PUGLIA NEWS

The famous 120-year-old daily paper serving Basilicata and Puglia La Gazetta del Mezzogiorno has been updated using the latest 21st century technology. The paper is now in full colour tabloid format and one edition serves the four Puglia and two Basilicata provinces, instead of six separate editions. Thanks to new printing technology the daily can produce editions with up to 112 pages. The makeover was overseen by the paper’s director Carlo Bollino and managing director Giuseppe De Tomaso and took three months in total.

A southern Italian company based in Foggia, Puglia has created a new internet tv portal which offers you the chance to try before you fly! The portal, www.videoitalia.tv whose slogan is ‘ora c’è’ – (literally – ‘now there is one’, with the meaning ‘here at last’) shows films of all the main tourist honeypots like Florence and Rome, but also smaller villages and towns. Creators of the site Parcich, aim to build up a vast bank of video clips to be used as a resource by all internet users, but mainly targeted at tourists. In these credit crunching days, let’s hope that people also visit the places on show and don’t just settle for virtual reality!

Fans of the Salento team were bitterly disappointed on Saturday as their team lost 1-0 at home to Salernitana. All hopes that Lecce would make it to the fourth round of the Coppa d’Italia were dashed after Arturo di Napoli’s goal in the 64th minute of the game. It was the only goal of the match and not the result hoped for by the fans at the Stadio Via del Mare. Lecce has only just got back into Serie A and a win on Saturday would have been the icing on the cake. Salernitana will meet either Sassuolo or Reggiana in the next round.

Sven Goran Ericsson’s former squeeze Nancy dell’Olio enjoyed herself this month on the beach in Puglia. Pictures of the 46-year-old sunning herself were described by the Daily Mail as having been taken in ‘the beach resort of Puglia’. Well Puglia is a large region rather a beach resort as we all know! The Italian lawyer actually likes the beaches of the Salentine peninsula in Puglia, ‘where the Ionian and Adriatic seas meet’.

There’s been a marked rise in the number of passengers taking low cost flights to smaller airports in Italy. Passenger numbers are up across Italy by 10.1%, with an increase in Umbria of double that. In Puglia there has been an increase of 19 % reflecting the increased use of Bari and Brindisi airports by the low cost airlines.

You may not know the name Castellaneta, but it was from this city in Taranto, Puglia that film legend Rudolph Valentino left to find fame and fortune in the States. Anyway, make a note in your diary for 3rd August if you are in the area, because that’s the date of one of the largest sagre (foodie festivals) in the whole of Italy. There are two kilometres’ worth of local specialities to try – everything from wine and olive oil to mozzarella and pasta. Buon appetito!

Southern Italy is a treasure trove of prehistoric sites and more excavations have just started at the Cave dell’Erba, Apricena in the region of Foggia. The dig will last for five weeks and more than 60 students and teachers from five nations will take part. This is the second phase of the archaeological work, the first was in the summer last year (2007). The aim is to get more information about the fossilized animals as well as the flint tools used by early man a million and half years ago.

It’s official! The water in the seas around Salento has been declared officially clean by the environmental agency Legambiente. The results of the regular analysis are just out and confirm that once again the beautiful sea is as clean as it looks. Twenty three samples were taken, including the areas of  Nardo', Santa Cesarea Terme and Otranto. All just a stone’s throw from the Dream Homes in Puglia masserie projects, you’ll be pleased to hear.