Cisternino's genius contribution to Italian food culture is the "fornello pronto" — a system where the town's butchers are also restaurants. You enter a macelleria (butcher shop), examine the meat displayed in the counter (bombette — pork rolls stuffed with cheese and herbs, gnumeredd — lamb offal wrapped in intestine, salsicce, costine), point at what you want, they weigh it, grill it on a fornello (charcoal grill) in the back, and you eat it at a table in the alley behind the shop with bread, wine from the barrel, and contorni (sides). A full meal costs €10-15 per person. The town itself — white houses, baroque balconies, a panoramic terrace over the Valle d'Itria with trulli visible in every direction — is among the prettiest in Puglia. But people come for the meat. Puglia guide → · Valle d'Itria →
Plan my Puglia trip →The fornelli pronti: Cluster around Via Basiliani and Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. Macelleria Romanelli: The most traditional — point, they grill, you eat in the alley. €10-15. Macelleria Santoro: Excellent bombette. Same system. Rosticceria L'Antico Borgo: Slightly more structured but same philosophy. The bombetta: The signature dish — a thin slice of capocollo (pork neck) wrapped around a piece of canestrato cheese and herbs, secured with a toothpick, grilled over charcoal until the cheese melts inside the crispy pork. Eat 3-4 bombette with bread and a quartino of Primitivo. Total cost: €12. Total satisfaction: immeasurable.
Getting there: car from Bari (1h), Brindisi (40min). FSE train to Cisternino station (on the Bari-Taranto line). Best time: summer evenings (the fornelli set tables outside after 8pm). Stay: €50-90/night (trulli accommodation in the countryside, €60-120). Combine with: Locorotondo (8km), Alberobello (15km), Ostuni (12km), Martina Franca (10km).