For many years, my family and I had wanted to visit this region in southern Italy, but our numerous travels, sometimes thousands of kilometers away, had made it impossible. This year, driven by the fact that Marinella and I hadn’t seen each other for over five years, we decided to take the first direct flight to Brindisi.

Final destination: the white city of Ostuni, where Marinella spends her summers reconnecting with her roots. Our meeting point was a small beach in the Coastal Dunes Park, and after a long hug warmed by the setting sun, we toasted, chatted, and laughed a lot over an aperitif made with the typical Puglian barattiero melon.