Salento

And I feel like there's so many stories that we can tell and also lessons we can learn specifically about sustainability that different artisans in different nations are practicing.

And so I think a winemaker, say, in the California area can learn so much about how they're dealing with the climate shifts and really the extreme droughts and fires that they're having in the Salento region of Puglia.

And so like I wrote an article on that, or even a winemaker on Naxos Island in Greece, who also has a lot of ways of dealing with drought and extreme dryness.

And so through sharing the stories of individual food artisans, I'm hoping that we can all learn basically how to care for the environment with our food and wine production.

This is precisely why the smart bases thinking, something I'll come on to in the itinerary section in this episode, matters as much as it does.

The mistake isn't wanting to see a lot of Puglia, it's assuming the whole region operates on Amalfi Coast distances and building an itinerary that tries to touch the Gargano, the Itria Valley and deep inside Salento in a single week from one hotel or from multi-stops.

The complaint that follows the distances were so much bigger than we expected is really a complaint about the planning assumption, not about Puglia itself.

The good news, and the point worth landing on, is that this isn't actually a limitation once it's understood correctly.

Nobody needs to drive the length of Puglia in one trip, and the places that dominate any tourist shortlist, and particularly an American shortlist, the Itria Valley towns, the Salento coast around Lecce, they each sit within a tight, genuinely short hop cluster of their own.

Alberobello to Ostuni by car is 20 minutes.

Ostuni to Cisternino is 15.

Outside that window, or from anywhere other than New York, it's a connection.

Eh, not really true.

And I think Puglia takes a really big hit during the outside of the summer, especially because nobody's going to the, they have a whole coastline called Salento that's just beautiful coastline.

But nobody's going to their coastal towns, Monopoly, things like that.

And Lecce, which is a sort of beautifully baroque city in southern Puglia, gets some tourism, but it's not like a big enough draw because it's kind of a pain to get over there.

You'll obviously know the score by the time you're hearing this.

So Kevin, I want to begin in Salento, where Lecce were roundly pumped by a Roma team that I'm struggling not to get a little bit carried away with.

Um, there has been two match days, which means, as we know, you cannot start claiming that a team has cracked it and they are wonderful and all is well.

But they did go and win four-nil, and it could've been much more than four, couldn't it?

Is that then going to be shared, um, with Israel and your views on Palestine or, uh, the war against Iran is going to, uh, penalize your ability to enter Europe? And this is even being basically picked up by, uh, Francesca Albanese, who of course is also sanctioned for her views on Gaza.

Um, Italians, starting with those from Salento, Apulia, and the entire south should understand what is happening to Greece.

Defending Palestine from apartheid, a political model that is expanding, is not an act of charity but of self-preservation before the danger breathes down our neck.

Now, this is exactly what we've been talking about at UK Column, the expansion of, uh, Zionist settlements and interests across Europe.

I'm always down to try new foods and stuff.

Yeah, I mean, if you go to Apulia in Salento, you're going to go back with 10 kilos or more.

Like, the food is amazing.

Nice, nice.

Don't forget that.

Like, I'm Valentina Matthews.

I am somebody with a British last name that I stole from two wrestlers But one thing I know about myself is that I'm still that girl who is from a city in Salento, who grew up in North Italy, but from South Italy.

She's from Tegero, who saw a lot of stuff.