Day Trips in Puglia (March/April 2023)

Hi Sharon,
Our TR below may have some useful suggestions for you. It is very loooong and does not yet include any fotos. But off the top of my head, I'd just say 'don't rush Locorotondo and Gallipoli'. Both are wonderful places wherein commercial tourism has not overrun local culture.
Hope all goes well.
I am done. The end.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-bella-puglia-plus-basilicata-and-rome

It is usually very difficult--and often impossible--to get to more than two small towns the same day by bus. You'll need to dig carefully into bus schedules to see whether what you hope to do xan be accomplished.

You can start with Rome2Rio.com to see whether the towns you want to visit are connected by bus. You cannot trust the fares, travel times or frequencies shown on the Rome2Rio website, but if you keep drilling down, you should eventually find the name of the bus company you'd be using for each travel leg. With luck you'll be able to find the schedule on the company's website; Rome2Rio sometimes provides a link.

Bus schedules can be seasonal and may vary a lot between school days and non-school days. There may be no service on Sunday on some routes.

Tourism.ilecce.it offers some day tours in the area that might help you cover ground more quickly.

Grottaglie --- we’ve been there twice and both times bought pottery at the Antonio Fasano shop at Via Caravaggio, 7 or 8 —- be sure it’s Antonio’s shop because there are other Fasano shops in town and the address is a bit odd (7 or 8 or both?). I don't know where public transportation would leave you, but many of the shops are quite closely clustered.

Alberobello, Locorotondo, and Cisternino --- you could do all three on a day you had a car..

When you’re based in Monopoli— while you could cram Locorotondo, Cisternino and Alberobello all into one day on the bus— you won’t be experiencing Puglia the way Italians do. To really appreciate the magic of Puglia—“ Dolce Far Niente” as the Italian saying goes—slowing down is key to the experience.

www.Orarariautobus.it has compiled all the regional Italian bus schedules (only in Italian). They’re listed by the region they serve.

You’ll be just an hour away from Matera when you plan to be in Bari. Matera is mandatory.

A few years ago in October, we were in Lecce for six days without a car. We went to Otranto by train but I don’t think you can also reach Castro on that day. It took us 2 trains to reach Otranto, with a one-minute (!) connection along the way (which wasn’t a problem — the second train was sitting there waiting for us). We found it difficult to get information on train/bus schedules even when we were there. Buy return (round trip) tickets in case the ticket office at your destination is closed.

Keep in mind everything in Lecce closes from about 2 pm to 6 pm. Every restaurant, shop, office. The only thing open is churches, so we quickly got churched out. Restaurants don’t reopen til 8 pm — not even pizza or gelato — so be prepared for that.

We loved Gallipoli — visited there via train. We also took a great wine-tasting tour with a company called Experience-Path. They offer all sorts of excursions in Puglia; I recommend contacting them.

Lots of the ceramics shops in Grottaglie are clustered in the same part of town. Don’t miss the ceramics museum while you are there.

Thank you to everyone for the help!

gregglamarsh - that trip report is awesome! I'm especially thankful for the gelato shop list!

acraven - thank you for the reminder of Rome2rio - very helpful!

nancys8 - I found that ceramics shop on Google maps and will be sure to visit it.

Kenke - the bus site is good to have for the information.

Charlene - return tickets - great tip!

Rosalynn - I will be sure to check out the ceramics museum.

We took the train to Grottaglie and were able to easily walk to numerous pottery shops.

rachele - Thanks! That is really good news. I'm going to use my "car days" for other towns, so I'm glad to hear I can get to some of the ceramic shops from the train station.