The festive season is magical anywhere, but even more so in Salento. Towns and villages come alive with street markets and exhibitions full of treats, handicrafts, and traditions unique to the region and the season. Full of carefully displayed nativity scenes, beautiful sunny days and mouth-watering candy dishes, Southern Italy really is the place to be during Christmas time. Here are some of the delightful traditions of Salento that add to the lights and cheer and make this the most wonderful time of the year.

Taranto: the longest Christmas in Europe!

In the city of Taranto, Christmas celebrations begin as early as November 22nd, when a marching band performs all night long down the streets! Their songs appear to have originated from tunes played by Abruzzo shepherds, who came to Taranto with their flocks and bagpipes and played in the city's alleyways in exchange for food. They received pettole in return for their music, which is why November 22nd is also known as the frying day. Families make large amounts of pettole, which are fried leavened dough balls boiled in extra virgin olive oil and then rolled in salt or sprinkled with sugar. 

Legend says this tradition stems from the mistake of a housewife who, after kneading dough, was distracted by the band playing tunes out on the street. When she returned home, she tossed the dough, which she could no longer use for bread, into boiling oil. Her kids were overjoyed by the taste of the fried balls, which she called "pettole", inspired by pitta, which means "little focaccia." She and the kids then took the remaining pettole down the street to give to the pipers.

La Fiera dei Pupi: The Puppet Fair of Lecce

Now let’s visit Lecce. It is lovely all year round but especially vibrant during Christmas time. The city centre is decorated in lights and buzzing with cultural artisan markets like the Fiera dei Pupi. 

Fiera dei Pupi, or “the puppet fair”, is an exhibition where you can buy the traditional figurines for the nativity scene. This fair has existed for over seven centuries, and master puppeteers come together to display their incredible skills in wood, clay and paper-mâché work. Each figurine is made with extreme care and attention to serve as the perfect gift or souvenir for you to take home.

“Altamura bread, by far the best bread to be had, so good that the wise traveller takes a supply with him for his onward journey.” (Horace’s Satires) 

It seems that everyone is making bread lately and we really aren’t surprised. After all, breadmaking can be incredibly therapeutic and the reward of warm, carb-y goodness after all that kneading and patient waiting is even more enticing. Breadmaking has been around since the Stone Age, so there is something about making bread that taps into our primal desires to nourish and provide sustenance to ourselves and our families (as if you needed another excuse to make bread). 

Whether you’re a bread connoisseur or just a lover of carbs, the bread of Altamura (or pane di Altamura) should be on everyone’s radar. The Roman poet Horace claimed it was the best bread he’s ever eaten and we’re not about to argue with him. After all, this is the only PDO-protected bread among Italy’s 1,000 types, which means that in order for it to truly be a loaf from Altamura it has to be made from local ingredients (look, Italians are serious about the quality of their food!). 

Altamura bread is incredibly versatile, which means that you can break into this crusty loaf and enjoy on its own, with a generous drizzle of olive oil or with fresh herbs, vine-picked tomatoes and fresh pecorino. This bread is the perfection combo of soft, doughy insides encapsulated by a satisfyingly crunchy exterior (that must be at least 3mm thick), which also keeps it perfectly preserved for a few days without drying out. 

If you love bread as much as we do, then a trip to Puglia is the ultimate foodie’s pilgrimage. After all, there is no better place in the world than one that includes heaping plates of hand-rolled pasta, local olive oil, freshly picked vegetables, warm homemade Altamura bread and flowing wine. Ah yes, now that’s la dolce vita!  

While we may not know what travel will look like over the next few months, once things start to take on some semblance of normal and people begin to jet set once again, we’d love to take you on a trek through the rolling wheat fields and olive groves of Puglia, where sun-bleached homes loom over dramatic Adriatic coastlines and the famed alabaster stone hunts of Alberobello beckon like an Italian fairy tale. 

You’ll visit small organic and sustainable farms, enjoy wine tastings among the local vineyards, take a culinary tour of the small towns that make up Puglia and you’ll even learn how to make pasta. Once it’s safe for us to travel again, we do hope you’ll join us for food, frivolity and some much-needed dolce far niente in Puglia. In the meantime, we hope that you are finding some stress relief through baking and breadmaking; we certainly are.