Martina Franca

Martina Franca is the largest of the Itria valley towns, with a whitewashed centre of baroque palaces and churches built in local limestone, entered through the Porta di Santo Stefano and centred on the Basilica di San Martino with its heavily carved facade. The Festival della Valle d'Itria, running since 1975 in the courtyard of the ducal palace, specialises in operas that are rarely staged, including original versions and works recovered from archives, which has given it a serious reputation among specialists. Capocollo di Martina Franca, a cured pork shoulder smoked over oak bark, is the town's food speciality.

Background

Martina Franca, often just Martina and Marténe in Martinese, is a town and municipality of Apulia, in the province of Taranto. It is the second most populous town of the province after Taranto. Since 1975 the town has hosted the Festival della Valle d'Itria, an opera festival held each summer. Its most developed industry is textile manufacturing. Piazza Roma, the largest square of the old town, has a green space with a roughly triangular grass pattern at its centre and faces the 17th-century Palazzo Ducale. The town lends its name to the Martina Franca DOC wine, made mainly from Verdeca and Bianco d'Alessano grapes.

Source: Wikipedia, "Martina Franca"

What you'll find

• The baroque centre - white limestone palaces and carved church fronts.
• The ducal palace - the festival courtyard and frescoed state rooms.
• The opera festival - rarely performed works staged each summer.
• The capocollo - cured pork shoulder smoked over oak bark.

When to go

April to June and September to October for the town; the festival runs in July and into August, when accommodation books out. Summer heat inland is heavy.

Practical notes

Festival performances are ticketed and the repertoire is deliberately obscure. Outside the festival the town is quiet. Summer days are very hot.

Nearby

Locorotondo lies north; Taranto is southwest.

Key facts