La Taverna Del DucaL-Locorotondo

La Taverna del Duca, via Papatotero, 3 (tel. 39 080.4313007). (24km from TRULLO BELLISSIMO) The Pugliese dining experience. Bang in the main square, almost beneath the duomo, la Taverna only has three or four tables, and is run by a mother and daughter team. There is no menu, and personal input is really limited to pasta, meat, fish (if available) or risotto. Very strange, but it’s almost as though you have been invited to a friend’s home for supper, but end up with a, very reasonable, bill. The food is taste perfect, service first class, (mainly I guess that with only twelve covers a nonagenarian with a wooden leg and impaired memory could probably deal with the stampede), and lastly because you are aware that this is precisely what the lady would feed her family. By way of an aside la Senora also spends a good portion of each year volunteering in deepest Africa and elsewhere at the Catholic missions, a percentage of your bill will go to CAFOD (worldwide Catholic aid agency), and she doesn’t seem to care about the fact that she works very hard for little remuneration. That’s part of why the food is so good, I believe there is a deep seated desire to look after people, and feeding the tummy is just about the first stop. If you can get there, it is an experience not soon forgotten.