Looking for advice on good walking tours in Matera and Lecce for this Fall.

Lecce is not that big and is pretty easily navigated on foot from the train station. One thing I found there was that they seem to not speak English much at all compared to other areas of Italy. Perhaps because it's more remote, and a less historically touristy area.

Regarding Matera, Its a strange place that is different than I expected. In fact, I think most of the news about that town is misleading. Yes there are ancient caves, but no you can't really see them. They are sealed off from the public, maybe a mile from the city. The city itself is mainly a big hill with a chapel near the top. Opposite of that hill is a smaller one with a city plaza that is fairly nice, and some touristy shops selling the bread blobs etc. It's a great area to take photos. There is a portico that looks back at the main hill. In between the two hills is kind of a shanty town. It seems semi-gentrified. Parts seem abandoned and other parts have newer homes or businesses in them. I did not find it picturesque at all.

In my opinion neither town is really worth the hype. Matera itself is hard to get to, and not a good travel hub. I would stay in Bari or Polignanon a Mare for a great environment, great restaurants, easy transport on the train, etc. Alberobello is a nice place to visit - it's been cleaned up a lot, but it's still cute and picturesque. There are other small towns which are somewhat picturesque - Ostuni, etc.

I liked Lecce a lot. The Baroque architecture is lovely and very different from the white cubic architecture in some of the small coastal towns. There's also a Roman amphitheater.

The Lecce tourist office ran a walking tour back in 2015. I thought it was good.

One thing to do is to walk down into the canyon and up the other side. Good views.
We had lodging near the canyon and the breakfast was outside overlooking the canyon. It was splendid.

Thanks for responding.
I haven’t found that Matera will be difficult to get to at all…..we have it figured out!
And…….I have never expected Italians in Italy to speak English to me……
We don’t need “ tourist attractions”.
Looking forward to seeing places without them.
I’ll keep looking.

We enjoyed several days in Lecce last Fall and used it as a base to explore Puglia. You can do it by train & bus but a car makes it a lot easier. We did the "Tour of Baroque and Underground Lecce" walking tour from https://infotab.it/trova-il-tuo-tour/ and liked it. It's about 15E if booked from them, double that with get-your-guide. We didn't do a food walking tour but have since read good reviews of them.

We had a nice dinner at the a Cucina Di Mamma Elvira restaurant in Lecce, then found out they also have a wine bar which gets great reviews but it was closed on the day we had left in town.

Several years ago, we had did a walking tour with Antonio of Matera Tour Guide. Here is a link: https://www.materatourguide.it/en/visit-sassi-of-matera/. Antonio's family is from Matera, so he was well versed in its history. We did the “Visit Sassi of Matera” tour, and although we didn't actually visit any caves, we were given a good overview of the city. In Lecce we just walked around on our own, but with information gathered from the internet. Good luck with your planning and have a great trip.

I was just in Lecce last week. I did a city walking tour with Lorenzo De Robertis of Discovering Lecce. [email protected]

I also did a wonderful cooking class with Silvestro at Awaiting Tables Cooking school.

I had a huge room with a modern bathroom at B&B Dimora San Giuseppe which is very close to the amplitheater. I will be posting a trip report in a few weeks with several cities I stayed in the Puglia region. (I didn’t go to Matera.)

Thanks!
I’ll bookmark those tours.
I’ve been to Alberobello, Martina Franca and Locorotondo; but first time to Lecce and Matera.

I realise a car would be great, but as I don’t even like driving at home any more, I won’t be driving overseas!
Been taking public transport in Italy for twelve previous visits….I actually enjoy it!