Puglia Culture & Language

Puglia's cultural identity is rural and coastal rather than courtly, and much of it survived precisely because the region was poor and peripheral for so long.

Pizzica and the tarantula

The pizzica is a fast tarantella from the Salento, historically part of a ritual — tarantismo — in which women believed to have been bitten by a spider were treated with days of frenzied music and dance. Anthropologists documented the practice into the 1960s. It has since been revived as popular music, and the Notte della Taranta at Melpignano each August is now one of Europe's largest free concerts.

Griko

Nine villages in the Salento — the Grecìa Salentina — still hold speakers of Griko, a Greek-derived language descended either from Magna Graecia or from Byzantine settlement, the question is unresolved. It is a recognised minority language and appears on signage.

Architecture in local stone

Lecce Baroque is a distinct school, made possible by pietra leccese, a limestone soft enough to carve in fine detail and hardening on exposure. Santa Croce in Lecce took roughly a century and shows what the material permits.

The trulli are the other extreme: no mortar, corbelled roofs, and an origin usually attributed to tax avoidance — a structure that could be dismantled quickly when an inspector was expected. Many carry painted symbols on the roof.

Religious life

The cult of St Nicholas at Bari draws Orthodox as well as Catholic pilgrims, and the May festival carries his statue out to sea. Monte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano holds a shrine to the Archangel Michael in a cave, in use since the 5th century and UNESCO-listed as part of the Lombard sites. Padre Pio's sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo is among the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world.

Craft

Ceramics at Grottaglie, worked since antiquity and still producing the pumo, a bud-shaped good-luck ornament; papier-mâché (cartapesta) figures in Lecce; and drystone walling across the Murgia, a technique on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.

Italian is universal. English is widely spoken in Lecce, Alberobello, Ostuni and the masserie, and much less in the smaller inland towns.

• Buongiorno / buonasera — on entering any shop or bar.
• Per favore, grazie, prego.
• Un caffè — an espresso. In summer ask for caffè leccese, over ice with almond milk.
• Il conto, per favore — the bill, not brought unasked.
• Quanto costa? — useful in markets.

Puglian dialects vary sharply along the region's length and are not mutually obvious even to Italians — Barese and Salentino differ considerably. In nine Salento villages, Griko, a Greek-derived language, is a recognised minority tongue and appears on signage. Nobody expects a visitor to engage with either, but knowing they are separate languages rather than sloppy Italian is worth something locally.