Puglia - help

I don’t see very much time allowed to actually see Lecce. If I am interpreting your itinerary correctly, then I think you should add a day for that town. Also, day 5 looks impossibly crowded, especially since it appears that you will be using public transit. I would add another day in that area.

You are right. i thought i allocated a day for Leece.
Also for day 5, i was hoping to spend the morning in Monopoli and later in the afternoon in Ostuni. Do you think thats not practical? I read that ostuni needs only half a day. i know it will be a long day but just curious.

You'd need to check the bus/train schedule for each leg of the trip. It doesn't always work to string together as many stops as you plan to make on Day 5, and you're also planning to cover 100 miles over the course of the day. At some point, you'll want to get something to eat. Don't forget that a lot of Italian shops and restaurants close for a big chunk of the afternoon, so it can sometimes be difficult to fit in some sort of lunch without missing a critical bus departure.

What plans do you have for your luggage while you're sightseeing in Monopoli and Ostuni?

Just because you keep misspelling it, it's Lecce, not Leece and is pronounced "LEH-tsheh"

@ Michael, I am sorry about the spelling. i was going through the auto correct option on my phone and didnt notice it till it was mentioned.

@acraven - I am doing the whole trip with my backpack.
I am trying to divide the whole itinerary based on best accessible by transit and it gets complicated. As for lunch i was thinking of grabbing a sandwich or a to go which will save me some time. For now i will just have Monopoli on that day and decide the rest on how the day goes.

Perhaps you have to go this route due to public transportation (?), but it looks to me like you are all over the map. We spent three weeks in Puglia recently and went to most of the places on your itinerary. I would go Naples to Matera, then to Lecce and go up the coast from Lecce to Bari, Bari to Rome. Alternatively, you could go Naples to Lecce, then Matera. Matera is inland .. don't miss it, but get back to the coast after Matera. I personally would not do day trips from Matera. I think it is a little difficult to get in and out of Matera and the day trips can be done from other bases along the route. Gallipoli is out of the way from the rest of your itinerary. I personally would leave it out and spend the time exploring Lecce. We stayed in Old Town Bari and loved it so much. You will get a real taste of Italian living there. Bon Voyage!

My struggle here is with public transportation. but after everyones suggestions for not only Puglia and i modified my trip and trying to spend more days. I felt by spending so little time, i am not doing justice. So now i have 10 nights for Puglia.

I will get my new itinerary soon.

One thing you can check out is the one-day van trips coordinated by the Lecce tourist office. Unfortunately, they don't operate on a fixed schedule (or at least they did not in 2015); they ran according to demand, I often didn't know until the afternoon before a trip, what I'd be able to do the next day. The cost for the full-day trips is 60 euros. They are not tours; they are just transportation to a series of mostly-small, picturesque towns that would take at least two days to reach via public transportation.

Although the website I've linked to is in Italian, you can see the names of the towns included in each excursion, and the tourist office staffers speak English.

Perhaps there's something comparable being done in Bari; I haven't checked.

Hi acraven

I got this link from you previously. i contacted them but till now they done have anyone for the said days. Also they mentioned they need a minimum of 3 people for the trip. I am not much of a tour person. i want to do my research and see if its possible by myself. i was told if i plan it right i can do it with public transportation. So i want to research it well instead of struggling there.

What do you think about Grottaglie as a base to visit inland towns like Alberobello ,Martina franca, Locorotondo, Ceglie Messapica.

I found a bnb near a bus stop

Yes, even in mid-summer I had to wait till just a day or two ahead of time to find out whether there would be an excursion. These are not tours in the usual sense of the word. The driver is likely not to speak much English, and in each town he will park the vehicle briefly, tell you when you need to be back there, and point you in the direction of the historic center, the key sight, etc. Your time will be your own, though you won't have a lot of it in any one place. It is definitely a trade-off between access to a bunch of places and loss of flexibility. Plus the cost is much higher than for a local bus.

i agree with you. I just need this region to be sorted for my whole trip to be finalized. Price was another reason that made me think. If i am giving that price then i might as well rent an automatic and drive.

Re: Grottaglie
It’s a picturesque, but quite small town, devoted to pottery. I would check carefully about transit times and frequencies before deciding to make it my base. My recollection is that even with a car, it took quite a while to get there. Maybe over an hour from Lecce?

How about Martina Franca. I was told its a transportation hub.

We had several weeks in Puglia/Basilicata by public transportation and unfortunately were never able to make it to Ostuni (too many transport difficulties). You'll need to really look at your bus/train options to make this work.

I agree with you. After so much research and debate ( this planning took me the same amount of time it took to plan rest of Italy together) I decided to do 10N in Puglia

Naples to Matera ( Marino bus ) - 2N with day trip to Altamura
Valle d'Itria 3 N - alberobello ,Martina franca, Locorotondo, Ceglie Messapica.
Lecce 3 N
Ostuni 3N

Now i am looking for accommodation near Martina Franca or Ceglie Messapica. Mostly leaning towards Martina Franca.

I know its lot of up and down but the connectivity between inland and coast is bad.. so i need to do it this way. Also the connectivity between the coasts is good.

Yes, even in mid-summer I had to wait till just a day or two ahead of
time to find out whether there would be an excursion. These are not
tours in the usual sense of the word. The driver is likely not to
speak much English, and in each town he will park the vehicle briefly,
tell you when you need to be back there, and point you in the
direction of the historic center, the key sight, etc. Your time will
be your own, though you won't have a lot of it in any one place. It is
definitely a trade-off between access to a bunch of places and loss of
flexibility. Plus the cost is much higher than for a local bus.

Good info, acraven. We took this type of tour when we had a driver in Taormina, Sicily in 2010.

I can foresee this aspect as a dilemma going forward for the end of our next trip (still a year away), which will start in Venice and end in Polignano a Mare in Puglia. And we're taking the regionale trains. Two changes between Venice & Ascoli Piceno, base there for 2 nights, then two changes between Ascoli and Polignano a Mare (3 nights), obviously the last change in Bari, where we will fly out of after our stay.

Point is, and I'm thinking April as our travel month, since we won't have a car I want to hire a private driver with local knowledge and that at least speaks a little English (I speak a little Italian) to drive us around Ascoli Piceno and then Polignano a Mare during our stays there, to make a quasi-efficient use of our time. I'm thinking local buses might be like a scene out of Waiting for Godot.

So I've got to find a good one in each place, and I don't want to be sold a pig-in-a-poke. Been there, done that. Even though I'll do my advance due diligence in knowing what I want to see in, say, Matera or Lecce, I'd like a guide that can add to that experience. Research awaits!

Jay, for Matera you might want to make your own way there from Bari and pick up a local tour, unless you expect to have time for sightseeing on the way. The Ferrovie Appulo Lucane train schedule is here. I believe this approach would be much, much less expensive than using a private driver, and taking the train would allow you to spend the night in Matera. The train takes about 1-1/2 hours each way.

I didn't take any public buses within Puglia, because I discovered those handy van trips. I did use a lot of buses in Sicily, and I found them relatively reliable, though you really have to check locally to be sure you're getting reliable schedule information. I wouldn't hesitate to use public buses in Puglia when they met my schedule needs, but there's little if any service on Sundays, and I've learned (in Catalunya, not in Italy) that you're taking a risk of you depend on the last bus of the day on a lightly-served route.