 (00 39 080 937 2208). Closed Wednesday. At this unbelievably good-value family trattoria in the old town of Monopoli, you can feast on cavatelli ai frutti di mare (short pasta with seafood), among the best in the region.

WINES

Local wines are good and getting better. Best-known of the reds are the full-bodied Salice Salentino and Primitivo di Manduria, a strong, almost black wine in which dedicated sniffers can detect strains of pepper, tobacco and chocolate. But for a really exceptional red, at a price to match, seek out Patriglione, a wine produced in tiny quantities by the Cosimo Taurino estate in Guagnano, near Brindisi. Pulgia is also the only region in Italy to do a good line in rosé, best exemplified by the Five Roses cru, turned out by mega-winery Leone de Castris, which was the first rosé bottled in Italy. If you see anything by Tormaresca, Francesco Candido or Castel di Salve on the wine list, nab it before someone else does.

THE GARGANO PENINSULA
The region of Puglia extends a good way up the Achilles' tendon of Italy to a wild spur, the Gargano peninsula, whose northern shore is on the same latitude as Rome. This area is, in fact, a lost chip of Yugoslavia, left behind when two geological plates separated to form the Adriatic. The Gargano is a world apart: a place of dark, ancient forests, caves, shrines, coastal watchtowers and intricate fishing villages. The creation of the Parco Nazionale del Gargano in 1991 attracts some tourists, but not many.

BARI
Explore the labyrinthine old town and the Basilica di San Nicola.

MOLFETTA, TRANI AND BARLETTA
Molfetta is the first of a trio of port towns north of Bari whose present-day sprawl radiates from a tight, walled medieval centre. Trani, just up the coast, is dominated by a glorious, bleached-out Romanesque cathedral. In Barletta, the most northerly of the three, a third-century bronze colossus stares into space with a stolid, vacant expression.

MARTINA FRANCA
See the frescoes in the Palazzo Ducale and the baroque Chiesa di San Martino.

LOCOROTONDO
This circular, whitewashed town has views over the trulli-peppered Valle d'Itria, and excellent wines.

LE MURGE
A limestone plateau scored by deep ravines (gravine) and sudden sinkholes (pule). Olives and vines on the lower slopes give way to scrubby, rock-strewn grazing land. Remote and aloof, Alta Murgia is the perfect setting for the castle of an enlightened philosopher-king.

CASTEL DEL MONTE
Under Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, between 1220 and 1250, the region became a crossroads between the Roman Catholic Byzantine and Arab worlds. The emperor himself was a poet, a philosopher, and the author of a treatise on falconry. During his reign, castles were built, or repaired, all over southern Italy to defend the Kingdom of Sicily from its many enemies. But Castel del Monte, the most memorable and iconic, was not built to defend anything. Nobody ever lived here and there is no town or strategic crossroads nearby. Whatever its explanation of the castle's function, it takes for granted the towering intellect and solemn studiousness of its creator, Frederick II.

BASSA MURGIA AND THE VALLE D'ITRIA
The Trulli are strange, cylindrical peasant houses with beehive roofs which are still in use today. The Valle D'Itria, between the towns of Putignano and Martina Franca, is the best place for trullo-hunting. If there is no evidence of trulli older than the 16th century, this may be because they are easier to rebuild than to restore. Like the dry-stone wall, the fanciful trullo served an eminently practical function: it was a way of using up all the stones that peasants cleared from their difficult, rocky fields. It was easily made and easily knocked down again.

ALBEROBELLO
Only here have trulli strayed from country to town. In the quartieri known as Monti and Aia Piccola there are whole streets of them, rising in neat terraces. The fabric of the trulli is now protected by UNESCO.

LECCE
Lecce has been called the 'Florence of the baroque', more than 40 churches and at least as many noble palazzi were built or renovated here between the middle of the 17th century and the end of the 18th to create one of the most unified urban landscapes in Italy. It is a relaxed place; the locals sit outside bars such as Pasticceria Alvino in piazza Sant'Oronzo, sipping iced coffee with almond syrup (latte di mandorla, an eminently southern soft drink), or they window-shop along corso Vittorio Emanuele.

THE SALENTINE PENINSULA
South of Lecce, the landscape flattens and the sky opens out. Stony olive groves extend between dry-stone walls bordered with oleander. Around Capo d'Otranto, Italy's easternmost point, crumpled red cliffs fall to the sea from an upland plain. If it weren't for the blue-green sea and the view across to Albania, this could be Cornwall. In the villages here you may witness a festa di paese, a village festival where men with tambourines and accordions beat out a tarantella and women sing. Nearby Galatina, with a wonderful set of Renaissance frescoes in the 1392 church of Santa Caterina is also worth a visit.

OTRANTO
The cathedral has a 12th-century mosaic floor of the 'tree of life', intertwining Norman, Greek and Byzantine ideas of fate.

GALATINA
Visit Galatina for the frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria.

AIRPORT
There are airports in both Bari and Brindisi. Bari's airport is about 9km west of the city at Palese. Brindisi's Casale airport is 4km north of the city.

AIRLINES FROM THE UK
Alitalia (0870 544 8259; www.alitalia.com) flies several times a day from Heathrow and Gatwick to Bari and Brindisi. Flights are via Rome or Milan. British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Bari twice a week. Ryanair (0871 246 0000; www.ryanair.com) flies daily from Stansted to Bari and Brindisi.

IN BARI

Piazza Aldo Moro 32 (080 524 2244). To the right of the FS station. Open Monday to Saturday, 8.30am to 1pm. Stop Over, Via Nicolei 47 (080 523 2716). This is probably more useful. Open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 1pm and 4.30am to 8pm.

IN BRINDISI

Piazza Dionisio, off Lungomare Regina Margherita (0831 523 072).

Puglia is popular with Italian visitors in July and August. To avoid crowds on the coast, and stifling heat inland, go in May when it is quiet and mild.