Planning a trip to Puglia and back to doing our own planning because my husband’s hips are bothering him and just can’t keep up with bus tours anymore. Puglia seems the perfect area - smaller towns and amazing scenery. Maybe train to Bari or Matera and then rent a car. Is it difficult to get by without speaking Italian? Any other trips would be great. Would also like to travel down to the toe. A little hip problem is not going to stop us even though we are in our 70s and 80s.
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Saint Paul, Minnesota
2186 posts
Having traveled in Italy several times with either hip problems or foot problems, here's my recommendation without knowing anything about how many nights you have or the time of year or what your interests are.
Fly to Brindisi and then either take the train to Lecce (1/2 an hour) or rent a car in Brindisi and drive to Lecce. Lecce is beautiful, very flat, full of excellent restaurants, and has a great cooking school. On our latest trip to Puglia, we spent 10 days in Lecce and I had no problems not speaking Italian. There are several wonderful smaller towns easily reachable by car, such as Galatina and Otranto.
Later on, drive to Matera, stay there a few nights, and tackle its stairs without the time pressure of a day trip or a one night stay.
Then pick another town for a base in the trulli area --- some are hill towns and some are flat. See how the hips feel after Matera! I think Cisternino is pretty flat.
If you still have more time, stay in a town on the coast --- our favorite is Trani.
It's a long train ride from Rome to Bari or Lecce and also a long drive (we have done both). But I guess I'd only fly to Puglia if I was already at the airport, not if I had to go back to the airport after spending some time in Rome. A third idea is for you to take the train from Rome to Foggia (3 hours) and rent your car there --- we did this once. Stayed in Trani for 3 nights and visited Bari, Molfetta, Bisceglie, Ruvo di Puglia, and Bitonto.