Andante Travels

Introduction

The high plateau of the Gargano; the grain covered plain of the Tavoliere; the limestone plateau of the Murge, fringed by rugged ravines on the west and shelving towards the Adriatic through olive groves and vineyards; these are the elements of the Apulian landscape which set it apart from the rest of Italy. Strategically positioned at the ‘heel’ of the peninsula, Apulia was a natural transit area between east and west, attracting new settlers whose influence is reflected in the archaeology and architecture.

Alastair Small has spent many years in excavation and fieldwork here, and has a close personal interest in the whole early history of this area. This is important because this journey does not concentrate on any one period, but seeks to bring you gradually to an understanding of the influences which have produced their unique character. His familiarity with Apulia means that he will be able to use everything you see as part of the story of the past here.

From the Iron Age Daunian warrior stelae of Manfredonia to Hannibal’s battle tactics at Cannae, Byzantine wall-paintings to the Baroque ‘architectural embroidery’ of Lecce, you will find this an intriguing and diverse holiday in a beautiful part of Italy. We have chosen three interesting and very different hotels; the first an attractive former convent and the last a stately converted palazzo, a Sheridan hotel.

Itinerary

Day One
Arrive Bari, drive to the lovely harbour city of Trani, time allowing see the magnificent Norman cathedral (above), thought by many to be the finest in Apulia. Building began in 1096, incorporating the previous Byzantine church as the crypt of the cathedral.

Day Two
Drive north to the attractive Norman church at Siponto, once the main port of northern Apulia. The church of San Leonardo di Siponto has some very fine Romanesque carving (photo above centre). The castle at Manfredonia, named after its 13th century Swabian founder, houses a remarkable collection of Daunian Iron Age stelae with sculptured images of warriors, women and ships. Monte Sant’Angelo, site of one of the most ancient Christian shrines in Italy, the cave sanctuary of the Archangel Michael, high on the Gargano plateau. The cult was established in the 5th century, in a remote and sacred place, hidden by oak forests in a landscape of burials, caves and shrines. Anglo-Saxon pilgrims recorded their visit here in runes.

Day Three
The 13th century Castel del Monte, spectacular hunting lodge of the Emperor Frederick II; on to Cannae, scene of Hannibal’s victory over the Romans. Visit the medieval village on the hill above the battlefield and follow from this viewpoint the battle tactics recorded by Polybius and Livy. On to Canosa which, unlike most Apulian cities, remained loyal to Rome in the Hannibalic War. It provided refuge to Roman fugitives after the Battle of Cannae, and was later rewarded for its fidelity. We see the tomb of the crusader Bohemond, a gem of Apulian romanesque. Return via Barletta to see the colossal statue of a late Roman Emperor, recovered from the sea in the late Middle Ages, the largest bronze statue to survive from the ancient world.

Day Four
Drive to Gravina, where Alastair Small has spent many years excavating the Roman and Iron Age settlement (not at present accessible to tourists). The name ‘Gravina’ means ‘ravine’, and records the fact that the city grew up on the edge of a deep gorge. It was predated by a large Iron Age settlement on a hill on the other side of the ravine, where the excavations by the British School at Rome and the University of Alberta took place. Visit the museum in the town to see some of the finds, and the frescoes in the Byzantine tradition from the rock-cut church of San Vito Vecchio. The museum of Gioia del Colle en route to our next hotel in Martina Franca.

Day Five
To Alberobello, famous (and much-visited) for its trulli, pepper-pot houses with corbelled roofs the stones of which gradually taper inwards to a capstone (picture above). Many of those in Alberobello have a zodiac sign, or another symbol of some sort, atop the capstone. They are typical of the region, but Alberobello has the largest concentration - over 1000 houses, including a church. Visit Massafra to see two of the medieval rock-cut churches, decorated with frescoes in the Byzantine tradition, characteristic of this part of Italy. Continue to Taranto, to visit the superb museum, only recently re-opened after renovation. The display, which is at present limited to the Hellenistic and Roman period, includes numerous items of extraordinary beauty and technical skill. On to our excellent hotel in Lecce.

Day Six
Whole day in Lecce, the best-preserved Baroque city in the Mediterranean, visiting churches, the museum and the amphitheatre of the Roman city of Lupiae. When Lecce became part of the Kingdom of Naples, it took on a new cultural identity as the ‘Apulian Athens’. Charles V gave Lecce a castle and massive circuit of walls to defend it against Turkish pirates. From the 16th to 18th centuries, this protection enabled the development of the ‘Lecce Baroque’, characterised by exuberant carving, like decorative embroidery in honey-coloured limestone. Much of the town centre was embellished with building of great elegance and charm.

Day Seven 
On to the pretty seaside town of Otranto, to see the Byzantine church of San Pietro with fine frescoes of the 10th century, and the Norman cathedral with mosaic floor depicting biblical stories, legendary beings and seasonal activities in a vigorous and joyful style. The massive Aragonese castle was built as a bastion against the Turks, who had captured Otranto in 1480 and massacred many of its inhabitants. The straits here connect the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Return to Lecce for some free time in this beautiful Baroque town.

Day Eight
Return flight from Brindisi.

Included

WHAT’S INCLUDED

• Flights Scheduled flights from London to Bari, return from Brindisi or Bari (to be confirmed).
• Transfers private coach provided to coincide with group flights
• Local Travel Private a/c coach.
• Meals All meals included (dinners with wine & water).
• Guide Lecturer (also local guides where these are compulsory)  Not to be confused with "guest lecturers"!  The guide lecturer will be with you from breakfast to supper, and probably even a drink in the bar afterwards.  There is the occasional site where they may not be allowed to guide because of local regulations (we normally manage to circumnavigate these) but otherwise the guides are just that. They will have been chosen because of specialist knowledge and their ability to communicate and interest you.  After 22 years of making tours worldwide, we are highly appreciative of the attributes of a good guide, and intensely critical of people who do not possess them.  If you would like to know more about Professor Alastair Small, please click his name.
• Tour Manager We never know how best to call the very special people whom we choose to accompany you on your tour.  They are usually employed in this capacity only by us, and have been trained to do things in the Andante way - unobtrusive, friendly and quietly efficient.
• Fieldnotes written for the tour
• Entry & tips Entry to all sites in programme; tips included.

Flights & Visa

Please note these are an indication of the flights we are likely to use; please contact office for confirmed details.

Scheduled flights with Alitalia
AZ7899       London Heathrow / Milan Linate               09:35 / 12:30
AZ7045       Milan Linate / Bari                                      14:45 / 16:15
AZ7959       Brindisi / Rome Fiumicino                         11:15 / 12:25
AZ204         Rome Fiumicino / London Heathrow        13:30 / 15:20

Visa and Passport Requirements (for British passport holders only)*

Note: Passport must be valid for the duration of your stay.

Hotels

3 nights in a handsome former convent in Trani;
2 nights in a hotel in Martina Franca;
2 nights in a stately converted palazzo in baroque Lecce, now a prestigious 5* hotel.

Comments

What Did You Enjoy Most About This Tour?

The variety of places we visited accompanied by a well-informed and interestingly presented guided tour. Excellent food, drink and good company.

Pretty well everything, though the weather could have been better.

Variety, places, food, pace.

Of the days - that at Gravina. The journey across the Gorge introduced us to the geography and our time at Gravina to the society of the real people of Apulia, away from the tourist centre.

The company and the planning.

Learning in a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.

Field notes - being able to read up on the details of the tour before and afterwards - and they were very good field notes.

Exploring a little known area of Italy.

Overall an excellent holiday.

The opportunity to see some spectacular sights and buildings in good company.

The early morning walks I took alone.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Reading List

This list is no more than a guide to some books that you may find useful to read in advance of the tour. Talks given on the tour will attempt to fill in the background to what we are seeing, so no prior knowledge or pre-tour cramming is expected or needed. In many cases, we expect that you will find some of these books even more interesting and useful to read once the tour is over.

Guide Books:

• R.G. Cremonesi and F. Radina (eds) Puglia e Basilicata. Guide Archeologiche, Preistoria e Protostoria in Italia II. A.B.A.C.O., Forli, 1995. ISBN 88-86712-21-9. There is more to this book than the title suggests. It covers the main Prehistoric and Early Iron Age sites accessible to the public, and most of the important museums in Puglia and Basilicata which have exhibits of those periods; but it also deals - rather unevenly - with later sites and museum displays. It is more-or-less up to date, and the text is in English as well as Italian and French.
• P Blanchard (1996) Blue Guide to Southern Italy, 8th edition. The next best, and in English. Detailed and a little dry to read, but with a lot of maps and plans and some useful introductory surveys of the history, art, architecture, geology and history of travelling in Southern Italy.
• P Holberton (1992) South Italy: a Traveller's Guide. A sympathetic account of the places and buildings which caught the eye of an art historian. Idiosyncratic and interesting.
• * E Greco (1995) Magna Grecia. One of the well-respected Guide archeologiche Laterza series, this is the most thorough and up-to-date account of the Greek and Roman archaeology of Apulia, Basilicata and Calabria. It is written in Italian, but is well illustrated.
• M Guido (1969) Southern Italy: An Archaeological Guide. (1972) Faber. Now a little dated in its details of accessibility and opening times, this guide is still a valuable source of reference.

History & Archaeology:

• J Boardman (1980) The Greeks Overseas, 3rd edition. A readable yet scholarly account of how and why the Greeks settled in Italy.
• T Potter (1987) Roman Italy. The most accessible and interesting account in English of the Roman period in Italy.
• C Wickham (1981) Early Medieval Italy. More history than archaeology, but a careful explanation of the forces at work in Italy between the Romans and the Normans.
• G A Loud, The Age of Robert Guiscard.  Southern Italy and the Norman Conquest. 2000. Addison Wesley PR. A modern wide-ranging and engaging account of the freebooting Normans. A helpful book which looks also at the history and social evolution of southern Italy before the Normans.
• J J Norwich, The Normans in the South, 1013-1130.  (1967) and The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194 (1970) Longman. These remain classics of scholarship.
• D. Abulafia, Frederick II.  A Mediaeval Emperor.  1985  Pimlico. Is a good, modern study of a major figure in the history of Southern Italy. His Italy, Sicily and the Mediterranean 1100-1400.  1987.  Longman is also helpful for the Angevin period.
• H. Götze, Castel del Monte : geometric marvel of the Middle Ages. Translated from the German. Munich : Prestel, 1998. A detailed study and analysis of this extraordinary building of the emperor Frederick II.
• Steven Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers : a history of the Mediterranean world in the late thirteenth century. Penguin, 1960. An excellent readable account, still in print, of this critical moment in the history of South Italy and Sicily.
• J J Norwich (ed) (1983) The Italian World. History, Art and the Genius of A People. In the well-illustrated Thames & Hudson series, this is probably the best book available to set the cultural development of Apulia within its Italian context. It is basically a balanced series of essays by eminent scholars which weave historical and cultural developments carefully together.
• C Willemsen & D Odenthal (1959) Apulia: Imperial Splendour in S. Italy. One to try to own, for its memories. A careful and thoroughly illustrated (unfortunately only in black and white) account of the Norman and Swabian buildings in Apulia.

Travel writing worth reading:

• C Levi (1947) Christ Stopped at Eboli. A vivid account of the life of a doctor and scholar confined by the Fascists to exile in a remote and poverty-stricken part of Lucania in 1936. Contains a graphic account of conditions in the Sassi at Matera before they were abandoned. A must to read.
• E Clay (1965) Ramage in South Italy. A modern and sympathetically edited account of the travels in 1828 of the adventurous 20 year old Crauford Tate Ramage. Ramage did not publish his own account until 1868, and entitled it The Nooks and Byways of Italy: Wanderings in search of its ancient remains and superstitions - the title does not do justice to his kind and shrewd observations. A minor classic.
• Norman Douglas (1983 Century reprint of 1915 original) Old Calabria. Despite the title, the author, a man "pagan to the core", started his travels in Apulia. He survived catching malaria to write an exuberant and lively account.
• H V Morton (1969) A Traveller in Southern Italy. A readable and erudite book.

Maps:

* Puglia: Grande Carta Stradale d'Italia series at 1:200,000 from the Touring Club Italiano. Pocket-sized route and topographical map in an established series, which also marks most of the archaeological sites. This map can usually be found in the larger British booksellers, as well as in Italy.

NB: those marked with a * are in Italian. They can be ordered from The Italian Bookshop, 7 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4EZ

Travel books
We recommend to you a publishing company with a mission to keep the classic works of travel literature in print. Eland and Sickle Moon Books produce an excellent catalogue of travellers' literature, old and new.

020 7833 0762 - www.travelbooks.co.uk - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Archaeology books
Oxbow Books, based in Oxford, are suppliers of probably the biggest range of archaeology and history books. They produce a quarterly catalogue, and can be contacted on

01865 241 249 - www.oxbowbooks.com - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Booking