Putignano's carnival claims Europe's oldest origins: tradition dates it to 1394 and the Propaggini, when the translation of Saint Stephen's relics dissolved into satirical songs — and still today, on 26 December, dialect poets open the longest carnival there is. The papier-mâché floats, ephemeral cathedrals of irony, parade from January to Shrove Tuesday.
The symbol is Farinella, the two-tone mask named after the local chickpea-and-barley flour. Off season, the white old town and the nearby Trullo cave recall that this is, after all, the Itria Valley.
Near Putignano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
