HOW TO HOLIDAY LIKE A FASHION EDITOR
ELLE’s fashion director Avril Mair reveals the secret charms of Puglia, where designers, actors and stylists live la dolce vita
ELLE’s fashion director lifts the curtain on Puglia, Italy – the fashion set’s most beloved destination
THERE’S NO REASON FOR PUGLIA TO BE FASHION’S FAVOURITE new destination. It has neither the flashy glamour of Amalfi, nor the rustic charm of Tuscany. Instead, it’s raw and elemental, wild and underdeveloped; the sun-baked dusty red soil clutching at gnarled olive trees, supposedly thousands of years old, contorted by winds that blow from both the Adriatic and Ionian coasts. Puglia is the land between two seas, stretched along the stiletto heel of Italy’s boot. Italians see it as their last unspoiled region; the only real place left in the whole country. Nearly all of its visitors come from other parts of Italy. Yet, while much of Europe remained empty during the long, hot lockdown summer of 2020, Puglia seemed busier than before. From Balenciaga stylist Lotta Volkova and jewellery designer Gaia Repossi, to Chiara Ferragni and the Beckham family, not to mention Burberry’s Riccardo Tisci and stylist Christine Centenera, Instagram filled up
with all of their holiday shots: practising yoga under vines on limestone villa terraces, cycling through dusty tracks among fig trees, swimming in aquamarine shallows off rocky beaches, buying handmade ceramics in artisan workshops, eating almond gelato in white-washed hilltop towns. It looked almost too perfect to be real, like a fantasy vision of how Italy might have been about 30 years ago, before budget airlines and social media made the photogenic accessible. There is, it’s true, a kind of authenticity to Puglia. It’s not well set up for tourists; this is a considerable part of its charm. There are some new luxury hotels – Rocco Forte took over Masseria Torre Maizza last year, a place so pretty that Giorgio Armani once tried to buy it – but no international chains; there aren’t even any good guide books. It’s spread out, from Gargano in the north to Salento in the south, via the verdant Valle d’Itria in the middle, so getting around involves a lot of driving. Not the silk headscarf back-of-a-Vespa kind but on the autostrada, jammed bumper to bumper with a lot of impatient Milanese people heading towards their holiday homes. It makes you work hard to love it. Yet, in the 14 years since my parents bought an old ruined house outside the Unesco World Heritage town of Alberobello – capital of the curious conical stone trulli – I’ve fallen head over heels for every last bit of it. I’m not the only one, of course. In July last year, Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her Dior cruise collection in Lecce, a Baroque riot of a city that’s as beautiful as Florence but much less well-known. This was more than just a fashion show for the designer, whose father was born in Puglia – it was an emotional return to her roots, as well as a celebration of craft and tradition in a region that ranks among the poorest in Italy. Presented in the Piazza del Duomo and lit by luminarie – the coloured light shows used at local festivals – models were surrounded by a troupe of tarantella dancers, an evocative folk style that speaks of strength and magic. This kind of mysticism runs through Puglia like a ley line; colonised by the Romans and the Greeks, it was also a route for medieval pilgrims and it sometimes feels more north African than Mediterranean. Chiuri has a house in Tricase, a postcard-pretty little town where Helen Mirren and her husband own a bar,
“It’s not well set up for TOURISTS; but this is a considerable part of ITS CHARM”
the chic Farmacia Balboa. Super-stylist Anna Dello Russo also lives here, just outside Cisternino in a converted trullo (again, postcard-perfect – order grilled bombette at Da Zio Pietro in the little centro storico piazza). Her Instagram account, with two million followers, is probably the region’s best advertisement. Models Imaan Hammam and Irina Shayk came to visit and shoot with her last summer. Riccardo Tisci was also born here and returns regularly, often with his friend Madonna. David and Victoria Beckham are also visitors – they prefer Borgo Egnazia, a wellmanicured resort near the small fishing village of Savelletri; Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel married there and it’s a frontrunner for the Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz nuptials in 2021. It’s the ritziest destination in the region and lots of guests don’t bother to leave its grounds – they miss out, as the local beaches are full of wooden shacks serving the best food you’ll ever find: plastic plates heaped with black sea urchins and raw red prawns, translucent and sweet. Torre Coccaro beach club and its boho sister La Palme are the best if you like to roll from lounger to table and back again; the more adventurous should head towards the sands of Pilone and follow the locals to Il Principe Del Mare for lunch. Celebrity sightings are fairly common in Puglia – Matt Dillon spent a couple of summer months in Lecce, while other A-listers often visit masserie, luxurious and beautifully restored country houses, privately owned and discreet. You don’t come here to be papped, though last August was brightened by the sight of Lotta Volkova in the tiny town of Grottaglie, famous for its ceramic workshops, shopping up a storm while wearing a pink lace mantilla and walking a giant black poodle. If you also get to Grottaglie, the place to go is artist Nicola Fasano’s store on Via Francesco Crispi – he’s created ceramic works for the homes of Giorgio Armani, the hotels of Francis Ford Coppola and in collaboration with the likes of London-based Matilda Goad. Still, to talk of celebrity misses the point. Laidback and unspoiled, Puglia’s charms reveal themselves as you explore the region. Find hidden coves that spill into the sea over golden sands, so glorious that they’re locally known as the Maldives of Salento (search ‘Pescoluse’ on Instagram and you’ll wonder why you ever took a long-haul flight for a beach holiday), and the itinerant street markets in every hilltop town offering buckets of fat burrata, gently oozing cream, alongside 13 different kinds of tomato. (The prettiest village in Puglia is Locorotondo, in case you were wondering, though Polignano a Mare is undoubtedly the most photographed.) Its beauty may not be ostentatious, but that’s entirely the point. It’s perfect, in every way. British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Bari from £120 return (www.ba.com)
"Puglias beauty may NOT BE ostentatious, but that's ENTIRELY the point"