may 1-22 italy 2025

I would lean toward one or the other, but there is not reason you can't do part of both. It really just depends on what you wish to see.
Nothing will be closed in Puglia except small coastal towns reliant on summer tourism. There is a long afternoon "pausa" during which much can be closed. That can be a good time for scenic drives or walks in nature (or a long lunch), so I would reconsider the car. Driving in Puglia is not difficult, and if you are just in rural areas is it very easy.

I break Puglia into zones--Bari and the nearby coast, the Itria valley, and the Salento. Bases for the respective three could be Bari if you like cities, Monopoli or Polignano if not, then any village in the Itria Valley, then Lecce. I would stay in Matera as well.

thanks for your thoughtful reply. i was hoping to use bari, lecchi and one other spot as my bases. yes we want to also spend 2 nights in matera which i understand i can get to by public transportation from bari.

so even these larger bases in puglia would be sleepy/closed in early may? this is my worry.

we rented a car for our n italy trip last year and the roads were narrow and curvy. i also hate driving at night and finding parking is always an issue. it causes stress, at least for me.

No--only small villages like Santa Cesarea Terme for example (at least in my experience). I would have zero qualms about visiting Bari, Lecce, or Matera in early May. I expect you will find them pleasantly lively. I would add the villages of the Itria Valley to the list, but I suggest larger Martina Franca if you don't enjoy something smaller and quieter. I only passed through but have seen many positive mentions of it.
Though I would take Miuccia's advice and go to Sicily first if you stick with both.
It will be easy to fill at least a week in Bari, with day trips, and you could come close to that with Lecce, though it depends on the day trips you find interesting.

ETA
We don't drive at night, we keep the car parked and walk to dinner. I can certainly understand because I don't drive myself, but if you are traveling with a driver, take advantage. It is country drives for the most part.

hi again. last may/june we visited bologna for a week (with day trips to ravenna and ferrara via train), then to turin via train, then rented a car for langhe and lake orta and mattarone visit and drove back to linate. it was very stressful and one road we drove through barely fit our car. i have also driven in tuscany and umbria, as well as la spezia but as I get older i really dont want to anymore.

just wondering if this trip would be a good fit without a car...

i am also open to other parts of italy. le marche for example, but that would require a car...

Make your dream list of places to see first, then see how the transit would work. It's a lot of legwork, but it is certainly doable. Many have visited this area without a car, but I can only share my opinion based on two visits to the region. It was the first time we rented a car in Italy.
Don't decide until you see the logistics. You mentioned being in a position to hire a driver on occasion. For example, a drive through the Itria Valley would be one I would recommend because I love farmland. The coastal drive south of Otranto is another place you could plan on hiring a driver if you like scenic drives.

ETA I'd do Puglia without a car before Marche. I really loved Marche, but aside from the coast, it is more of a pain than Puglia without one.

I love both Puglia and Sicily, so I kind of want you to go there. Even without a car. I'd make Trani and Lecce my bases, maybe one more town with a train station, and also stay in Matera in Basilicata for a few nights. Leave Sicily as a separate trip --- have a look at what it would take to fly from Bari or Brindisi to Palermo or Catania. I do not remember seeing direct flights the last time I considered combining Puglia and Sicily for a spring trip.

On the other hand, if you would like to see another region with possibly the best public transportation in Italy (or so it has seemed to my husband and me), consider the Veneto. Here's a rail map of where you can get to easily in the Veneto: https://www.italiaoutdoors.com/index.php/travel-veneto/386-veneto-region-train-rail-map

We have used Verona and Padua for bases for about a week each, taking trains (and one bus for Verona to Mantova) to go to several other towns as day trips. We then rented a car to drive to Treviso for a base for another week, but we could have taken the train there, too (we needed the car for the Dolomites and the prosecco area). Except for right around the fake balcony of Juliet in Verona, nowhere we went in the Veneto felt at all over-touristed in September (a month that I imagine is rather like May for tourism except it's hotter).

We were in Puglia in February-March last year, and did not find the beach towns of Monopoli or Polignano a Mare sleepy or shuttered. On the contrary, they were very pleasant to visit, with restaurants and shops open, and no crowds.
My husband swam at Monopoli on February 24. And he was not the only person in the water.

Lecce is great for a base for 5-6 days, visiting the southern Puglia towns. Then I would spend a few nights in Monopoli or Polignano al Mare for some lovely coastal scenery. Bari for a few more days, maybe with day trips to Alberobello and others, then use the local train to reach Matera.

I'd like to hope we can swim but now we live in NC and are used to warmer waters but hope springs eternal.

So I need to get back to Linate for our departure so I guess I'd start trip with flying to Bari, stay a few nights, then to Matera, then gradually down to boot area and then I'd need to come back to BAri to fly to Linate? I'd -like to add a few nights in Martina Franca-where woudl that fit? I'd also like to be able to take a sailing trip - maybe a few nights Ostuni.

Places that look they are good via public transport are :
Bari
Matera
Martina Franca
Monopoli
Lecce
Ostuni
Trani

Do i need all of these as bases? Are there any ohter spots I am missing? Looks like we have 20 nights...thanks all

Bari Matera Martina Franca Monopoli Lecce Ostuni Trani Do i need all
of these as bases? Are there any ohter spots I am missing? Looks like
we have 20 nights...thanks all

I think that is a good selection for 20 days. I'd omit Ostuni as the train station is outside of town, plus it is very close to Martina Franca and Monopoli. Bari and Trani are adjacent also, no need to include both--unless you especially want to.
So, maybe some minor consolidation would be in order--I would not add any more.

Hi Pamela, I was just in Puglia recently and thought May was the perfect month to be there! My experience is different from some you have received. I didn’t find anything sleepy or closed, I didn’t experience any needs to adjust my schedule with having lunch a little later and finding something open. I traveled easily by train (except on one Sunday! LOL!)

I also went to Sicily, but just to be in Palermo five nights including a day-trip to Cefalu.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/my-1-month-independent-trip-to-southern-italy-tribute-to-my-husband

I would definitely like to return to this area and would travel in a similar manner.

Jean, yours was the first report I read. My sincere condolences on your husband.

Your report was very helpful and its great bc it's so recent.

so knowing i need to fly in from linate and back to linate, what is best way to organize this? thanks again and how many nights in each spot?

bari
matera
martina franca
monopolli
lecce

so knowing i need to fly in from linate and back to linate, what is
best way to organize this? thanks again and how many nights in each
spot? bari matera martina franca monopolli lecce

It really just depends on what you want to see in/near each place--otherwise 4 nights per place would be fine (probably less for Matera if you won't have a car). You could do it in this order, provided you can fly into Bari and out of Brindisi (which is much closer to Lecce). I would first check to see if train/bus connections are better from Monopoli to Lecce or from Martina Franca to Lecce.
If Bari round-trip works better, then you could start with Matera (45 minutes by car from Bari; bus and train are options), and end with Bari or Monopoli (45 minute drive; on train line to Bari).
I would be reading about each place and identifying what day trips you find appealing.

Hi again. I am looking into the areas to find our favorite activites and day trips.

Is the trenitalia app the best way to find trains? What about busses? I love to research food, lodging and acitivites but transportation not so much!

That's why I rented a car, lol. Trenitalia is active in the region, but there is a second train company plus bus service. The Lonely Planet Guide might help if you hit a wall with online research.
I mostly use Google these days, but then I follow up by verifying the results on the websites of the provider's webpages. You can try RometoRio also, but always do the verification step as it is more prone to errors.

Trenitalia does not show the local train company in Puglia, Ferrovia Apulo Lucane. They provide service from Bari to Matera. But is is not direct; you have to change at Altamura and the overall journey time of 1h 48 minutes is longer than the time for a bus trip. And from what I have read, the train service is slow and often delayed. The website is a bit quirky but here is is:

https://ferrovieappulolucane.it/en/ricerca-corse/

There are several bus companies, and the easiest way to find them and book tickets is to use a website like Trainline.

https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us/train-times/bari-to-matera

Trenitalia will show you train ,or train plus bus, options to Martina Franca from Bari. But they all take around 2.5 hours. It is only 47 miles and the drive time is just over an hour. I know this because our fantastic guide Emanuela organized a private driver for us and 2 other couples on our guided Road Scholar trip when she heard we were planning to take the train.

Which brings me to my next comment. My husband and I generally only take tours for guided hiking in places like Patagonia or the Dolomites; we have never done a standard group tour (such as a Rick Steves tour) and in most cases would not be interested. But we wanted to visit Puglia, and we have decided after successfully renting cars in Italy without a ticket (but lots of stress) we would not do it ever again. I started planning a trip to the “usual suspects” in Puglia using public transport, and pretty quickly realized that we could not get to some of the places we wanted to see without a lot of wasted time and frustration.

So I looked around and found a Road Scholar tour of Puglia that was a perfect fit. This was Feb.-March of 2023. We flew into Rome, overnighted there and then traveled to Lecce by fast Frecce train. We planned 3 extra days on the front before meeting the tour there, and made good use of those, one with a daytrip to charming Monopoli (where my husband swam in the Adriatic on Feb. 24).

We were very pleasantly surprised at how good the tour was—-the lodging, the food, the locations and sites we visited, and especially the expertise of our guide Emanuela, who provided lots of information about the culture and history of Puglia and Matera. She organized experiences that we would not have found on our own, including a visit to the ancient olive grove and oil mill made famous by Stanley Tucci in one of his travel episodes. (I have a photo with the owner’s arm around me). When my husband and I got “lost” in the sassi of Matera on our free time and could not find our way back to the bus, I called Emanuela, told her where we were, and she gave us simple directions to a piazza halfway between, where she met us. And didn’t even scold us for our misdeed.

While we originally had misgivings about the size of the group—-22 people instead of the usual 8-10 we have on our guided hiking tours—-it turned out just fine. We enjoyed meeting such a variety of people, most of whom were younger than we are. The bus was very comfortable, and some part of each bus ride was given to mini-lectures on the Whisper sets.

I could go on, but will stop here and just point to the website for the trip. They have one in May 2025 that fits perfectly into your schedule—-May 5-21. You would actually meet them iin Lecce on May 6, so could have a few days there on your own first, like we did. The tour ends on May 21 after breakfast, so you depart back to Linate that day from Lamezia Terme international airport, in good time for your flight booked on the 22nd.

Note that this tour includes Calabria in addition to Puglia and Basilicata.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/20221/Puglia-Basilicata-Calabria-Southern-Italy-From-Heel-to-Toe-