Puglia in spring and autumn

Spring and autumn in Puglia: the seasons run the other way

Round here the seasons run the other way. Winter is green: with the first autumn rains the grass comes back to the fields and under the olive trees, and the sheep find it again. Summer is golden: from June the grass dries out, the fields turn the colour of straw, and only the olive trees and the scrub stay green.

Spring, then, is when the green of winter fills with flowers before it burns in the sun. Autumn is the wait for the first rain, with the sea still warm from summer.

Sea temperature and weather in Puglia, month by month

These are averages over recent decades in Taranto, rounded: every year has a mind of its own, and the wind counts for more than the thermometer. With the tramontana the sea is clear and the air dry; with the scirocco comes the humidity. More in the chapter “Scirocco or tramontana?”.

Sea about 15 °C

April: wild orchids and walks on the dunes

April is still green. In the meadows under the olive trees and along the dunes the wild orchids come into flower: more than a hundred kinds have been recorded in Puglia, and most are small Ophrys, the bee orchids, whose flowers mimic an insect, the kind you only notice if you look down. The rockrose opens in the scrub, white and pink.

The sea is cool, around 15 degrees: you paddle, or you swim if you come from the Baltic. At midday the air is about 18 degrees, and in the evening you need a jumper. It is the month for long walks: on the boardwalks over the Campomarino dunes, along the shore to Torre Colimena, to the Salina dei Monaci, where migrating birds stop in spring and where you can watch the flamingos.

If Easter falls in April, Taranto, half an hour from here, has its Holy Week: on Maundy Thursday the hooded brothers of the confraternity, the perdùne, walk in pairs from one altar of repose to the next at an extremely slow pace, and on Good Friday the procession of the Misteri sets out, not returning until Saturday morning. The full story is in the Stories.

Sea about 18 °C

May: first swims and Cantine Aperte

In May the olive groves fill with poppies. The sea rises to around 18 degrees, the air reaches about 23: the first real swims, for anyone not afraid of cool water, and the first lunches under the pergola.

On the last weekend of May the wineries open their doors for Cantine Aperte, and in Manduria, twenty minutes away, you taste Primitivo right where it is made. On other days, tastings are booked ahead.

Towards the end of the month the beach clubs open. Until then the beaches are free, in every sense of the word.

Sea about 22–23 °C

June: the countryside turns gold

June is the month when the countryside changes colour. The grass dries, the cicadas start up, and green gives way to gold. The sea climbs above 22 degrees and becomes the sea you see in photographs: with the tramontana a clear, flat sheet, with the scirocco a few waves.

The days are the longest of the year, and the sun sets over the sea: on this side of Puglia, the Ionian coast, the sun does not rise out of the water, it goes down into it. In the evening you eat outside, and you begin to see why people here live outdoors from May to October.

Compared with July and August, June has one advantage that matters: you can still get about without queues, and find a table at the seafront restaurants without booking a week ahead.

Sea about 25 °C

September: the warmest sea of the year

September is the month of the sea. The water has stored up the whole summer’s heat and is at its warmest, around 25 degrees; the air drops to about 26, which is just the right kind of heat. In mid-month the official bathing season ends and many beach clubs close: the beaches remain, and they are empty. The page about beaches near Maruggio tells you which ones, and how to get there.

It is also the month of the grape harvest. Primitivo is called that because it ripens before the others: picking starts at the end of August and goes on through September. Tractors loaded with crates pass through the countryside, and around Manduria the air smells of must.

In the garden the prickly pears ripen on their pads and the pomegranates begin to split. In the old days, September marked the end of the summer fòri, when families lived out in the country until the grape harvest and then went back to the village: Valerio tells it in the Stories.

Sea about 21 °C

October: the sea at 21 °C and the olive harvest

October is the month of surprises. The sea is still around 21 degrees, warmer than many northern seas in August, and on tramontana days you swim just as you would in September. At midday the air is about 22 degrees.

The first real rains arrive too, and October is one of the wettest months of the year: but it usually rains in storms, and then the sun comes back. After the first storm the grass sprouts within a week, and the countryside starts to turn green again.

Between the end of October and the beginning of November, around Corni di Fiasco, the olives are picked. The countryside fills with nets – green, black, orange – spread under the trees like tablecloths after a long lunch. Early in the morning you hear voices and the hum of the harvesters, long poles with a vibrating head that shakes the twigs: the olives rain down onto the net, the leaves and twigs are picked out, and into the crates they go. The ones that have fallen on their own are left where they are: good oil does not come from those.

Olives do not wait. Those who do things properly take them to the mill the same day, and in those weeks tractors queue outside the mills. Freshly pressed oil is nothing like supermarket oil: it is green, sometimes cloudy, and it catches in your throat. The right way to taste it is the simplest: a slice of toasted bread, a drizzle of oil, a pinch of salt. Nothing else.

In the past, not all the oil from this land ended up on the table. The acidic, dark oil, the lampante, was pressed in mills dug into the rock and shipped from the port of Gallipoli to northern Europe: before gas, this land helped light the streets of London too. We tell the story in the Stories.

From November winter begins, and here it is not a season to avoid: the beaches are empty, the days mild, and the house opens for long stays.

How long to stay

In April and October the minimum stay is 5 nights; from May to September, 7. The maximum, in every season, is 28 nights. Long-stay discounts apply in winter, from 1 November to 25 March, booking direct and excluding 20 December to 6 January; for spring and autumn, rates and availability are on the booking page.