Page 507 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

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ABRUZZO, MOLISE

AND PUGLIA

Puglia is the “heel” of the Italian boot, the Gargano
Peninsula is its “spur” and Abruzzo and Molise together
form the “ankle”. Hugging the southeastern seaboard of
Italy and looking towards the Balkans, the mountainous
regions of Abruzzo and Molise, united until 1963, differ
considerably from Puglia, the richest of the three.

Abruzzo and Molise are sparsely populated, and highly fertile. It produces the largest
quiet places where the wild landscape amount of olive oil in Italy, and its big
exerts a strong influence. Settled by cities – Lecce, Bari and Taranto – are lively
various Apennine tribes in the Middle commercial centres. The region experienced
Bronze Age, the areas were later subdued a long-lasting Greek influence, though the
by the Romans, united under the Normans golden age of Puglia’s past was under the
in the 12th century and, thereafter, ruled rule of the Normans, followed by Frederick II
by a succession of dynasties based in who, between his return from Germany as
Naples. Abruzzo, dominated by the emperor in 1220 and his death 30 years
Apennines, is a brooding, introspective land later, only spent four years away from here.
of shepherds. Vertiginous drops preface the Puglia has glorious architecture,
ascent to ramshackle hill-towns clinging particularly in the churches and castles of
to the sides of high mountains, semi- the north. The curious trulli houses in
abandoned and poor. Molise’s landscape is central Puglia, the florid Baroque of Lecce
less dramatic. Legends of witches persist in and the Levantine atmosphere of its
both regions, as do strange fertility rites and merchant cities complete the picture of an
rituals celebrating the changing seasons. ancient land subject to more influences
Puglia’s advantage over its poverty- from outside the Italian peninsula than
stricken neighbours is that it is nearly all flat from within it.

Traditional dress worn in the town of Scanno in Abruzzo
A row of trulli houses in the town of Alberobello, Puglia

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