New holiday destination Brindisi offers sun, sea and terraces in abundance

Transavia has a new sun destination. From February 23, the airline will fly from Rotterdam The Hague Airport to Brindisi twice a week. A city that is still an unknown gem for many Dutch people in the heel of Italy, located on the Adriatic Sea. The city in Puglia is known for its boulevard with palm trees, beautiful harbor and historic buildings. Due to the clear blue water and white sandy beaches, this region is also called 'The Maldives of the south'.

Okay, Brindisi may not have the allure of cities like Rome, Florence and Venice in terms of name, but the city is clearly on the rise. Fifteen years ago the streets here were usually deserted after 9 p.m. Nowadays it is also pleasantly busy in the evenings. And where the boulevard used to be mainly occupied by honking cars, it is now a pedestrian area with palm trees. You can stroll here almost all day long and enjoy the beautiful view. There are benches, restaurants and cafes with nice terraces where you can watch people strolling by until the early hours. The residents of Brindisi like to walk and usually greet each other exuberantly. 'Ciao Isabella!' 'Ciao Fransesco!'

Impressive harbour

Brindisi is best known for its harbour. Along the coastline, very expensive yachts, sailing boats, small fishing boats, catamarans and impressive cruise ships lie row after row in the water. The important ferry connection to Greece departs from this location. The city also has a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest natural harbor in the world.

Two thousand years ago, Brindisi was the place where many Roman ships moored and set sail for the colonies. It is not without reason that the then famous 'Via Appia' ran from Rome to Brindisi. This road was built around 312 BC and was for centuries the most important route in the Roman Empire. The Colonna Terminale della Via Appia, a surviving column from that period, is the last reminder of this piece of history.

Enjoy earphone paste

In this Italian city you can still encounter the past on almost every street corner. The old center is rich in narrow alleys and historic buildings. Many holidaymakers eat at least once during their trip in one of the home restaurants here, where the residents serve a real Puglia meal. Orechiette, for example, which means something like 'ears'. The typical pasta from this region owes its name to its shape.

What further characterizes Brindisi are the medieval churches. 'Santa Maria del Casale' is more than 700 years old and has different architectural styles, from Romanesque to Byzantine. In the heart of the city is the cathedral 'Duomo Brindisi', built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and restored after an earthquake in 1743. Does Greek antiquities warm your heart? Be sure to visit the city's archaeological museum, located on Piazza Duomo.

Maldives of the south

If you rent a car for one day, you can go out and visit some of the beautiful towns in this region, such as San Vito dei Normanni, Mesagne and (a little further away) the larger towns of Bari and Lecce. Along the way you cannot help but fall in love with the beautiful landscape, with its olive trees, beautiful flower fields and old stone walls where the bricks are stacked on top of each other without cement. The view here can be summarized in two words: breathtakingly beautiful. And that certainly applies to the strip along the coastline. It is not without reason that this region is also called 'the Maldives of the south'.

In the heart of Puglia you will find the Valle d'Itria, the most famous valley of this region. That fame has everything to do with the so-called trulli that you find here, characteristic white houses with a cone-shaped roof. You find them literally everywhere in the countryside. In the old center of Alberobello, there are even more than a thousand of them lined up along the old, winding streets. A special view!

Two flights a week

The direct connection to Brindisi is Transavia's second in this region. The airline already flies daily between Amsterdam and Bari, which is about 100 kilometers away. The first flight to Brindisi is on Saturday, February 23. From then on, Transavia will fly twice a week from Rotterdam The Hague Airport to this Italian coastal town until the end of October. The starting price is €35 for the winter months, from April it is €49 for a single trip.