As an essential rail junction this provincial capital suffered intense aerial bombardment in 1943. Two centuries earlier an earthquake wiped it out and two centuries before that the French devastated it during their anti-Spanish campaigns. Little therefore remains of Foggia’s days of glory when the Holy Roman Emperor (Frederick II) chose it for his southern capital and built its imperial citadel (13thC). Only a fragment survives, re-erected near Porta Arpana and the civic museum.

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948), pioneer of verismo opera (he introduced tennis rackets into Fedora), was born here. His monument is supported by sculptures of his heroes and heroines. Foggia straddles routes across the Tavoliere (‘tableland’), an open plain of pastureland and cereal crops. Few Italian cities have so little to show architecturally, outside the heavily-rebuilt Baroque churches, but Foggia is an active modern city, not over-burdened with tourists, an excellent centre for the Gargano and the northern Puglia seaside.