Masseria Didattica Lama Balice

Masseria Didattica Lama Balice is an educational farm in the Lama Balice Regional Natural Park at Bitonto, near Bari. Its activities introduce visitors to local agriculture, food production and the park’s natural environment through organic and synergistic gardens, aromatic plants, farm animals and practical workshops. The site also accommodates cultural events: its programmes have combined farm visits and food demonstrations with folk music and book presentations. Its open-air spaces have also been used for opera, including Verdi’s Rigoletto. A masseria is a fortified farmstead of the Apulian countryside, walled against raiders and built to work the land around it; this one stands in the Lama Balice, the deep karst ravine that runs down to the sea between Bitonto and Bari and is now a regional nature park. Adapted as a teaching farm, it opens its courtyards to summer performance. Verdi's Rigoletto has been staged there.