Unforgettable hotels and inspirational travel ideas.

The journey along the spectacularly panoramic sea-edge road which hugs the cliffs of Italy's Amalfi Coast is, itself, one of the most memorable moments of any holiday spent on the "Divina Costiera".

Gazing out towards the sea, the towns dotted along the Amalfi Drive rise up from amidst the rocks like a collection of intricate, Neapolitan Nativity scenes. Positano, with its maze of little lanes lined with elegant fashion boutiques; Amalfi, ancient Marine Republic dominated by its magnificent cathedral; Ravello, home to stately cliff-top mansions, romantic gardens, and music festivals of international renown; and Furore, tiny fishing village and famous retreat of the stars of the silver screen, these are just a few of the jewels adorning the Amalfi Coast.

Each and every town and village on the Amalfi Coast is steeped in century upon century of history, littered with the traces left behind by the ancient Greeks and Romans, by the Arabs and Byzantines. These civilizations all profoundly influenced the architecture, culture and popular traditions of this part of Italy, today one of the world's most sought after holiday destinations, and home to any number of luxury hotels and villas. A vacation along the Amalfi Coast might easily take holiday-makers all the way to the Cilento, where nature reigns supreme, and where the warm waters of the Mediterranean sea gently caress the secluded bays and secret beaches of one of the most beautiful stretches of the Italian coastline.

Puglia is an enticing concoction of fanciful baroque churches and austere Romanesque castles, magnificent stone farmhouses and tiny, beehive-shaped cottages, ancient olive trees and enchanting bays: all of which come together as if caught up in one of the region's cathartic "pizzica" dances: designed to energetically shake off the pains of living.

There are those who come to Puglia responding to the call of the sun-drenched beaches of the Gargano and Salento; others who arrive following the trail of the region’s intriguing past, which starts with the prehistoric man of Altamura, and continues with the advent of the Daunia civilization, the settling of colonies from ancient Greece and Rome, the reign of Frederick II, and the Spanish Bourbon dominion; others still are drawn to this part of southern Italy by the colors and aromas of its exciting and wonderfully varied cuisine, which perfectly captures and exalts the flavors of both land and sea.

As visitors travel across Puglia's fertile countryside, over rolling hills and vast, flat plains, all of which, sooner or later, inevitably meet either the Adriatic or Ionian sea, a series of unexpected jewels appear: the immense Cathedral of Trani, the picturesque "trulli" of Alberobello, the dazzling white townscape of Ostuni, the poignantly beautiful landscapes of Murgia, the baroque flamboyance of Lecce, the vineyards of Manduria, and the remote beaches of Santa Maria di Leuca. It is in Puglia's farmhouses or "masseria" that the ancient traditions dear to the population are perhaps best conserved: an intoxicating mixture of the sacred and the profane, professed in the form of archaic rituals which, on hot summer evenings, might well be performed beneath the olive trees, to the compelling rhythm of the "taranta".