Slow travel and walking holidays in South Italy
Santeramo in Colle was recently recommended as a culinary destination for its butchers in an article by The Guardian presenting the 10 best long-distance walking routes in Italy.
“A suggestion – for carnivores – is to eat like a local in Santeramo in Colle, about halfway along the route. Several of the town’s butchers offer hot food to take away or eat at simple paper-covered tables. It’s mostly meat, naturally, with grilled horse as speciality, but lots of other choices, depending on the day.”
As well as being located on the Via Peuceta of the Cammino Materano – the walking route across Puglia and Basilicata that connects Bari to Matera – Santeramo in Colle is also the Nomad Teacher’s Italian hometown and the destination of Italiano Nella Puglia Rurale, our language trip to learn Italian in Italy, discover nature and experience the authentic Southern Italian life.
It is no coincidence that the interest in this type of local and genuine experiences comes from a slow and respectful tourism, which seeks simplicity, appreciates authenticity, and shows curiosity without being intrusive. The same tourism that, in addition to the butchers, appreciates also Santeramo in Colle’s barren Murgia, its centuries-old woods, its frescoed churches, its historic centre full of memory, and the richness of its traditions, as demonstrated also by the students of our Italian language holidays, who left a piece of their heart in Santeramo in Colle last year.
In a region like Puglia, whose economy relies heavily on tourism and is often tempted by the disruptive promises of mass and luxury experiences, it is useful to remember that beauty resides in simplicity and there are a lot of people ready to appreciate it.
