Recuperating in Puglia, Italy

I love being able to choose when I take my time off work. Working a 'regular' job means I get to go on holiday when flights and hotels are cheaper – New York in February, for example, is a fraction of the price as New York in August, not to mention more bearable weather-wise. I've also enjoyed long weekends in Paris, Barcelona, and, most recently, a week in Puglia, Italy. So I guess you could say there are some benefits of no longer being in education, as much as I miss those long summer holidays.

At the beginning of July I flew to Bari with my mum, dad and sister and we hired a car to drive to the small village of Coreggia, near Alberobello. It was quiet, and with virtually no other tourists in sight I was in my element. Fellow introverts will know where I'm coming from when I say I need time to just be. I needed to unwind after a busy six months of constant working and socialising and Italy offered just that.

We spent most days wondering around various towns and villages, visiting markets and the locals' favourite restaurants. I ate the sweetest peaches, devoured Nutella on bread for breakfast, discovered mozzarella's sister, burrata, and even learnt some Italian thanks to Duolingo. 

I ate more tomatoes that week than I have all year – but if you knew how flavoursome they were you'd understand. Everything tasted exactly as it should and it was all so ridiculously cheap.

I've forgotten the name of this restaurant, but it had recently opened in Ostuni and employed the kindest staff. My spaghetti 'Nicola' came drenched in olive oil with a roasting hot pan of tomato sauce on the side, which I was to add as I pleased. I tried the spaghetti without the sauce and it was the best I'd ever tasted; silky, al dente and the olive oil actually tasted like olives. The rich sauce made it even more exquisite.

My favourite gelato was this watermelon one I found in Ostuni, sitting on top of an even more delicious peach offering. How do the Italians get it so right with their food?

I mostly wore dresses on my holiday – it was too hot for anything else - and this Monki number served me so well: 

Dress: Monki (£20!!), Sandals: Primark. Sunglasses: Topshop Bag: Skinnydip (ASOS)

A week away was just right, and by Saturday morning I was ready to come home to Bristol and get back into the swing of regular life. As I re-familiarised myself with the comfort of my own bed, I realised that bit of variety in life is sometimes all we need.

Flour & Ash – Bristol

Flour & Ash was the first place I ate when I moved to Bristol, and because memories are more vivid when there's food involved, I like to think this was one of the more poignant moments in my life. But even if you aren't sharing a pizza and a bottle of wine with your mum, crying at the prospect of leaving home (for the second time) to live in a city not even an hour away from home, I promise you're going to love Flour & Ash.

It's simple – in the kitchen is a massive wood-fired oven in which hand-stretched sourdough pizzas are cooked to charred, chewy, crispy perfection. Paired with the most incredible toppings and unusual combinations are pizzas unlike anything else you'll taste in the UK. I'm not exaggerating. Pizza is Flour & Ash's thing, and ice cream is the only dessert on the menu – but we'll get to that later.

On this particular evening I was out with my mum and dad (no tears this time). My dad ordered the prawns and my mum and I the polenta chips to start. The polenta chips – with truffle & parmesan – were crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, light and rich all at the same time and put Jamie's Italian offering to shame. I could eat a whole plate of these for dinner and die happy. But we ordered pizza, of course.

What's great about Flour & Ash is that they have vegan and tomato-free options, and Mum's leek & pancetta pizza was a creamy bechamel number which was just out-of-this-world delicious. These are a lot richer than the tomato sauce pizzas, bu irresistable in their indulgence. I picked the spicy chorizo pizza which had this fresh, creamy cheese on top – not unlike buffalo mozzarella – and it was one of my favourites to date. It was very spicy so I had to save some and take it home with me, but it tasted even better cold the next day.

Sourdough is the kind of bread that I could just eat and eat and eat. It's deliciously moreish and paired with the toppings make the best pizza I've ever had outside of Italy. Their ice cream – at £3 a flavour – is also fantastic, with quirky flavours such as cardamom, basil, bayleaf, and blackcurrant sorbet, to name a few. What's more – they do a £9 deal before 6.30pm every day, including lunchtimes. Flour & Ash has got the art of authentic Italian food spot on, and along with the fantastic service and warm atmosphere, it's got to be one of the best. I've yet to find a better offering, anyway.