Espressino Travel wins Boutique Tour Operator of the Year Award!
Amazing news: we've been named as the Boutique Tour Operator of the Year for Puglia in the 2016 Holiday & Tour Specialist Awards by the Luxury Travel Guide! And to celebrate we’ve announced a new Weeklong Tour: September 24 to October 1, 2016. It turns out that some of our lovely guests who we welcomed to Puglia last year had such a wonderful time; they took the time and effort to contact the Luxury Travel Guide to share their thoughts and officially nominate us in the Tour O
Passion and Parole on Espressino Travel's First Puglia Podcast
Ciao amici! We were recently contacted by internationally respected Italy blogger Lora Savor to share a few thoughts on the culinary and cultural wonders of travel in Puglia. Lora and her Savoring Italy blog are as passionate about Italian food and drink as we are. Which is why she was eager for Robert from Espressino Travel to appear on her Due Parole podcast to talk about our tours and share some of our favourite memories from the region. We are honoured to be featured on t
Christmas in Italy: Seasons Greetings from the Salento!
The festive season in Puglia is a magical time. Towns and villages bathed in stunning light displays come alive. Festive Christmas markets pop up in piazze, full of treats and traditions unique to the region and the season. Vivid nativity scenes are constructed with loving care, while families and friends gather for bountiful feasts of recipes perfected over centuries. Lecce is wonderful at any time of the year, but it’s especially atmospheric at Christmastime. The city centr
Mosaics and Martyrs: The Espressino Travel Guide to the Best of Otranto
Of all the beautiful and fascinating towns in Puglia, none have the rich and dramatic history of Otranto. Perched in a natural harbour on the Adriatic Coast, Otranto has witnessed Byzantine and Norman glory days, suffered a brutal Turkish invasion, gave birth to the castle that inspired the gothic novel and, after all that, somehow reinvented itself as a great town for sun, shopping and seafood. In 2010 the historic centre of Otranto was recognized by UNESCO, announcing its i
Savouring the Salento 2014: Our Puglia Tour is a Triumph!
September’s Savouring the Salento Tour is in the books! And we couldn’t be happier with our 2014 Puglia Tour. Where do we begin? The food was fabulous. The wine was delicious. Lecce, relaxed after the August tourism explosion, returned to its serene best. The sun came out to reveal the innate beauty of Puglia’s most stunning cities – Otranto, Gallipoli, Alberobello and Ostuni – for our visits. Our excursions – Truffle Hunting with Giuseppe and his adorable dogs, and fishing o
Trulli Spectacular: Five Essential Travel Tips for the Ultimate Alberobello Experience
Everyone loves Alberobello. There’s nowhere remotely like it in Puglia, Italy or anywhere else. Visitors arrive in their tens of thousands to see the Zona dei Trulli, a neighbourhood consisting entirely of the conically-roofed homes found only in this particular part of Puglia. Looking like they arrived directly from the pages of fairy tales, legend has it that Trulli were created to avoid a tax on property. On news that a taxman was approaching Trulli owners could move their
Seafood and Splendour: Espressino Travel’s Six Essential Experiences in Gallipoli, Puglia
The first thing you need to know about Gallipoli is that it has nothing to do with First World War campaign or the movie starring Mel Gibson. That’s a different Gallipoli (in Turkey). So forget about that. The second and far more interesting thing you need to know about Gallipoli is that there’s nowhere else in Puglia, or the rest of Italy, that looks or feels anything like it. The clue is in the name. Gallipoli, in Greek, means beautiful place. Founded as an Ancient Greek co
The Ost’ with the Most: Espressino Travel’s Six Essential Experiences in Ostuni, Puglia
The Espressino Travel team first visited Ostuni seven years ago, and we immediately fell in love with this spectacular yet quiet hill town, while simultaneously we wondered why its stunning piazzas weren’t full of visitors. Seven years later, that question has been definitively answered. Ostuni is now rightfully on the Puglia must-see list, its intricate and otherworldly Centro Storico, complete with dazzling views of the Adriatic and endless olive groves, unlike anywhere els
Guest Blog: Mangia! Mangia! The Espressino Travel Guide to Eating in the Salento
When we were approached by Beautiful Puglia to write a guest blog, it didn’t take long for us to decide what we wanted to focus on. Food. Delicious. Nutritious. Fun. Fabulous food. Everywhere in Puglia there are amazing things to eat. But in the Salento, the area South of Brindisi where we’ve based our Italian Food Tours, taste is taken to new heights on a daily basis. Ciceri e Tria. Seafood fresh from two seas. Pizza. Pasticciotti. Gelato. Sometimes it’s hard to say basta! T
Guest Blog: Summer in the Salento
We were honoured to be asked by our friends at Browsing Italy to write a guest blog post about the Salento, the corner of Puglia we’ve chosen to base our Italian Food Tours. As we’re always eager to share our enthusiasm about this amazing, but still relatively undiscovered, corner of Italy, it was our pleasure to reveal our Top 10 Tips for the Best Possible Vacation Experience in the Salento. With so much to choose from – towns, food, wine, beaches, on top of the unique cultu
