Puglia Tours' About Us page tells the story of a family-run tour company in Italy's Itria Valley, explaining their mission to offer authentic, intimate travel experiences rooted in local culture, hospitality, and deep personal connections to the region.
Discover Puglia Tours
Travel That Feels Like Coming Home
Deep in Italy’s southern heel lies a valley where time moves differently. A place where olive trees have stood for centuries, where stone dwellings rise like ancient monuments against cobalt skies, and where the rhythm of life still follows the seasons, the harvest, and the gathering of family around a laden table.
This is the Itria Valley. And this is where our story begins.
Puglia Tours exists because we believe the truest way to know a place is to be welcomed into it by those whose roots run deep. We are the Ferraro family, and our connection to this remarkable corner of southern Italy spans three generations. The cone-topped trulli scattered across our hills, the endless groves that produce Italy’s finest olive oil, the labyrinthine streets of villages built before memory: these are not attractions to us. They are the settings of our lives, the places where our children have played, where our parents were married, where our grandparents grew old.
Now, we open these places to you.
When you travel with us, you step beyond the role of tourist. You become a welcomed guest, folded into our world of long meals, cherished traditions, and discoveries that exist nowhere in any guidebook.
How It All Began
A Chance Encounter That Changed Everything
Like so many Italian tales, ours starts with food, generosity, and a table that stretched to fit unexpected guests.
The year was 2008. A small group of travellers had found themselves hopelessly lost in the narrow lanes of Locorotondo, our home village. They stopped our grandmother, Rosa, to ask for directions. She pointed them toward a restaurant. They hesitated. It was Sunday, and everything was closed.
What happened next would shape the course of our family’s future.
Nonna Rosa did what any Italian grandmother would do: she invited them home. What was meant to be a quick coffee became a five-hour feast. Course after course emerged from her kitchen. Stories were exchanged. Laughter echoed across the terrace. By the time the sun began to set and the last of the wine had been poured, those strangers had become something more. They left with promises to return, and Rosa sent them off with jars of her homemade preserves and her phone number scribbled on a napkin.
True to their word, they came back the following spring. They brought friends. Those friends told others. Slowly, a reputation began to grow: there was a family in the Itria Valley who opened their doors to travellers, who knew every hidden corner of Puglia, who understood that the best journeys feed the spirit as much as the appetite.
What began as informal hospitality evolved into something more intentional. In 2012, Puglia Tours was officially born.
Today, our company remains exactly what it has always been: a family affair. Our team is made up of relatives, lifelong friends, and neighbours who grew up alongside us. Every guide who walks with you, every driver who greets you, every host who welcomes you into their home is someone we know personally, someone who shares our deep love for this land. We have never sought to grow beyond this, because authenticity cannot be scaled. It can only be shared.
The Itria Valley
Where We Live, What We Love
There is a reason the Itria Valley is often described as the soul of Puglia. This is a landscape that defies the modern world, a patchwork of rolling green hills, rust-red earth, and silvery olive groves that stretch unbroken to the horizon. Ancient dry-stone walls crisscross the terrain like seams on a quilt, marking boundaries that have endured for centuries. Grand old masserie, the traditional fortified farmhouses of the region, rise from the countryside as monuments to generations of families who have worked this soil.
And then there are the trulli.
Nothing prepares you for your first glimpse of these extraordinary structures. With their whitewashed walls and distinctive conical roofs built entirely from limestone without mortar, they look like dwellings from a dream, clustered together in villages that seem lifted from the pages of a fable. Some are centuries old. Many are still lived in today. All of them contribute to a skyline unlike anything else on Earth.
But architecture alone does not define a place. What makes the Itria Valley truly extraordinary is how life is lived here.
In our towns, the central piazza remains the beating heart of the community. Neighbours still greet each other by name. The afternoon espresso is treated with the reverence of a sacred ritual. Sundays are for family, always. Time itself seems to slow, making space for the things that matter most: conversation, connection, the pleasure of a meal prepared with care.
This is where we want to take you. Not to monuments roped off from the world, but into the living culture that makes Puglia unlike anywhere else in Italy.
You’ll taste burrata so fresh the curd is still warm. You’ll catch the fragrance of wild rosemary drifting on a sea breeze. You’ll stand at the shoulder of a grandmother as she teaches you to shape orecchiette with your thumb. You’ll stumble upon a 12th-century church down a dusty path that no tour bus will ever find.
This is the Puglia we call home. And this is the Puglia we cannot wait to share.
Our Approach
What Sets Puglia Tours Apart
We have never been interested in excursions. Our goal has always been something deeper: to create experiences that change the way you see the world.
Meaningful Encounters Over Mass Tourism
We keep our groups small by design. This allows for real connections with the people who make Puglia what it is: the cheesemaker whose family has perfected their craft across four generations, the winemaker who tends vines planted by a great-grandparent, the chef who learned to cook at a grandmother’s knee. When you visit a producer with us, you are not a spectator behind a barrier. You are a participant, rolling up your sleeves, asking questions, sharing a glass of wine, and leaving with knowledge that no guidebook could ever provide.
Food as a Way of Understanding
In Puglia, cuisine is not a sidebar to culture. It is culture. Our food experiences are designed to immerse you completely. You will hunt for wild herbs on hillsides fragrant with thyme. You will press olives and taste the oil within hours of harvest. You will knead dough and shape bread in wood-fired ovens. You will sit at tables heavy with dishes prepared by local grandmothers who cook the way their own grandmothers taught them. Every bite tells a story. Every recipe carries history.
Stories That Bring the Past Alive
Our guides are not lecturers. They are storytellers. They share the myths, the scandals, and the lesser-known chapters that give Puglia’s history texture and life. From the ancient Greeks who settled these shores to the Norman conquerors who built fortress castles, from the extravagant Baroque churches of Lecce to the contemporary artists reviving abandoned villages, we connect you with the full, rich tapestry of our heritage, not as dusty facts, but as living narratives.
A Commitment to Responsible Travel
We consider ourselves caretakers of this land, not just guides to it. That responsibility shapes every decision we make. We partner exclusively with family-run businesses. We source from local producers. We design our itineraries to support, rather than strain, the communities we visit. Sustainability for us is not a marketing term. It is an obligation.
Our Journeys
Experiences Crafted Around You
No two travellers are alike, and no two journeys should be either. Whether you are planning a romantic escape, a celebration with multiple generations of family, or a deep exploration of Italian gastronomy, we design experiences that match your vision.
Classic Valley Explorations
Walk the iconic white towns that have made this region famous. Lose yourself in the trulli-lined alleys of Alberobello. Climb to the panoramic heights of Ostuni. Discover the Baroque elegance of Martina Franca. Pause for unhurried lunches in family trattorias known only to locals.
Gastronomic Adventures
Roll pasta by hand with expert instruction. Harvest olives during the autumn press. Wander through vibrant morning markets alongside local chefs. Learn the secrets behind the region’s most beloved dishes. Every culinary journey is a deep dive into the flavours and traditions that define Pugliese cooking.
Seaside Discoveries
Two seas embrace Puglia: the Adriatic to the east, the Ionian to the south. With us, you will uncover hidden coves, explore centuries-old fishing villages, and enjoy seafood so fresh it was caught just hours before appearing on your plate.
Wine and Olive Oil Immersions
Puglia is Italy’s largest producer of olive oil and home to bold, sun-drenched wines that are finally gaining the global recognition they deserve. Visit family estates where passion and tradition intersect. Learn directly from the people who tend the groves and vineyards. Develop your palate under expert guidance.
Bespoke Private Itineraries
If you have a particular interest or a specific vision, we specialise in crafting journeys tailored entirely to you. For couples, families, or intimate groups, we design experiences that revolve around your passions, your pace, and your curiosity.
An Invitation
Become Part of Our Story
Nonna Rosa still lives in Locorotondo. She no longer hosts guests as she once did, but her influence runs through everything we do. It was Rosa who taught us that hospitality is not a transaction. It is an offering. She taught us that the value of a journey cannot be measured in distance covered, only in moments shared. She taught us that when you welcome strangers with an open heart, they do not remain strangers for long.
This is the spirit that guides Puglia Tours.
When you travel with us, you are not a client. You are a guest. You are welcomed into our world with the same warmth we would show a beloved relative arriving after years away. We will introduce you to our favourite trattorias, the ones with no signs outside. We will take you to the churches and workshops and viewpoints that mean the most to us. We will sit with you over long meals and share the stories of the people and places that have shaped our lives.
We want you to see Puglia through our eyes. To feel the warmth of the sun on ancient stone. To taste the richness of oil from trees older than memory. To watch the sky turn gold over the olive groves as another long, unhurried dinner stretches into the evening.
We want you to understand why those lost travellers in 2008 could not stay away, why they returned again and again, and why they brought everyone they loved.
We want you to join our family.
Benvenuti. Welcome home.
With warmth and anticipation,
The Puglia Tours Family