Bari,Lecce,Matera

Are you solo or part of a couple/group? It depends on the time of year and what kinds of things you like to do. You can do it by public transport if you are willing to do the legwork. In my case, a lot of outdoor activities were on the agenda, so a car was a must.
Bus between Bari and Matera, then I would break up the trip to Lecce with a stay in the Itria valley. OR, do Matera first (there is a bus direct from airport if the timing works out), and do Bari in between so it's less of a slog.
Two of my favorites stays ever were Roof Barocco Suites in Lecce and Torretta ai Sassi in Matera--I stayed at both twice.
I want to hear your ideas, lol--this is more fruitful if we respond to what you have identified as of interest.

I'm thinking of traveling to these areas...

• How long is your proposed trip (how many days/nights)?
• When exactly are you planning to go?
• What are your interests, likes and dislikes?
• Have you been to Italy before (if so, where)?

OK, that's helpful. I am confident you will like all those places (and many more in between them). I'd give the region 3-4 weeks if you can manage it.

As luck would have it, I just got back from this region (Puglia) a few weeks ago. We spent about 3 weeks there, starting mid-September thru early October. This was our third trip to Italy. So, in some ways maybe fairly analogous to your proposal. I wish we had had another week or two there, but I think that at the end of all successful trips. You can enjoy a lot here in 2+ weeks, but you'll have to make choices and tradeoffs.

In short, this was an utterly spectacular trip for us. We are pretty well-traveled, and my wife (who is not easy to impress) says this was one of the most awesome and satisfying trips we've ever done.

We flew in to Bari, rented a car, and drove it all over for about 3 weeks, doing essentially a long, distorted "loop" clockwise all around Puglia. I know many folks skew towards trains in this region, but having a car worked out perfectly for us. Driving was stressful a few times (deep in old city centers) but mostly was delightful and easy. We covered a LOT of ground, ate well, were blown away by the architecture and scenery, loved all the places we went. There are SO MANY great places to see and things to do.

I have not had time to do a trip report yet (I'm actually packing right now for a short trip to South America and need to stay focused on preparations for that - we leave in less than a week). I will try to post a detailed Puglia trip report with photos (we took a lot) but won't be able to for at least a few weeks. Probably around end of November/early December.

In the mean time, here's a little inspirational eye candy I pulled from my photos to the region: Puglia Quick Tease. There's lots more, this was just a quick grab 'n go set of photos. More later.

David,

That would be wonderful! I just started this last night so I have a lot of things to occupy me for the next two weeks so I'll have my research in my hand and review yours. Thanks so much!

Terry

About railways in Puglia: only the mainlines have intensive services; I mean the coast line from Lecce to Bari, Foggia, and all the Adriatic and the branch from Bari to Taranto. The Foggia to Caserta and Rome line has long distance services but it is being renovated at present so services are not optimal.
All the other railway services are basically commuter buses on rail. Now the service to Altamura, Gravina and Matera is much better that time ago (I am old ago to remember some steam engines running on the same line), but still local services are slow and times geared to students and commuters.
There were once some scenic lines in the Puglia inland, including a very slow narrow gauge to Potenza, but services were suspended time ago due to low frequentation.

Awesome photos in that collection, David! It seems you’ve mastered the art of the drone, as well.

Thanks, Kenko.

Yes, the drone got a good workout on this trip. There were some places you can't fly it or it's just inappropriate and rude (I always try to be both legal and considerate), but I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of places on this trip where it was easy to fly and shoot without bothering anyone (and without violating regulations). Several of our accommodations had perfect rooftop terraces that were going completely unused, I asked the owners and all gave me permission to fly from there. That helped, plus my DW has become more supportive as she has begun to appreciate the aerial shots, instead of just rolling her eyes and asking me if we were done yet. 🙄

I do think the photos of Polignano, Ostuni, and Gallipoli in particular captured the essence of those places nicely. It's definitely a beautiful region. I've got over 5000 frames to review, cull and process (plus video) when I get a chance.

Best is in the eye of the beholder.

Consider cycling, perhaps. Puglia’s pretty flat.

Cf. https://www.pugliacycletours.com/self-guided
and our TR at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/southern-italy-30-days-three-ways-to-travel

(We spent 11 days in Puglia, cycling 6 of them. We then drove (3 days, with 2 nights on the Cilento coast) from Lecce, through Matera, on to the Cilento and finally to Naples.)

If you want beaches, (I mention this because of your interest in Capri, etc) you could add the Gargano; Vieste is a gorgeous town, but it's out of the way considering the rest of your destinations. And there are other beach areas that I'd recommend rather than trying to include Sorrento (which has no real beach) or Capri.

I'd fly in and out of Bari or Brindisi. Or into one and home from the other.

It's supremely easy to drive in Puglia outside the big towns and cities. just familiarize yourself with th parking meters and the rules for parking. (I got a 42 euro ticket last week in Ceglie Messapica, but thankfully the owner of our masserie took care of it for me)

We'de been to Puglia several times before, so not his trip we went to more out of the way places; I do recommend trying to fit in one town that is not on the tourist trail. Ceglie Messapica, for example, but there are many others that are just as lovely and do not have so many tour groups, etc. Nardo is another one. Galatina, too.

I'd also recommend, if you have a car, staying on a masseria that is part of an actual farm (not everyplace that is a masseria is a farm some are luxury hotels) for a night or two, if that could fit into your plans.

We're one of those couples that in four trips to Italy have not driven yet, partially out of fear of ZTL tickets in urban areas, but mostly because I simply love riding trains. I prefer it to flying, just less BS overall. This will be for March '27, but we're starting out with around 2 weeks in Rome, chilling out, then we wanted to take the train down to Lecce (never have been to the east coast at all), and base there for a few days. If anyplace in March has a chance to be a little warm beside Sicily, it's the heel of the boot.

I've found at least one AirBnB within walking distance to the main Lecce town as well as the train station, and prices are very reasonable. We can take the train to Monopoli, Brindisi, Polignano a Mare and Bari. And I'd probably hire a driver/guide to direct us to Matera, Alberobello, and also where my dad flew out of in WWII, Manduria/Taranto, as well as on the day of departure driving us to the airport in Bari.

Jay makes the very good point that personal characteristics/situation must be taken into account, hence the pertinent questions: Are you traveling solo, or do you have someone to share the driving/navigation? Have you driven in Italy before?
Next, my desired activities would guide me: getting from town to town is not difficult, but getting to nature activities usually requires a car. I was able to go to just about every park in the region, and the tours and hired drivers to do all of that would have been a considerable cost in addition to being more planned than I would like.
Also, a trip I might leisurely do with public transport if I had two weeks would be very different if I only had nine days.
Last, your own time clock. I get pretty hedonistic on vacation--late nights, wine, big (and late) meals, so getting up at the crack of dawn and following transport schedules is not high on my agenda (this is easy in some areas, difficult in others), so be sure to consider yourself/selves. Think about how you envision each day and what makes you happy!

I wonder if you could get a train to Rome from Taranto. I've never been there but have heard it's a very interesting city that's been cleaned up quite a bit in recent years. There is an archeological museum and the city's known for having great seafood restaurants. Might be interesting to spend a day or two there..

About the driving: I understand why you would not want to rent a car. But if you are considering doing so, I'll say that driving in Puglia seemed very easy to me. It was only about 4 years ago that I took the leap and began to rent cars in Europe for solo trips. I'm a pretty poor driver, living in New York City and rarely driving on highways, or anywhere outside of city limits. In the past few years, I've rented cars quite a few times and I can tell you that the driving was extremely easy and even fun much of the time. Having a GPS in the car makes this a completely different experience than it was back in the days of those huge paper maps!! And the road signage in Italy is really great--so much better than I've found in the US.

Just a thought, for future trips, or even if you decide to rent a car for a couple of days for Matera, Manduria, etc.

I wonder if you could get a train to Rome from Taranto. I've never
been there but have heard it's a very interesting city that's been
cleaned up quite a bit in recent years. There is an archeological
museum and the city's known for having great seafood restaurants.
Might be interesting to spend a day or two there..

Absolutely you can, even direct with no train changes. It's 6-and-a-half hours, but around 100 Euro or less. Going to Taranto, it's through Naples & Salerno, then east through Basilicata. Same to Lecce from Roma, maybe a half-hour less. That's about as much as I want to spend on a train in a day, but get in first class with a bunch of provisions--panini, crisps, water & reading materials come to mind--and that's not a bad way to spend a day in my eyes. When we did Salerno to Sicily earlier this year, I looked out the window a lot, so interesting! And...easy to get up, walk around and stretch your legs a little.

Jay that trip sounds lovely!!