7 days in Puglia

If you're flying out of Bari then I'd suggest making the northernmost town your last stay since it's close to Bari. I would not recommend driving a long distance immediately after flying to Rome, especially if you are coming from the West Coast. For that matter I'd not try to take a train right after a flight because flights can be late. If this was my trip I'd fly into Rome, stay the nite, then take the direct train to Puglia the next morning. Since you'll have a car IMO Lecce would be a better base than Gallipoli since it is larger and also on the main train line.

Where is your flight coming from? North America? Australia? Asia? UK?
You didn’t write your home city or area in your profile. Our advice on renting a car upon landing will be different if you are an Australian flying 24 hours to reach Rome or if you are flying just a couple of hours from the UK.
What time do you arrive at Rome? Morning? Evening? That will also impact our advice on whether to advise you to drive the 5 to 6 hours to Bari or take the train. The road is all freeway but 6 hours at the wheel is still quite an effort, especially if after a long flight from outside Europe.
Which towns do you plan to visit? That will also impact our advice on which place to use as a base, also having a car or not will determine where it is best to stay.
What time of the year are you planning to go? Summer? Spring? Fall? That will also be important to know to advice where to stay.
Visiting north or south first doesn’t make a difference. It is entirely your choice. But your last night must be in or near Bari if you have an early flight.

We spent a week or so in Puglia a few years ago and divided our time between Locorotondo (near Bari) to the north and Lecce in the south, both of which we loved and found to be perfect bases. We flew into Bari from Rome (after time there) and then flew from Brindisi on to Sicily.

In Locorotondo we stayed at the Masseria Aprile (which was fabulous) from which we made day trips to Alberobello and other towns in the region. In Lecce we stayed in the center of the old town at the B&B Centro Storico which was also terrific, and handy to sights and restaurants. We were able to park right outside the town gate on the street and again made several day trips to Gallipoli, Otranto and other towns in the region. There are several beach towns in Puglia and we found them stunning (although we didn’t spend time on the beaches per se).

I would highly recommend a stop in nearby Matera if possible; while it’s in Basilicata, not Puglia, it is a magical, unforgettable place you’ll never forget, and especially memorable if you can spend a night in one of the cave hotels there.

We loved Puglia and plan to return this fall. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

1) consider looking into changing the outbound flight to Brindisi if possible? Alternatively, is there another town you could get a train to on arrival day? You’ll want to end close to Bari for the early outbound flight otherwise.
2) consider changing flight from Rome to Bari or Brindisi so you don’t lose most of a day.
3) definitely do not recommend driving such a distance on arrival day.

You’ll have time for a beach or two of course but if that will be something you are doing in Albania, then make your list of things to see and prioritize beaches accordingly.

@Robero da Firenza sorry about that! We are flying in from NYC in the US. I can’t change my flight coming in to Rome because it was a special deal with my mileage and I essentially got that flight for free. We have been to Rome more times than we can count so we wanted to make our way to puglia right away. Our flight is landing at 10am in FCO, which means I would miss the early flight going in to Bari or brindisi and would then have to wait until 8 at night for another flight. We were going to originally stay in Rome for a night and then leave, but I must leave Italy on the morning of the 13th to attend a wedding in Albania and I didn’t want to lose a day of seeing puglia, otherwise we’d stay longer.

Check train schedules. At least that way you can nap!
Let us know what month so you can gauge the risk of the train selling out. You generally don’t want to prebook in case flight is late, but you can probably crowdsource a safe train time.

Thank you for the details. Many new users of this forum think that people asking questions here are all Americans, but actually there are people here asking questions from all continents of the world except for maybe Antarctica but it is not far the day that a flock of penguins will come here to ask for advice on how to attend an Opera premier at La Scala in Milan, and finally put to use the tuxedo they all wear.

Since you arrive after an overnight transatlantic flight and arrive in the morning, it is safer and less tiring to take the train to Bari or, even better, all the way to Lecce, on the day of arrival, and put to use your first day when you will be probably jet lagged to get to the farthest destination.

Lecce deserves at least a couple of nights and you don’t need the car at all in Lecce. After Lecce, if you want you can rent a car (Lecce should have some rental companies, for sure there is Europcar) and visit Gallipoli (about 30 min drive away) and Otranto. Otranto would be my choice to stay for some beach time. The historical center is beautiful and vibrant in summer, more so than Gallipoli, where there isn’t much to see other than the Castle, which IMO is nice. I would stay in Otranto a couple of nights at least.

Going further north to get closer to Bari for your flight home, you can base yourself in Monopoli or Polignano. They are very close to each other, so you can use either as a base to see other famous locations, such as Ostuni, Locorotondo, Alberobello, Martina Franca. Locorotondo and Alberobello are 5 minutes from each other, so you can easily see them on the same day trip. Ostuni is south (on the way up back from Lecce, so you could also visit it as a stop between Otranto and Monopoli/Polignano, but of course when you are in transit there is always the issue of leaving the luggage unattended in the car.
I don’t know how early is your flight to Tirana. Polignano and Monopoli are not too far from Bari (about 45-50 min drive) so you could stay there all the way until your last night, but you probably need to leave super early to make the flight.

If you decide not to rent a car, your bases should be Lecce (first) for maybe 3 nights, then Bari for the last 4 nights. From those cities there are buses and (some) trains to other locations nearby.

We've taken the fast train to Puglia a couple times and were planning to do it again last fall, but arriving at Termini we found that there were no seats at all from Rome to Bari, Brindisi, or Lecce. Maybe there was a festival or something. So we quickly rented a car and drove to Lecce --- it was a very easy drive and we stopped for lunch somewhere (I'd had no sleep for 30 hours so I don't remember). Maybe 7.5 hours including lunch?

HOWEVER, we were both almost 5 hours onto Italy time already (our nutty but effective anti-jetlag schedule) and so were not jet-lagged at all and my husband sleeps the whole way on the plane. Plus he has driven in Italy for many years and can read Italian road signs. Those four things made us feel fine about driving right after a long flight.

So, I'm answering your question about the drive itself, but recommending that you take the fast train. There must be some way to check how many tickets will still be available --- it just never occurred to us that a train could be full in October.

This is great information! We will be there the first week of July. Our flight going in to Tirana is 6:00am and we already checked that it is possible to drop our car off at all hours at the Bari airport. So we are fine with that. Thank you for the information on where to stay. I suggested Galipolli because we’d like to be on the side of the Ionian Sea. We can do the Adriatic and have done the Adriatic in both Montenegro and Albania before. We were also looking at Baia Verde on the Ionian side. It’s not a far drive in to Lecce from there.

I am looking at the train schedules from FCO to both Lecce and Bari. It looks like if I try to go to Lecce from the airport, there will be a few stops which will take quite some time. But then I found a train going to Bari Centrale directly. I figure we can do that and then rent a car there and drive the two hours to Lecce.

We have driven to Florida multiple times from NYC (16 hour drive) stopping in North Carolina to sleep, and my husband has driven the 16 hours straight with my son when bringing him back from college. My husband would like to drive and has reserved a car, but we can cancel at any time.

Bari is wonderful. Great old city, the rather moving Basilica San Nicolo and 12th C. Swabian castle. Plus a wonderful 1000 year old medieval quarter around those sights. We dined well in Bari and we enjoyed our mere 24 hours there, greatly.

If you do train to Bari on arrival day, I’d suggest you spend a night (or two) there after the flight from NY and the train from FCO. Find a hotel somewhere between the train station and the medieval quarter, which are just about a mile apart.

Late note - if flying out from Bari, you can simply spend the night there at the end - with your 6 am departure. … or it’s just a 45 minute drive from Polignano a Mare to the airport at Bari.

It’s your trip, so it’s your choice. Although Gallipoli is worth a visit, however I prefer Otranto to Gallipoli, to stay a few nights. Ionian Sea or Adriatic doesn’t matter to me. Once you are inside you can’t tell the difference, both have salty water.
If you arrive at FCO at 10am, the earliest a train can get you to Bari is 5:43pm. I don’t know if your husband will feel like picking up a rental at that time and drive an additional 2 hours to Lecce. My suggestion would be to spend a night or two in Bari, and visit Bari Vecchia, then the morning after the second night head out with a car.