Every design for Foggia

Above the Portale del Palazzo di Federico II di Svevia, an inscription still calls Foggia "Regalis Sedes Inclita Imperialis", the favoured seat of the Empire. Frederick II had his palace built here in 1223, stayed often and kept a court and a school of learning in the town, with scholars such as Michael Scot. Little of it remains beyond that doorway, but the name has stuck. Before him, William II of Sicily had already given the town a cathedral.

What makes Foggia unlike its neighbours is the plain around it. It is the main city of the Tavoliere, the granary of Italy, and for centuries it was the end point of the old transhumance tracks, where sheep farmers were taxed at a customs house built by Alfonso V of Aragon. Earthquakes struck it repeatedly, and the Bourbons rebuilt much of the town on the strength of the region's wheat.

Foggiani who leave tend to measure their return by the moment the fields flatten out and the Fontana di Federico II comes back into view.