Arkènos

The Bosco Incoronata di Foggia Natural Regional Park (15 minutes’ drive) is renowned for its ancient oak trees, which create welcome shade as you walk along its trails. On the outskirts of the reserve is a modern sanctuary (loosely shaped like a classic Puglian trullo) built to honour an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1001. In Foggia (25 minutes), check out the cathedral, originally built in the 12th century, then restored in a Baroque style following a devastating earthquake in the 1730s. The gardens of the Villa Comunale Karol Wojtyła have shaded trails, a playground and a woodland folly at the eastern end, while the Parco Campi Diomedei is a vast green on the grounds of a former hippodrome. An area of wetlands near the Adriatic coast, the Il Monte State Nature Reserve (40 minutes) is home to pink flamingos, kingfishers and marsh hawks. Just to the south are the salt pans of Margherita di Savoia (the largest in Europe) and to the north, the sandy beaches of Zapponeta.