Travelling to Southern Italy this September, I only had two simple wishes.

The first was to win over an Italian. We didn’t have to become besties or anything like that. I just wanted to get to know a real-deal local and pick their brain for locals’-only tips.

The second wish was to stumble across a restaurant so authentic and off the beaten track that the menu was only in Italian, no English translation version available.

Who knew that Puglia and Sicily would deliver these dreams so many times over…

As soon as we arrived, we were given a warm welcome by the villa’s owner Maria Grazia and served an amazing homemade lunch of fresh tomato relish and burrata on crutons, penne pasta and a zingy salad fresh from their garden.

My dream of a non-English menu came true when we drove into the nearby town Avetrana and had a delightful dinner at Osteria Sud e Terre Lontane with the local punters in a fairy-lit alleyway.