Visit Bari

A whole town of trulli — conical drystone houses found nowhere else, white and strange in the Puglian sun

The "Florence of the South" — honey-coloured Baroque churches carved from soft Lecce stone

Eat dinner inside a limestone sea cave in Puglia, the Adriatic glowing below your table

Split open a pouch of mozzarella to spill its molten stracciatella-and-cream centre

A city built on water with no cars — gondolas, Byzantine mosaics, and getting happily lost in the back canals

Loud, ancient and alive — the birthplace of pizza, gateway to Pompeii, Vesuvius and the Amalfi Coast

Fashion, finance and Leonardo's Last Supper — plus the most extravagant Gothic cathedral in Italy

The Renaissance in one walkable city: Michelangelo's David, Brunelleschi's dome, and the Uffizi