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Theme Week Apulia – Brindisi

Tuesday, 24 December 2019 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Brindisi is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an important role in trade and culture, due to its strategic position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city remains a major port for trade with Greece and the Middle East. Its industries include agriculture, chemical works, and the generation of electricity. The city of Brindisi was the provisional government seat of the Kingdom of Italy from September 1943 to February 1944.

The port of Brindisi has always been at the center of trade with Greece. It is one of the most important commercial and industrial seaports on the Adriatic Sea. The trade is mostly in coal, fuel oil, natural gas, and chemicals. The port consists of three parts: The Outer Harbour: the limits of which are in the southern mainland, east of the Pedagne islands and west of the island from the pier in Costa. The port is formed by the average area of sea that is before the Pigott Channel, access to the inner harbor, the basin to the north as the Strait of Apulia. The inner harbor is formed by two long wings that touch the heart of Brindisi both the north and east, they are the “bosom of the west” and “within the east.”

The city preserves important archaeological finds and coastline, particularly the north coast, where there are many large sand dunes and beaches. Inland agritourism, displays wine (Wine Appia) or olive oil (Collina di Brindisi oil). Brindisi Tourism, however, remains heavily dependent on the Italian tourists (74%, compared with 26% of foreign demand) and is very seasonal.

Brindisi is home to Papola-Casale Airport located 6 kilometres (4 miles) outside the city’s center. The airport of Brindisi has daily connections with major Italian and European cities. The airport serves the entire province of Brindisi and partly that of Taranto. In 2017, a total of 2,321,147 passengers passed through. It has two runways, one northwest to southeast that is 3,330 metres (10,930 ft) long, and the other northeast to southwest that is 1,950 metres (6,400 ft) long. Their characteristics allow the landing of large transport aircraft such as the Antonov An-124 and Boeing 747. This airport was originally established as a military airbase in the 1920s. As of 2008 it has officially changed its legal status into civilian airport, still maintaining the military facilities attached to it. These are identified as “Military Airport Orazio Pierozzi“, named in memory of an Italian airman of the World War I. The strategic position of the airport in the Mediterranean region, along with its natural potential for multi-modal (the port is a few kilometers away) operations, have made it a base of crucial importance for both national defense and NATO. For the same strategic reasons, in 1994 the airport was chosen as the main worldwide logistics base by the United Nations to support its peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations around the globe, which was since then hosted in Pisa Military Airport “San Giusto”. In 2000, also the United Nations humanitarian supply depot moved from Pisa to Brindisi. It has since then been managed by the World Food Programme and officially known as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD). On behalf of governments, other UN agencies and NGOs, from UNHRD Brindisi humanitarian aid is directed to the most remote and devastated regions around the world.

Brindisi’s cuisine is a simple with ingredients used, starting with flour or unrefined barley, which is less expensive than wheat. Vegetables, snails, and bluefish figure prominently into its cuisine. Among the recipes are worth mentioning in particular “Pettole”(fried yeast dough, sweet or savory to taste stuffed maybe with cod or anchovy, with cauliflower or broccoli), “Patani tajedda rice and mussels” (rice, potatoes and mussels), soup, fish, mashed potatoes with fava beans, broad beans and mussels, and “Racana mussels”.

Almond milk: made by infusing water with the finely chopped almonds and then squeezing the same to expel the “milk”. The region of Apulia has entered the milk of almonds in its list of traditional Italian food products. Limoncello: a liquor made from the peel of fresh lemons and enriched with water, sugar and alcohol.

Brindisi cheeses are mostly from sheep, due to the significant ranching of sheep and goats. In the summer they produce ricotta, which can be eaten fresh or matured for a few months so that it has a stronger flavor. Typical of the winter season are the Pecorino, ricotta and strong ricotta (or cottage cheese). It is used to flavor spaghetti sauce or spread on bruschetta. Fresh popular cheeses are burrata, junket, Manteca cheese, mozzarella or Fior di latte.

Vegetables are the true protagonist of the traditional diet of Salento. Depending on season, are the tops of turnips, various types of cabbage, the beet greens from the thistle, peppers, eggplant and zucchini (all served sun-dried or in olive oil), and artichokes. There are also wild vegetables used in traditional cooking such as chicory, dandelion (or zangune), wild asparagus, the Wild mustard, the thistle, the lampascioni also called pampasciuni or pampasciuli, and capers. Frequent, in the Brindisi kitchen, is the use of green or white tomatoes: mainly used for tomato sauce but they are also consumed in olive oil, after a process of natural drying. Significant is also the consumption of green and black olives, crushed or in brine. Finally, legumes such as beans, peas and Vicia faba, eaten fresh or dried in the spring and during the winter season. Among the dishes prepared with fruit are quince, baked figs and dried figs (prepared with a filling of almonds), jam with orange and lemon, and fig jam.

Pasta and bread is made with unrefined flour, and thus takes on a dark colour. Durum wheat is mixed with traditional meal. Special local dishes include lasagna with vegetables, cavatelli, orecchiette (stacchioddi in Brindisi dialect) and ravioli stuffed with ricotta. In breadmaking, local custom favours the use of durum wheat, bread flour and barley bread. For bread made with yeast (called criscituni) and cooked on an oven stone, Brindisi bakers use bundles of olive branches to give the bread a particular scent. One type of traditional bread is made with olives (called puccia). It is made with a much more refined wheat flour than for ordinary bread, to which are added black olives. Also important are frisella, a sort of dehydrated hard bread which can be stored for a long time, and tarallini, also easily stored for long periods. The pucce and uliate cakes are also typical. Among local desserts the central place is occupied by almond paste, obtained by grinding shelled almonds and sugar. Another specialty is cartellate, a pastry, particularly prepared around Christmas, made of a thin strip of a dough made of flour, olive oil, and white wine that is wrapped upon itself, intentionally leaving cavities and openings, to form a sort of “rose” shape; the dough is then deep-fried, dried, and soaked in either lukewarm vincotto or honey.

In the area of Brindisi are produced Aleatico di Puglia Doc, Ostuni Doc, Brindisi Rosso DOC, Rosato Brindisi DOC and Puglia IGT. Some grape varieties grown in Brindisi include: Malvasia Nera di Brindisi, Negroamaro, Ottavianello, Sangiovese, Susumaniello. The Brindisi DOC produces both red and rose wines from grapes limited to a harvest yield of 15 tonnes/ha and must produce a wine with a minimum 12% alcohol level. The wines are usually blends made predominantly from Negaroamaro and Malvasia Nera but Sangiovese is allowed to compose up to 10% of the blend with Montepulciano allowed to compose up to another 20% (or 30% if Sangiovese is not included). If it is to be a Reserva, the wine is aged a minimum of 2 years before release and must attain a minimum alcohol level of 12.5%.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on City of Brindisi, LonelyPlanet.com – Brindisi, viaggiareinpuglia.it – Brindisi, italia.it – Apulia, Apulian cuisine, Wikitravel Brindisi, Wikivoyage Brindisi and Wikipedia Brindisi. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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