Puglia, Italy

For what it might be worth, my university's alumni association is sponsoring a tour to Apulia in September. In Polignano a Mare their chosen hotel is the Hotel Covo dei Saraceni. http://www.covodeisaraceni.com/

Thank you for your suggestion. The place looks lovely!

When you are PaM eat in the cave restaurant in the Hotel Grotta Palazzese. It is a very romantic restaurant in an ocean cave right under the hotel. Awesome! Be very careful where you park. Some of the "no parking" areas are NOT well marked!

Thank you Steve. When were you in Puglia & what other places did you visit? I have our itinerary mapped out but it's not yet written in stone! We will have a rental car. Did you drive & if so how did you find the driving?
Thanks, Lynne

Lynne, when we did Puglia we only had 8 nites. We used a rental car, and made two places our base. Driving was "a piece of cake", except for Lecce. Don't even think of attempting to drive thru the ring roads there without bringing a GPS! One base was in Giovanzzzo, the other was in Lecce. In stead of Gio, we should have picked Trani (and stayed at the Albergo Lucy B&B, 1/2 block from the water and near all of the awesome seaside restaurants) The other was Lecce. It is a mini Sienna, and a college town with a great evening Passieggiata, great restaurants, and/.....my wife went crazy there buying shoes! We used the Lonely Planet guidebook to pick out all of our daily "sites to see", and that worked out great. When we were North we drove to the Castel Del Monte (OK), the Grotto Castelana (awesome), Altamura, Trani, Alberobella (interesting) truilli houses, etc. When we were in Lecce we hit up everything in the south, including driving down the wild East side to the tip, driving down the West side to Gallopoli, visiting the cave town of Matera (really neat!). We did not spend enough time in Otranto, which should not be missed. Here is a great primer put out by the NY Times: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06Puglia.html?pagewanted=all Whatecver you do, DO NOT tell people how wonderful the area is....we do not want it to become another 5 Terre!

Thanks again Steve for all your great info. I guess maybe we had better get a GPS as we were going to navigate around Lecce to get to our destination on the coast! Have never used a GPS,always used a map! I think I will also pick up the latest Lonely Planet book on Puglia(my last copy on Italy is 2003). Wish we could get to Trani but we won't have time. We will be doing Prague & a Rick Steves Tour "Best Of The Adriatic" before we get to Italy so Puglia is the last week of our month long trip. From what I have read, I am sure we will enjoy Puglia, & don't worry, I will tell everybody we had a terrible time!! Thanks again
Lynne

Lynne -
My wife and I biked through Puglia last September and found the area beautiful and not touristy. I second the Covo dei Saraceni in Polignano a mare, and their restaurant was exceptional. We also stayed in Monopoli (Hotel Il Melograno), Ostuni (The White City; hotel La Terra), and in a truli in Alberobello. We eventually ended up on the Amalfi Coast. I hope your travel schedule takes you there. Ravello, Positano, Amalfi, and Capri shouldn't be missed.

Thanks for your input Larry. We just have a week in Puglia as we will be doing a 2 week tour of Croatia with Rick Steves. We will be seeing, Gioia del Colle, Matera, Alberobello, Locorotondo, Martina Franca, Ostuni, Lecce, Otranto, maybe Gallipoli & ending up in Polignano a Mar. In 2003 we started in Rome & then went down to Positano(loved it), Amalfi, Capri & Ravello (loved it). You are right - it is not to be missed.We then took a train to Venice & from there took a train to the Cinque Terre. Fabulous! Pisa was nexted & rented a car & stayed in Tuscany for a week. Did day trips to Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano & more & then back to Rome. We really love Italy & are looking forward to this trip & are happy to hear that so many people have enjoyed Puglia. Thanks again for your vote on the hotel.
Lynne

Larry: how did you get from Puglia to the Amalfi coast? We are trying to do both on a 12 day trip.

Larry: how did you get from Puglia to the Amalfi coast? We are trying to do both on a 12 day trip.