Ostuni isn’t just an aesthetic delight. Its white-washed buildings are not just beautiful: they’re also a historical (and technical) device for combatting the ravages of the relentless southern Italian sun, keeping the houses below them cool enough to be tolerable.

Ostuni is also an archaeological delight: its main tourist attraction is its 15th-century Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and its magnificent rose window, squeezed into a mass of Gothic and Romanesque bones.