IN ITALY'S FAR SOUTH, THE RESIDENTS TALK IN THE LOCAL DIALECT about lu sule, lu mare, lu ientu – sun, sea and wind; the three powerful natural forces that have shaped the landscape and the local population over centuries. With its redcoloured soil, green olive groves and cactus fields, the landscape often resembles parts of northern Africa or Mexico – but its small villages, country roads with walls of stacked boulders, and vast fields with robust masserie (fortified farms), trulli (workers’ cottages) and casali (farmhouses) show that this is clearly Puglia.
Hints of the centuries-old architectural history are everywhere in a region that southern Italians describe as the “end of the world”, and near the small village of Serranova, nestled in a nature reserve, is Villa Kico. Built as a…
