the puglia tours - Laterza, Provincia di Taranto

Iva Stefanova

I am so happy I trusted The Puglia tours for our company teambuilding! They organized for us the best mouthwatering experience full of wine, views, great food and amazing hospitality. Our account was always there for us, looking for feedback and checking if we are Ok, all the places we visited were selected with care and heart! Thank you, Anna, personally for organizing the best teambuilding we have had 🙂

Stephen Grabek

This was our 4th trip to Italy and our 1st time in Puglia. It's an understatement to say any trip to Italy is better with time spent in Puglia under the amazing and informative guidance of Anna and Awdi. They created personalized tours of many of the sights and towns of the region and did so with a relaxed pace to fit our interests. Always plenty of time to explore, browse, wander and plenty of time to enjoy the food and wine in each town along the way. Puglia was a highlight of our trip.

Anna's personal connection and experience in the region really helped us understand the culture, the food, the traditions and the uniqueness of Puglia's landscape and history. She showed us quite a diversity of experiences from the stunning coastal towns of Monopoli and Polignano en Mare to learning about organic dairy farming and the unique history of the Masseria's of Puglia to walking through the narrow, winding streets of Ostuni and the amazing Trulli houses of Alberobello.

Her partner, Awdi's, unmatched knowledge of Italian history through the centuries gave us a much deeper appreciation of the importance of the art, architecture and religion of this complex region. Walking with him and listening to his stories is like walking with a personal witness to history. Incredibly informative and relatable.

Not only did we experience a beautiful and different region of Italy, we made a couple of new friends along the way. It was a joy to spend a few days with Anna and Awdi and we only wish we had more time to spend there.

We will return to Puglia and when we do we are sure to work with Puglia Tours to create another memorable experience.

Stephanie Peters

Anna has a deep level of experience guiding for many years including multiple trips as tour director for the upscale Tauck travel firm.

Anna is terrific: knowledgeable, capable, fun and committed to doing the very best so that her clients can thoroughly enjoy every aspect of a country, city or town. She is very flexible and can design a trip customized to your needs. She drove us around Puglia in a luxurious Mercedes van and set us up at fabulous hotels. Was the trip of a lifetime.

We have been with her twice and will not hesitate to use her again for future trips. Anna is a must. If you want to see Italy on a very personal level, you should hire Anna

Domenick Propati

This was the most amazing trip of our lives. Anna Sbordoni was incredible and provided us with the most customized tour we could have asked for. In addition to seeing everything Puglia has to offer (and loving every place we visited), we even went off the beaten path. My wife's Mom was from a small town in Puglia, not a tourist site, and Anna took us there and spent time with us researching my wife's family and heritage, even meeting with the mayor's office to dig deeper. This was over and above anything we could have imagined and there is more to come as Anna continues to help us. We were also celebrating our 40th anniversary and Anna set up spectacular venues for us to celebrate, experiences to enjoy as well as recommending the most incredible places to stay. We became fully immersed in the culture and every location and it was so easy to plan taking Anna's suggestions. She takes care of everything! I recommend that anyone going to Italy do it with Anna and her team. Everywhere and anywhere in Italy! I will never visit Italy again without Anna's help.

Ann Hamlin

My family and I had an absolutely wonderful time in Sicily! Our driver/guide, Awdie was phenomenal. We started in Palermo and made our way around Sicily, ending up in Catania. The trip was very well organized, all tour guides (especially Awdie) were very knowledgeable and fun to be with. We enjoyed the tour as well as the company or some fantastic tour guides! Ann

jay muller

Touring Puglia with Awdie was like traveling with an old friend. He's just a great guy to be around! His knowledge of the areas we toured is amazing. We would never have seen so many fantastic places or understood their place in history without Awdie. He showed us how religion, trade invasion, politics and innovation over centuries shaped the cities and towns that exist today. Without his guidance our trip would not have had the meaningful context about the things we saw. His friendships in the towns we visited were evident everywhere, as we were treated like old friends too. We hated to leave Awdie as much as we hated to leave Puglia.
Jay and Deb
Wilmington,DE

Cindy DeNiro

We had the most lovely time traveling with Anna in Italy! She did a phenomenal job up front understanding what we wanted to see, explore and experience in Venice and Sicily. Every stop exceeded expectations, from the hotels we stayed in to the restaurants to the local tour guides. Would definitely recommend planning and experiencing Italy with Anna!

Jim Noone

Our 8-day tour of Puglia was wonderful. Upon arrival we had a delicious dinner on the outdoor terrace of Palazzo Gattini hotel in Matera. On the next day we had a tour of the area, including lunch in a local cave restaurant.
The following day on the way to the city of Lecce we had a excellent tour of the famous winery for Primitivo wine, including lunch. Upon arrival in Lecce we had a tour of the city's center, including the Roman theater and amphitheater. That night and two more nights we stayed in the famed Palazzo Maresgallo; tourists took photos of it!
The following day we had a boat tour at Santa Maria di Leuca, swimming along the coast with its amazing caves. We then had a great lunch of fresh fish at a restaurant along the coastal rode. We were, unexpectedly, joined by the very nice woman who, with her architect, owned Palazzo Maresgallo. After lunch she invited us to their nearby beautiful home; we had a very nice visit with her and her kind and friendly husband.
We then continued on with walking tours of several interesting cities, including Alberobello with its odd looking Trulli homes. Later that day we had a wonderful tour of an olive tree farm, including thousand years old olive trees. We had the opportunity to taste three slightly different qualities of extra virgin olive oil. We went on to stay at outstanding ranch-type hotel, Masseria Calderisi.
On our next and last full day we visited the famous town of Polignano, right on the water with its narrow walks and streets. That night we had a very nice farewell dinner at our hotel's outdoor restaurant.
The 'Mystery Tour' was expertly planned and carried out by our tour leader Anna Sbordoni, along with her outstanding colleague Awdie Coppola. They made the tour outstanding as it was, and they couldn't have been better tour guides and friends.