“Golden Days are easy to come by when you’re in Italy. They’re those days when Italy’s sensual pleasures harmonize, and you just bask in the golden glow of it all.”

—Susan Van Allen

I feel as if I know—and really like—Susan Van Allen, even though we’ve never met. Our lopsided relationship began the moment I opened her book 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go.

Skimming through each enticing destination with Susan is like traveling to Italy with a friend who’s funny, smart, adventurous and incredibly informed. Her ardor comes naturally, born at her Nana and Papa’s dining table Papa in Newark, New Jersey.

Susan—who lives in Los Angeles and writes for travel media as well as television— approaches Italy actively (and not only in her section on biking, hiking, boating and other get-a-move-on recreations.) She leads readers beyond passive tourism into engagement in the culture and with the people.

Author Susan Van Allen

Entries are grouped by special interest sections such as “The Divine: Goddesses, Saints, and The Blessed Virgin Mary,” “Gardens,” “Beaches,” and “Learn Italian Crafts and Culture.”

If you’re in Naples, you’ll be sure not to miss the Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

When you’re in Tuscany, you’ll go out of your way to experience the magical Tarot Garden in Capalbio, designed by artist Niki de Saint Phalle.

If you crave secret coves, you’ll find a way to Scopello on the western coast of Sicily. A free horseshoe-shaped expanse of white pebbles and fine sand is hugged by limestone towers and turquoise water. Oh, and Lo Zingaro National Park with its rocky hiking trails and panoramic vistas is next door.

And if hands-on is thumbs-up for you, choose a craft. Making masks or mosaics in Venice . . . weaving and embroidery in Perugia . . . cooking in the shadow of Greek temples in Paestum.

With the destinations, Susan includes tips on lodging and dining to make the experience a “Golden Day.” Recommended books, Web sites, Resources, and Advice from Other Writers are included to amplify the information.

I’ll be savoring the book in a cozy reading chair but when I do pack my bags for bel’italia, I just might want to download the 100 Places in Italy iPhone app. Just hope the olive oil massage at Masseria Torre Maizza in Puglia doesn’t smear the screen.

For a chance to win a free copy of 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, leave a comment. Please include your e-mail address in the comment box so we can contact you. The winner will be randomly selected on June 1, 2010.

Sharon and I wanted to explore Lecce, the spectacular capital city of Puglia — often referred to as the “Florence of the South.”

We needed to find a place to stay that would position us near Lecce, yet keep us within easy striking distance of nearby attractions and points south. Plus, we didn’t want the hassles of city parking.

It was my turn to choose a place so I perused booking.com for accommodations near Lecce.

The B&B Cavallino looked perfect: an intimate property (3 suites), outside of Lecce, reasonably priced and boasting some of the highest customer ratings of any lodging establishment in the area. We e-mailed and were able to procure a room.

B&B Cavallino proprietor Paola Danielli (right) and her husband Paolo Mercurio.

Upon arrival, we met the luminous proprietor Paola Danielli. Efficient, lovely, charming (and fluent in English), she showed us to our “room.” What an exciting surprise! We had a spacious apartment with two floors, two terraces, a kitchen, and a huge bedroom overlooking a quiet green campo.

The apartment really felt like our home away from home for the next few days. Every morning before we set out, we brewed our own coffee and feasted on a lavish tray of local pastries that Paola had purchased for us. As Sharon always says, “You have to love a country where they eat cookies for breakfast.”

The only minor glitch during our stay    turned out to be the source of more joking   than frustration. Due to local street repairs,   access to and from the southern route to the Salento peninsula ran through an AGIP gas station. It was so well trafficked, we took to calling it the AGIP autostrada.

We couldn’t have been more fortunate in finding this jewel of a B&B. It’s easiest to reach by car, however, with proper advisal the hosts will provide transfers to and from the Lecce train station.

B&B Cavallino is the perfect starting point to explore the many attractions of the Salento peninsula south of Lecce.

Octopus salad prepared with fennel, red bell peppers, extra virgin olive oil and coarsely ground black pepper.

Chill rain and high winds aren’t exactly a siren song call to the beach. When Walter and I visited Puglia this spring, the region was experiencing the wettest primavera for scores, perhaps hundreds of years. (The longevity of the record seemed to grow with each subsequent local we met).

While we didn’t get to wiggle our toes in warm sand, we did sample a taste of the sea at Il Vecchio Forno, a very good seafood restaurant in the shore town of Barletta on the Adriatic coast north of Bari.

A gratin of mussels blanketed in breadcrumbs and olive oil.

We savored many courses, all prepared simply from pristinely fresh seafood. Most memorable are a gratin of mussels, fish fritters, fried anchovies, octopus salad, seafood risotto, and a grilled spigola (sea bass) with lemon.

Il Vecchio Forno

Via Cialdini 61

Barletta, Puglia

Tormaresca vines planted on the Adriatic coast at Masseria Maime in Puglia.

After 26 generations and more than 600 years in the wine business, the Antinori family of Tuscany has expanded its involvement in Puglia. This is a big deal. It certainly got my wine juices going as we received confirmation to visit the new Tormaresca operation at Masseria Maìme in the Salento DOC.

In 1971, Marchese Piero Antinori, helped light the dawn of the super-Tuscan blends with a Sangiovese/Cabernet sauvignon blend called Tignanello. (Piero’s uncle, Marchese Mario Incisa della Rochetta of Sassicaia, first commercially released his fabled super-Tuscan Sassicaia in 1968.)

In the 1990s, the Antinori family invested in Puglia, the heel of Italy, a region that has traditionally been recognized more for the quantity, than the quality, of its wine grapes. A number of economic and terroir factors helped drive the decision. Land prices (especially compared to Tuscany) were inexpensive. Soil conditions and climate were conducive to expanding production of native grape types and some international varieties as well.

Maria Tolentino De Bellis, Tormaresca’s marketing and PR representative, suggested we meet at the San Pietro Vernotico train station. I thought it was odd that we couldn’t just connect at the winery. It didn’t take long to realize that the Antinori presence in Puglia was large – but subtle. Maria drove us up a gravel road marked only by a modest, hand-painted sign that read Vigneti del Sud, “Southern Vineyards,” with no mention of the super-star Antinori name.

The sun is a powerful prescence on the Salento Peninsula.

At the cantina, she introduced us to Giuseppe “Peppino” Palumbo, the CEO of Tormaresca. He was dressed in work clothes and had the sun-drenched, weathered look of an executive who spends more time in the vineyards then he does in the board room.

I asked Peppino about the branding strategy behind the Puglian venture.

“Tormaresca is a fantasy name, a play on the Puglian dialect, and means Tower by the Sea,” he explained. “It’s also an extension of the Antinori philosophy to respect local tradition and original vines, while leveraging technology to improve the results. We respect the past, but we never stop innovating.”

We jumped into his SUV, and bumped out on rough trails alongside the vineyards. Peppino pointed out some Negroamaro grapes planted with a cordon trained system, as well as some older vines still in the traditional Alberello system — without support.

We headed east until we reached the beach grass and dunes of the Adriatic shore. “The terroir and growing conditions are perfect,” he said.

Back at the cantina, Peppino raved about indigenous Puglian grapes. “Negroamaro is wonderful. Primitivo (identified by enologists at U Cal Davis as the genetic clone of California Zinfandel) is well suited for this climate. And Aglianco, the red grape we grow further north at our Bocca Di Lupo vineyard, earned a 91 from Parker.”

I asked Peppino about two ancient Puglian grape types, Sussumaniello and Ottavianello I had learned about from Cinzia Rascazzo of Stile Mediterraneo.

Peppino looked pleased about the question and smiled. “Yes, we found some growing here and will preserve and cultivate them. We are experimenting with them now to complement Negroamaro and add a little color.”

The time was running late, and I asked Peppino if I could use a phone to call our next stop to let them know I’d be a little tardy.

“Who are you visiting next?” he asked.

“Candido” I answered.

“I have them in my cell phone.” He noticed that I looked a little surprised. “We’re not rivals. We both flow together in the same current of wine, and the trip is easier if we run together, not against each other.”

For a sampling of Tormaresca here in the U.S., pour these two.

Neprica IGT (Negroamaro, Primitivo and Cabernet grapes) I love this super-Puglian which is every bit as intriguing as a more expensive super-Tuscan.

Neprica is an IGT blend of Negroamaro, Primitivo, and Cabernet grapes.

Masseria Maìme IGT (Negroamaro grapes) is spectacular with grilled meats and fish.

Masseria Maime is 100 percent Negroamaro grapes.

Coming next: Our visit to Candido Wines.

Ciceri e tria, chickpeas with both fresh and fried tagliatelle, is a specialty from Lecce in Puglia.

Ciceri are chickpeas. Tria are tagliatelle, in the dialect of Puglia. Combined, they make Ciceri e tria a distinctive dish from the baroque city of Lecce.

Like the ‘Ncapriata in Two Cooks in Puglia, this recipe comes from Cinzia and Marika Rascazzo, sisters and proprietors of the Stile Mediterraneo cooking program.

“The recipes are the real traditional ones from Lecce,” Cinzia says in a recent e-mail. “We inherited them from my nonna and we teach them at our school.” Nonna ‘Nzina, short for Vincenza turned 95 in May, looks like she’s 70, and cooks every day.

“She is super well,” says Cinzia. “For her, the most important thing is food. She gets mad if my mother does not buy her the best ingredients. She spends the whole day cooking-maybe just four hours for a minestrone!”

Cinzia, who holds an MBA from Harvard University and Marika, a practicing cardiologist, are passionate about passing on their nonna’s culinary legacy and the culture that it represents. “Our cooking is based on which town you are in, which season it is, and peoples’ taste. In general, we never cover ingredients’ flavors,” Cinzia says.

Dried chickpeas soak overnight before being simmered with aromatics.

In preparing Ciceri e tria, the first ingredient required is time. Dried chickpeas are soaked overnight and then simmered until tender with aromatic vegetables. The tagliatelle noodles are prepared from scratch by combining water and salt into golden durum wheat, the hardest type of wheat, which is also high in gluten. Durum is a major agricultural product of the Tavoliere plain in northern Puglia.

After the noodles are rolled and cut, a portion, about one-quarter, of them are deep-fried in olive oil. (These fried noodles make an irresistible pre-dinner nosh sprinkled with salt and Parmesan cheese!)

The remaining tagliatelle are cooked with the chickpeas. (When I tested the recipe, my first batch of tagliatelle turned gummy when I added them to the chickpeas. I had better luck boiling the noodles separately and then draining them before adding them to the chickpeas but this is NOT Nonna “Nzina’s method.) The three elements are stirred together just before serving and garnished with fresh parsley and hot red pepper to taste.

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