One day in Vieste?

Vieste and Peschici are both neat places to visit. We stayed in Vieste, not out at the long, beach strand but in the old part of town. Sounds like you may have a car so someplace out of the center might be easier for parking, but be sure to visit the older area. One night anywhere is not "enough" for me, but of course it depends on how much time you have.

Rick's Southern Italy tour spends two nights and one full day in the old town of Vieste. It has a nice ambiance and a couple of churches to visit, but the best part of our stay was a 1.5-hour morning boat cruise along the gorgeous, rugged coastline and into the many grottoes there. You would not see those as well by car. I don't know how many boat departures are typical and it would depend on the season.

Swimming was fine right in the town, but with a car you might go to a different beach that you identified from your boat ride or local recommendation. For a Seattleite, the shallow water was still swimmable in October, though most Italians would not brave it. I don't like to have a deadline on my afternoon or evening swim, so the second night in one spot protects that relaxation time.

Thanks Janet and Laura - I typed out a rather long reply but somehow it got lost... :-(

I don't like staying one night, either, as one doesn't get to soak it all in - and moving from place to place is a hassle! We have roughly three weeks, but 5 nights of this will be in San Vito Chietino, where my husband's family is from. He has cousins and friends there, so that will be our first landing spot. We will bus from Rome to Pescara, get the car in Pescara (friend there is helping with this). So his main thing is to hang out with friends and family, eat, drink wine, do day trips from there for that week.

I'm a photographer and would really like to spend a few days inland in the mountains to see Grand Sasso Nat. Park as well as the many lovely villages there. That leaves us with roughly 8 or 9 nights to head south to Puglia - hoping to base ourselves in the Alberobello area and do day trips from there including Matera. So Vieste would be a stopping point so that we don't have to drive in the dark. It just looks gorgeous there, too, so I was thinking it might be worth it to stay two nights there. IF you know of a reliable company to hire for a boat excursion that would be wonderful. We plan to drop the car off in Bari and fly back to Rome. Unless....... wait for it....

We also are not ruling out skipping the south altogether and going north to see Assisi and then base ourselves someplace in Tuscany for a short week, and dropping off the car up there. Any thoughts on this? (We are leaning heavily toward the south, but just throwing this out there again..)

We are active middle-agers, like to walk, bicycle, people watch, relax, explore villages, eat local food and drink wine.... I know we cannot see and do it all. But you can't blame a girl for trying. I've posted about this in another thread and am totally interested in experienced Italy travelers' perspectives. Thanks again!

A third option would be to drive north: San Benedetto del Tronto, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, Sirolo, Senigallia, Urbino and so forth. (So many places, so little time.)