We thought we knew Italy. We'd done Rome, Florence, the usual. Then someone pointed us south towards Puglia and everything changed. This is the Italy that doesn't try — trulli houses dotting the countryside like something from a fairy tale, cave cities that have been lived in for thousands of years, coastline that makes the Amalfi look crowded. We ate pasta that ruined all other pasta. We drank wine that cost four euros and tasted like it shouldn't. Nobody was performing for tourists down here. It felt like the real thing — unhurried, generous, quietly extraordinary. We're already planning to go back and tell as few people as possible.