Cooking School In Puglia

Special Gourmet long weekend for the olive harvest

http://www.scribd.com/doc/66930764/October-Gourmet

Puglia, in the heel of Italy, is a fascinating region, still relatively unspoiled, with great quality food, wine and olive oil. It has many affinities with ancient Greece, and everywhere we see traces of the Romans, who built the great Appian Way, linking Rome to Brindisi, the port that led to Greece and the Middle East.

It is one of the most interesting regions and its remote position in the ‘heel' has helped to preserve its secrets. Ruined Saracen towers line the coast - remains of an early-warning system against sixteenth-century marauding pirates, and the large, local farmhouses used to hide women, animals and harvested crops behind strong fortifications. Occasionally the walls enclosed a citrus fruit garden, small church and bread oven, and traces of drawbridges and portcullis can often be found. This was part of Magna Grecia and the great secular olive trees dominate the landscape where the sea is ever-present.