After a late day flight from Venice, I am now in the Puglia region. This would be the heel of the boot of Italy. This is the first time I have been to this region and I’m excited to see what it has to offer!

Today was a relatively short day as we did need to check into our lodging for the week at a specific time. We also found that, in this region, many restaurants and stores are closed on Sundays. Further north, in the more visited areas, this is not the case.

Our only stop of the day was Castel del Monte. This is a very uniquely shaped castle, the only one I know that forms an octagon. This castle was also used in the Netflix movie “Tale of Tales”.

The castle is completely empty. Almost all of the interior decorative features have long been carted off for use in other castles or dwellings. The castle itself needed extensive renovations to preserve it. It is like no other castle I have ever seen and the interior layout, as necessitated by the outside configuration, is very limited. It’s hard to picture how many people would or could have lived here. I can’t even see a space I would call the kitchens.

I would still say that it is worth going to as it is a unique building with some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside.

After the castle we tried to find a place for lunch but all of the places we found were closed. We ended up at a grocery store that happened to be open and grabbed a very simple lunch.

We then headed over to and checked into our lodging for the next six nights. I was very happy to find this place as it is a traditional home style in the area and very distinctive.

This will be our launching point for all of our excursions this week. It’s located a six minute drive from the city of Martina Franca and is a very central position in the area.

Hopefully the heat will hold off until we are gone!