While we were attending a recent vacation showcase, we came across two tour operators that are offering 2009 itineraries that include stops in Puglia. Both programs are being actively marketed to American travelers.

Insight Vacations offers a tour called “Country Roads of Southern Italy and Sicily” that spends one night in Alberobello. Here’s what the tour catalog says: “Take time to explore Alberobello, with its strange white trulli buildings spread out over the hillside. Trulli are circular structures with conical roofs and domed within, built with local limestone and stacked without using mortar...The region of Puglia is a food and wine lovers’ paradise.” This stop on the itinerary also includes a visit to the “white city” of Ostuni (in photo above), “reminiscent of a North African Arab medina.”

In Alberobello, groups stay at the four-star Hotel Astoria. According to the hotel website (http://www.astoriaweb.it/en/index.htm), “…the Hotel Astoria is a beautiful residence offering exclusive services and luxurious comfort. The common areas of the hotel are spacious, bright and well-decorated and consist of a comfortable reading room, TV room and an elegant reception desk open 24 hours. The hotel has a bar, a solarium and a roof garden that is accessed by an elevator; those interested in organizing congresses and receptions will find here rooms offering generous seating space and logistic support and will be able to enjoy as well the gorgeous gardens surrounding Hotel Astoria. The buffet-style breakfast is served in the pleasant atmosphere of the restaurant room and our courteous staff will keep you informed about available excursions and events at Alberobello and surrounding areas. Clients will have free ADSL Internet access and also fax service.”

Departures are scheduled through Oct.2. For further information about the tour program, see www.insightvacations.com.

Trafalgar Tours offers a 17-day “Grand Tour of Italy” that visits Monte Sant’Angelo, on the Gargano Promontory in the Province of Foggia (staying in the four-star Hotel Manfredi Regio in nearby Manfredonia, featuring an outdoor swimming pool with waterfalls), then travels to Alberobello and Lecce. For Lecce, the tour catalog advertises “En route to beautiful Lecce. Here our guided sightseeing tour shows us this delightful city including the stunning basilica and its monumental Piazza del Duomo.” This group stays in the Hotel President in Lecce (www.hotelpresidentlecce.it), located near the Old City. Departures are scheduled through Oct. 9. See www.trafalgartours.com for further details.

Alberobello, of course, has been part of tour itineraries marketed to Americans in the past because of its unique qualities, but we’re pleased to see tours that promote other destinations in Puglia as well. The region has so much to offer travelers, and we hope that these vacation programs will help focus attention on Puglia as a quality international destination.

Separately from those two programs, the Redemptorists, a Roman Catholic religious order, offer a 13-day itinerary, “Redemptorist Beginnings in Italy,” Aug. 29 to Sept. 10 that includes a visit to St. Padre Pio’s shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, also on Gargano. The tour also visits Rome and the Vatican, Scala, the Amalfi coast and the Isle of Capri. The land-only price is $3,190 per person. For further information, see www.faith.travel/Redemptorists.htm.

Photo copyright © Cleto Bucci/Puglia Turismo