by 15Dolcevita Comunanza: being well together, effortlessly.
Wine in the guide, walls on tour and a word for the afternoon. Our first issue, a trial run: the week’s good news from Manduria and the towns around it, in Salento, Puglia.
Manduria’s Messapian walls are on show in Paestum. From 29 October to 1 November the town has its own stand at the 28th Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico: a church being restored, new digs, dry-stone wall workshops and shared gardens. Back home, the recent finds include a tomb with a Messapian inscription. For the deputy mayor, it is “un Parco da vivere”: a park to live in.
Sources: Corriere di Taranto, 27 October 2026 · ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026
Manduria is Puglia’s only candidate to become Italian Capital of Culture 2029. Seventeen towns, cities and mountain communities applied across Italy, the dossiers were due in September, and the title is expected by March 2027. L’Aquila holds it this year, Pordenone next year and Ancona in 2028. Fingers crossed.
Tre Bicchieri, “three glasses”, is the top award of Gambero Rosso’s wine guide, Vini d’Italia, whose 2027 edition was presented in Rome on 25 October. Of the 540 wines awarded across Italy, 26 come from Puglia, and seven of those are Primitivo di Manduria. Produttori di Manduria’s Madrigale is the sweet one: Mario’s tip is to serve it slightly chilled, with dark chocolate or aged pecorino.
Sources: vinodabere, 12 October 2026 · quotidiano.net, 26 October 2026 · The Insider’s Guide to Salento, Puglia
From 30 March 2027, Ryanair links Friedrichshafen, on Lake Constance, with Bari, twice a week. Also new from late March: Leeds Bradford and Sandefjord, in Norway, to Bari, and Warsaw Modlin to Brindisi. Pack light.
Source: Aeroroutes, 21 October 2026
Breakfast the Manduria way. Pompigna is a bar pasticceria on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II: cornetti in the morning, rustici, gelato and granita in summer. Order at the counter. From the insider’s guide to Salento by Mario Dimitri, co-founder of 15Dolcevita: 15dolcevita.club/guide.
controra
con-TROH-ra
The early afternoon, roughly from one to four, kept for rest on summer days; the Treccani dictionary marks it as a word of the South. The piazza empties, the shutters come down and the streets are yours. Rest is not a reward. It is the point.
Source: Treccani, vocabolario
16:30 to 20:30 · Manduria, Via Fabio Massimo 19. “Donne e vino” at Produttori di Manduria, the home of Madrigale: women, wine and the land, then a guided tasting on booking. Details
19:30 · Manduria. Expats Pizza Night by Puglia International and Trame Living: pizzas to share and new faces around the table. Pre-sale closes on 24 November. Book
From 18:00 · Mesagne, Piazza Orsini del Balzo. Rosso Salentino: local wines poured with AIS Puglia, roasted chestnuts on the first night, the season’s first Christmas stalls and live music. Free entry. Details
20:30 · Manduria, Museo Civico, Via Ludovico Omodei 28. Battleship Potemkin on the big screen, with a live electro-acoustic score by Hiverne. Free entry. Details
Manduria, Masseria Cuturi. “La vita va in scena”: a day of photography, film and old wedding traditions in a historic masseria, by Roberto Colacioppo. Free, booking required. Details
19:30 · Grottaglie, Chiesa Madre. Renaissance music on a historic organ, played by Massimiliano Raschietti. Free entry. Details
One Spicchio in Gambero Rosso’s Pizzerie d’Italia 2027, less than three years after opening. Think ancient grains, stone-ground flour and sourdough, and a house pizza of Manduria cherry tomatoes, capocollo with vincotto, stracciatella and toasted almonds. Forty covers, so book.
Source: ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026
Some things are not replaced. In episode six of our building-site diary, the door of number 13, in Manduria’s old town, was restored and set back exactly where it had always stood. Old iron, doors and windows get a second life wherever they can, and the stone comes from the quarries around Manduria. Three suites in Via Verdi 15, opening in summer 2027.
Read the diaryThe vaults reappearing and the neighbours' stories. Written by Mario.
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Brindisi is the closer airport: about 50 minutes to Manduria by car, 54 km. From Bari airport, where the new Friedrichshafen flights land, allow about an hour and three quarters, 160 km. Times for a weekday morning, without traffic delays.
Source: TomTom route planner, routes from Brindisi and Bari airports to Piazza Garibaldi, Manduria, checked on 29 October 2026
In Manduria’s old town, on Via Marugj, a house of about 350 square metres opens onto an inner courtyard that keeps its original stone paving. Every ceiling is vaulted, star or barrel, and there is a roof terrace. Listed by Studio Torino Tecnoaffari, Manduria: see the listing.
ManduriaShire is not an estate agency. Every sale goes through a licensed agency and a notary. When we help you find a house that is not ours, we take no commission.
Thank you. The results come in a coming issue.
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Good News from Manduria is a short weekly round-up of good news from Manduria and the towns around it, in Salento, Puglia, by 15Dolcevita. Have news or an event to share? Write to redazione@manduriashire.it.
The vaults reappearing and the neighbours' stories. Written by Mario.
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