The heel of Italy
APULIA
Apulia is better known as the heel
of the Italian boot and it is mainly a flat and fertile peninsula. The
region was in ancient times settled both by Greek colonists and several
Italic tribes until the 4th century when the romans conquered it and
transformed the region and organized the land in agricultural parcels.
After the fall of Rome and its empire Apulia was held by the Goths, the
Lombards and the Byzantines first and then by the Normans in the 11th
century. The region was then settled by the
Turks and the Venetian until 1861 when the region was merged in the
unified Kingdom of Italy. From the 19th century social and agrarian
reforms passed one after the other but the results started to be
visible only from the late 20th century.
Industry and tourism have expanded
rapidly in the 20th century but farming still represents the chief
occupation in the region. Regional products include grapes and wine,
olives, cereals, figs, almonds, tobacco and domestic animals such as
sheep, pigs, cattle and goats.