Puglia is a region of Italy quick to be reduced to its postcard images–a conical, limestone trullo of Alberobello here, Polignano a Mare’s glimmering cove there, an area that fits neatly into a certain idea of a rustic Italian lifestyle, a portal to the past. 

But Puglia has not literally been frozen in time, as much as tourists might prefer to believe. Whether it’s the landscape, the characteristic hospitality of the Pugliesi, or even the region’s disparate economic development (and relative economic precarity compared to other parts of Italy) that has created this situation, Puglia is also home to something perhaps less known: a large creative and artistic population.