In Puglia, there exists a face little known to the Pugliesi themselves. It’s a different essence, distinct from trulli, castles, and whitewashed walls, far from sunny and crowded beaches.

I’m writing of the territories where the human imprint has not yet completely marked its territory, leaving room for forests, woods, and biodiversity. Villages with just 2,000 souls, where the inhabitants are the last guardians of an identity intertwined with the landscape, traditions, customs, and the natural cycle of the seasons, enriched by the biodiversity of plants, vegetables, and wild flora. This intangible heritage, passed down orally from generation to generation, is known as ethnobotany, the indigenous knowledge of plants.