Twenty years ago, parts of Bari were a mafia stronghold. Today, thanks to a group of no-nonsense nonnas and an anticorruption mayor, the capital city of Puglia is Europe’s latest short-break star. With flights from Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh, here you can feast on superb pizza for under five euros in a 16th-century piazza bedecked by fairy lights, yet still have a choice of newly opened, hip boutique hotels — that reliable indicator of gentrification — to sleep in.

Bari’s beach attracts both kitesurfers and sun-seekers, while in the city centre you can go from Norman fortifications and ancient passageways to elegant 19th-century boulevards with designer shops. In summer, hipsters flock to the city for the Locus music festival (locusfestival.it) but Bari’s quartet of stately 19th-century theatres also host concerts and operas.