Ostuni is visited nose-up and hands on the whitewash: the spiral of lanes wrapping the hill is a luminous labyrinth of arches, stairways and courtyards where white — born as hygiene and defence — became identity. On top, the fifteenth-century cathedral with its twenty-four-ray rose window; below, the Sant'Oronzo obelisk watches the café square.
Every corner is a stage flat: workshops in caves, panoramic bars on the walls, the olive plain running to the sea.
Our tip: get lost without a map in the afternoon, then take the western walls for sunset: the town turns pink, the plain blue. Dine in one of the inner courtyards: white by day, warm lights by night.