Weekly · Only good news · Issue 0 · 29 October 2026

Good News
from Manduria

by ManduriaShire Comunanza: being well together, effortlessly.

Welcome to our first issue, a trial run. Every week, only good news from Manduria and the towns around it, in Salento, Puglia, for people who live here or are thinking of it. This week: seven Primitivo di Manduria wines among Italy’s best, the Messapian walls on show in Paestum, and new flights for spring.

All issues

The luminarie of the festa seen from a balcony at night, Manduria, Salento, Puglia
The luminarie of the festa, Manduria, seen from a balcony at night. Photo: ManduriaShire

This week’s good news

Good news

Seven Primitivo di Manduria wines among Italy’s best

Gambero Rosso presented its wine guide, Vini d’Italia 2027, in Rome on 25 October. Its top award, Tre Bicchieri, goes to 540 wines across Italy, 26 of them from Puglia, and seven are Primitivo di Manduria:

  1. Acinorè Old Vines 2024Giustini
  2. Collezione Privata Cosimo Varvaglione 2022Varvaglione 1921
  3. Madrigale Dolce Naturale 2024Produttori di Manduria
  4. Mirea 2024Masseria Borgo dei Trulli
  5. Piano Chiuso 26 27 63 Riserva 2023Masca del Tacco
  6. Raccontami 2024Vespa Vignaioli per Passione
  7. Sessantanni Old Vines 2021San Marzano Vini

Madrigale is the sweet one. Produttori di Manduria is a cooperative cellar founded in 1932, with a museum of Primitivo wine culture inside.

Sources: vinodabere, 12 October 2026 · quotidiano.net, 26 October 2026 · WineTourism, Produttori di Manduria

Good news

Manduria’s ancient walls go on show

From 29 October to 1 November, Manduria has its own stand at the 28th Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico in Paestum, with “Manduria: La forma dell’acqua”, a Comune project funded by the Regione Puglia: the restoration of the church of San Pietro Mandurino, new digs with an Italian and French team, dry-stone wall workshops and shared gardens. Among the recent finds is a tomb with a Messapian inscription.

Sources: Corriere di Taranto, 27 October 2026 · ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026 · ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026

Good news

New flights for summer 2027

From late March, Ryanair adds Bari to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, to Leeds Bradford and to Sandefjord in Norway, each twice a week, and Brindisi to Warsaw Modlin, three times a week. Four more ways for family and friends to come and visit, and for you to pop home.

Source: Aeroroutes, 21 October 2026

Good news

A hospital that plants trees

On 27 October the Giannuzzi hospital in Manduria planted a carob tree, with a commemorative plaque. It is one of about thirty Italian hospitals in “L’Albero della Salute”, part of the national One Health project led by FADOI, the federation of hospital internists, with the Carabinieri. The idea came from Dr Claudio Tana, head of Internal Medicine.

Source: ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026

Good news

Who wants to invest here

GAL Terre del Primitivo, the local action group, asked the people who want to invest in the Primitivo lands what they would build. Hospitality and sustainable tourism came first, at 32%, then heritage and culture, at 20%. More than four in ten respondents are women, and more than one in five are between 18 and 30.

Source: ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026

One thing to know

Still a 7% town

ISTAT’s estimate puts Manduria at 29,528 residents on 1 January 2026, inside the 30,000 limit for Italy’s 7% flat tax for pensioners who move their tax residence from abroad to a small town in the South (Law 34/2026, article 26). In April, IMI Daily named Manduria among the 74 southern towns that came inside the limit when it rose from 20,000 to 30,000 residents. The rate applies to the foreign income Italy is allowed to tax, so check your case with a tax adviser. Our plain-English guide: manduriashire.it/seven-percent.

Sources: ISTAT, resident population at 1 January 2026, estimate · IMI Daily, 8 April 2026

Word of the week

controra

con-TROH-ra

The early afternoon, roughly from one to four, kept for rest on summer days. The Treccani dictionary marks it as a word of the South. In Manduria the piazza empties and the shutters come down. Don’t fight it.

Source: Treccani, vocabolario

Meet people

New faces, good tables

16:30 to 20:30 · Manduria, Via Fabio Massimo 19. “Donne e vino”: a round table on women in wine and in the local economy, then a guided tasting on booking, at Produttori di Manduria, the cellar behind this week’s sweet Tre Bicchieri. Details

19:30 · Manduria. Expats Pizza Night by Puglia International and Trame Living, their first evening in Manduria, for newcomers and regulars alike. Pre-sale closes on 24 November. Book

What’s on

For your diary

From 18:00 · Mesagne, Piazza Orsini del Balzo. Rosso Salentino, third edition: local wines at a tasting bench run with AIS Puglia, food stalls, the first Christmas market stalls of the season and live music both nights. Free entry. Details

20:30 · Manduria, Museo Civico, Via Ludovico Omodei 28. Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein’s 1925 silent classic, with a live electro-acoustic score by the Rome band Hiverne. Free entry. Details

Manduria, Masseria Cuturi. “La vita va in scena”, a photography and film project on marriage, tradition and the land by Roberto Colacioppo, with three sessions during the day. Free, booking required. Details

19:30 · Grottaglie, Chiesa Madre. Renaissance organ music by Dutch, English and German composers, played by Massimiliano Raschietti on the church’s historic organ. Free entry. Details

Local favourites

Places we would send a friend to

Mario’s pick

La Locanda di AntonVito, Manduria

Traditional home cooking: ciciri e tria, ravioloni, meat ragù and fish. There is no obvious sign over the door: look for number 75 on Corso XX Settembre. Closed on Wednesdays. One of thirteen places to eat and drink in the insider’s guide to Salento by Mario Dimitri, co-founder of ManduriaShire and 15Dolcevita: 15dolcevita.club/guide.

In the guide

Rahù, Manduria

Pizza and grill on Via Michele Pasanisi, in Gambero Rosso’s Pizzerie d’Italia 2027 with one Spicchio, the guide’s slice symbol, less than three years after opening. Ancient grains, stone-ground flour and sourdough; the house pizza brings Manduria cherry tomatoes, capocollo with vincotto, stracciatella and toasted almonds. Forty covers, so book.

Source: ManduriaOggi, 27 October 2026

The restored door at number 13, old town of Manduria, Salento, Puglia
The restored door at number 13, old town of Manduria, Salento, Puglia. Photo: 15Dolcevita
From our building site

Episode six of our building-site diary: in August the door of number 13, in the old town, was restored rather than replaced, and set back exactly where it had always been. Across the project, old iron, doors and windows get a second life wherever they can, and the stone comes from the quarries around Manduria. 15Dolcevita opens in summer 2027, with three suites in Via Verdi 15.

Read the diary
On the market

A courtyard house with star vaults, old town of Manduria

On Via Marugj, a house of about 350 square metres on a raised ground floor, an upper floor and a roof terrace. Nine rooms, three of them bedrooms, and two bathrooms; every ceiling is vaulted, star or barrel. At its heart is an inner courtyard that keeps its original stone paving, and the house looks onto two streets, so the light comes from both sides. Listed by Studio Torino Tecnoaffari, Manduria: see the listing.

ManduriaShire is not an estate agency. Every sale goes through a licensed agency and a notary. When we help you find a house that is not ours, we take no commission.

Your turn

Poll of the week

What would help you most in your first months in Manduria?

Loved a place, or looking for something?

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Good News from Manduria

Good News from Manduria is a weekly round-up of good news from Manduria and the towns around it, in Salento, Puglia, by ManduriaShire, for people who live here or are thinking of it. Have news or an event to share? Write to redazione@manduriashire.it.