After teary goodbyes with Dennis and Linda at Rome Airport, we took a quick 45 minute flight to Bari, and then a one hour drive into the countryside of Puglia in the boot of Italy to a country estate called Masseria Montenapoleone.

This ranch-style accommodation is like the garden of Eden, with farm animals, cats and dogs roaming around and cobble-stoned pathways lined with artichoke plants and wild fennel. They grow flowering cacti, remove the leaves and nail them to the white, stuccoed walls of the various buildings throughout the property. It looks like a Spanish Hacienda.

We enjoyed a prosecco and an aperol spritz at the bar while we waited for our tour guide, Max to arrive. Max will be taking us though Puglia for the next 7 days on a gastronomic tour of the region. When he walked in, we were expecting an Italian guide to greet us and were surprised when he turned out to look and sound like Hugh Grant. Max is an Englishman who has been living in Puglia for the past 12 years.

We were also surprised to find out that we are the only ones on the tour. Many years ago we took a tour where there was a loud-mouthed, know-it-all named Greg. Since then every tour we go on generally has a similar type of super-annoying person who has been everywhere, seen everything and knows everything. This is generally the person you want to strangle by the end of the tour. With only two of us on this tour, I am really worried that I might be the Greg. Secretly, I think Lidia must be the Greg. She is far more Greg-arious than me.

We enjoyed a sumptuous Italian feast in the restaurant and met the owner of the property, Juliano. He was a lovely guy and lived in Sydney for a while. The meal was delicious, and we finished up with a selection of digestivo's, the usual limoncello, mirto, etc.

The next morning Max picked us up and took us to Alberrobello. This is a UNESCO city which is famous for it's trulli houses. These houses are white with grey, slate, conical roofs. They date back about 500 years. It's like stepping onto a different planet.

We spent the morning at Alberobello and then continued on to a dairy farm. This farm is famous for their cheeses, especially mozzarella and the local speciality here, burrata. They showed us through their small factory where they make all of their products by hand. They are proud of the fact that they use absolutely no chemicals in their cheese whatsoever. Everything is completely natural.

We watched one of the workers, Antonio, make mozzarella and burrata by mixing the raw cheese with hot water until it became a stringy, stretchy mass. He then stretched out a piece and tied a small knot in the end, making a mozzarella ball. It was great to see him making a product by hand and not resorting to a machine as they'd do in Australia.

He then made the famous burrata, which is basically a mozzarella ball filled with torn up pieces of mozzarella. We ate some fresh as he was making it. It was absolutely scrumptious.

The factory is on the same land where they milk the cows. The family who owns the farm lives on the property as well. Max took us inside the attached house, where they had laid out a "snack" on the table. The "snack" consisted of cold cut meats, mozzarella, burrata, bread, olives, focaccia and various other cheeses made on the premises. They then fed us barbecued home-made sausages which they had been cooking on an open fire outside. We finished our snack with cheesecake made with ricotta and chocolate. It was all delicious.

After lunch we went back to our masseria, where we met up with the owner, Juliano again. He took us for a tour of the property and it was fascinating. His parents bought the property 20 years ago and he runs it now. It was originally built as a working farm 500 years ago and has a fortress on it for defence against pirates, Romans, Turks, etc. Juliano has done an amazing job turning it into a tourist destination. The old workers cottages have been turned into accommodation and there is an extensive cave system underneath it which has also been turned into stunning accommodation. Juliano then took us to the kitchen and gave us a cooking class. The unusual thing about this cooking class was that we started by taking whole wheat grown here on the property and grinding it into flour, which we then used to make our pasta. We made orecchiette, gnocchi and fettucine. Juliano shared recipes with us that his grandmother showed him how to make.

After our class, Juliano recommended a couple of wines for us to have with our dinner. We enjoyed a magnificent dinner, including the most incredible mascarpone, caramel dessert that had me moaning like a camel in labour.

The next morning Max took us to a town called Oscuni, which is a fortress city on a hilltop where all of the buildings are white. It is so picturesque and we loved walking through the streets, which were almost deserted. The weather was beautifully mild. A great time of year to visit because apparently it gets crazy during July and August.

We then went to a working olive plantation with almost 2,000 olive trees, all of which are ancient. Most are over 2,000 years old and there is one dating back 3,500 years. It still produces fruit! The Italians are so obsessed with their olive trees that it is illegal to cut one down and the Government monitors them by satellite. The oldest ones are actually microchipped.

The lunch was prepared by Alma at the plantation and was delicious. A massive antipasto consisted of roasted peppers, eggplant, bruschettas, cold meats, smoked burrata, a frittata, a sausage casserole and much, much more. The mandatory pasta for main and then a beautiful custard filled pastry with blood orange jam for dessert. Lidia was so impressed with the bruschetta topped with artichoke tapenade that she asked Alma for the recipe, which she wrote down for her in perfect English.

When we arrived back at our masseria, we took a walk around the massive property to work off some of our lunch. We passed a group of about 15 American tourists who stopped us and asked us lots of questions. While I was talking to them, I stepped back into a hole and nearly fell over. A couple of them had to rescue me. Awkwardo strikes again.