Heel or toe of the boot

Charlie,
I’ve not traveled to either of these (yet), however, I’ve traveled to Sicily and I’d definitely recommend you consider going there!
I wrote a few trip reports if you’re interested.

Happy planning!

If you choose Sicily (which is fabulous), you'll want to squeeze out every day possible. Even with a car, 15 days will require painful pruning. I like Puglia (the heel) a lot. Twelve days would allow for a reasonably un-rushed trip there. You could include Matera (in Basilicata). I have only passed through the toe of the boot so cannot comment about it.

How far South do you consider South?

I am very fond of the areas around Naples to down as far as the Cilento National park. There are some great sites in the area, including Naples itself, Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum, the palace at Caserta.
Further south you have Paestum with its Greek temples and excellent museum, then the national park itself.
I'm not really familiar with the region south of Sapri/Maratea.

I'm a little biased against Puglia - although I'm not overly certain why. It might be the lack of hills. I found Lecce a bit of a disappointment although side trips to Gallipoli and Otranto were very pleasant. I enjoyed Bari, and our stay in Monopoli was unexpectedly nice - it was just that, after two weeks in Puglia I felt very little desire to return to the area any time soon.

I know it's not part of your question, but I would add my recommendation of Sicily.

With 2 weeks you could possibly get a taste of both sides of the foot.
If you choose to do both, I would devote more days to Puglia than to Calabria (that is of course my personal opinion). I think Puglia has more things of interest for the international traveler.
Calabria is famous for its coast and national parks (Sila, Aspromonte, Pollino), the archeological museum of Reggio, and some famous quaint towns like Tropea, Santa Severino, Gerace, etc.
Heel or toe, renting a car is a must in my opinion.

Hi Charlie,
First of all I love the title of your post. It reminds me of my Tap Dancing days of "flap heel toe heel!" But I digress. I haven't stayed in that area yet. I have been to Southern Italy (Amalfi coast) and beyond and passed through the toe to ferry from Messina to Sicily. acraven mentioned Matera. We did not stay there. Instead we stayed in the beautiful less touristy town of Maratea in the Basilicata Region. They call it "the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian." It's exquisite. We stayed at the lovely La Locanda Delle Donne Monache. Two of our fondest memories were taking a day trip on a Turkish sailboat and swimming in the sea and later hiking to the Christ of the Redeemer statue. This is reminiscent of the statue in Rio. We would love to revisit this area again! Something very magical there.

I would also recommend reading Priscilla's amazing Sicily report. We will be revisiting Sicily next fall following her path!

I will now go practice my Shuffle off to Buffalo routine. ;) Ciao.

Puglia for sure. Depending on your style of travel, rushed on the go every day or laid back and smell the coffee Puglia can easily be a 10 -12 night destination. It may leave you a few days 3/5 for Calabria. When we went to Calabria we stayed in a town called Le Castella. We were there for heritage reasons. We did spend 3 nights there and visited near by towns including Santa Severina. We ate in two different agriturismos for lunch which were has down the best lunches of our lives. The food in Puglia was also amazing. Good luck in your decision.