Puglia - Four weeks

How exciting, SamA!
We spent almost a week in Barletta a couple years ago and it's about a 6 minute train ride to Trani, so you might want to choose just one base between the 2. I loved Barletta- it was as local as I've ever lived in Italy, and everyone was so incredibly kind and curious. Castello di Barletta was absolutely beautiful and I wouldn't miss it. I didn't have a bad meal there, but I was with family from Barletta and didn't have to research anything regarding food. The main drag that is by the statue Colossus of Barletta fills up every evening before, during, and after dinner is pedestrian only and great to hang out and relax and people watch.
Have a great time planning and enjoying your trip! We are going back in 3 weeks and could not be more excited!
Jen

It's hard to know where to start, there's so much to see and do in Puglia. You can see a lot by public transport but if you hire a car for even just a few days, you'll have access to places harder to reach by public transport.
If you stick to public transport, have a look at this website which is the official Puglia region tourism website. This is the link to the getting around by public transport page, but there's a load of other useful info on the site too:
https://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/en/come-spostarsi
These are my personal highlights:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2023/12/hidden-gems-of-puglia.html

Thank you Jenny and Tinac! This is great information and we can't wait to start this trip.

I typically concentrate my trips and stay in towns that are close together, but I would find Trani and Barletta too close together, especially with so many weeks at your disposal. I’d want a bit more variety.
Are you planning on sticking to public transport? That’s another reason to vary your bases as the train and bus lines may differ. With public transport, Bari and Lecce are a given.

With this much time, I'd definitely include Matera in Basilicata.

acraven Definitely, Basilicata will be one day trip - likely from Bari.

I agree about Trani and Barletta being close to one another, and I also agree about Matera.

But with four weeks, maybe head into either Gargano or further south than Lecce in Salento.

ekscrunchy, thanks. Matera is in the mix - likely a day trip from Bari.

If you like Romanesque church facade sculptures and early Renaissance frescoes, these are a short train ride from Lecce:

Galatina to see the Basilica di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria. It houses Saint Catherine’s finger, said to have been bitten off her corpse by a local nobleman (!) and brought to Galatina from Mount Sinai. Many narrative details in the frescoes that I don’t think I’d seen before, like four angels holding the mouths closed on four giant heads — turns out that is from Revelation and they are stopping the four winds. And deliberately humorous details, like in the marriage of the virgin where the losing suitors break their rods, one is breaking his stick over his own head and one is biting his stick in two.

Brindisi to see the Tempio San Giovanni al Sepolcro facade & interior, the archeology museum, the cathedral, and the San Benedetto church & cloister. Also, if you take a bus to the Brindisi airport, you can see the church of Santa Maria del Casale which is surrounded by airport parking lots and what look like barracks (it’s just a short walk from Brindisi airport!). The church is open every day. Its late 13th/early 14th frescoes had just the kind of details I look for, like naked bodies emerging from the mouths of fish and animals. Apparently, at the last judgement, if you had been eaten by some beast, you had to be regurgitated so your body could be whole again. You could just take a taxi from Brindisi.

Hi Sam, I didn’t see if you will be renting a car. I will be heading back this year for the third time & have always just used public transportation. I will add the link to my two trip reports for details you’re requesting.

I’ve realized over the years that the trips I enjoy most in Europe are the ones where I don’t try to do everything. I used to plan these super detailed itineraries and then feel weirdly rushed the whole time, even though I was technically “on vacation.”

These days I’ve gone the opposite direction. I still plan, but I plan lighter. Fewer places, more time in each one, and way less bouncing around just to check cities off a list. Italy really taught me that lesson. Once I stopped trying to cram Rome, Florence, Venice, and the Amalfi Coast into one trip, everything felt easier — including the travel days.

I also stopped using spreadsheets and a million notes because, honestly, I never wanted to open them while I was actually traveling. I wanted something simple that told me where I was staying, how I was getting there, and what I might want to do that day — without locking me into it.

What’s helped the most is keeping everything in one place and treating the plan as something flexible instead of something I have to “follow.” If I feel like wandering a neighborhood or sitting in a café longer, I do. If plans change, no big deal.

I ended up writing a longer piece about this approach — more about planning just enough and leaving room for the good surprises. If anyone’s interested, it’s here:
https://mylifestyleapps.com

Curious how others here do it, especially if you’ve been to Europe a few times already. Do you find yourself planning less over time, or just planning differently?