Every design for Altamura

Altamura is known for its bread. Pane di Altamura, with its own particular quality, is sold far beyond Puglia, and for many Italians the town's name means a loaf before it means a place. It sits on one of the hills of the Murge plateau, south-west of Bari and close to the border with Basilicata.

The second thing that sets it apart is far older. In the limestone cave of Lamalunga, just outside town, speleologists found the calcified skeleton now known as Altamura Man, an almost complete Neanderthal. At Pontrelli, an old quarry holds thousands of dinosaur footprints. Much of the land around belongs to the Alta Murgia National Park, a karst country of sinkholes such as the Pulo. Back in town, traces of megalithic walls survive, the cathedral founded under Frederick II rises above the old centre, and Porta Bari and the Arco Basso mark the old streets.

If Altamura is yours, you already know the smell of the bakeries and the stone of the Murge. Take them with you, from the Palazzo Baldassarre - Museo dell'Uomo di Altamura to the Museo del Pane di Vito Forte.