Puglia Suggestions

I would recommend Gallipoli. It's a beautiful town on the water with a train station that will take you to Lecce. The other choice would be Otranto on the other coast of Puglia. It also has direct train service to Lecce.

Polignano a Mare or Trani or Otranto could be other wonderful places where to stay. The first two are more in the center of the Region, the last almost at the south end. Keep in mind that Puglia is a very long Region, so cross it by car takes more than 3 hours.

We spent a week in Polignano a Mare and loved it there. We had full water views of the blue green Adriatic Sea and the cliffs as well as those of the old town. The seafood was incredible. We would stay here again.
We were in a hotel, Covo dei Saraceni so can’t help with apartments. We explored the region, beautiful and interesting.

We spent a week in Polignano a Mare and loved it there. We had full water views of the blue green Adriatic Sea and the cliffs as well as those of the old town. The seafood was incredible. We would stay here again.
We were in a hotel, Covo dei Saraceni , so can’t help with apartments. We explored the region, beautiful and interesting towns in the interior as well as all along the coast. Look at Monopoli too, a 5 minute train ride south from Polignano. I would rent a car. There weren’t any taxis and it was a hike to the train station. We flew US to LHR stayed overnight in London, then on to FCO to Bari. Don’t miss the Cathedral in Bari’s old town, one level is Roman Catholic and another Orthodox. Relics of St. Nicholas ( Santa Claus!) are interred there, a place of pilgrimage.
We would love to return to Puglia!

I rented a grand apartment in Monopoli. HelloApulia is the agency, and they have properties throughout the region if you want a smaller village. I'd probably just park in a garage outside the walls in Lecce unless you come from somewhere closer with a direct train line (I don't recall if there is any change when coming from Monopoli) .

Thanks for all the suggestions. Every time I plan a trip to Italy the places I want to go quickly exceed the available time! Does anyone have thoughts/suggestions on Gargano? Staying there would probably mean Lecce is out of range but would make the logistics of the rest of our trip easier (flying in and out of Rome and visiting friends in Umbria.)

The Gargano. Of course, as always, it depends on what you want to see and do on your trip. But, for what it's worth, with only 4 or 5 nights, I would skip the Gargano. We stayed on its east coast for several nights and drove all around the peninsula in early November a few years ago. We are not beach people, so we didn't care that it was not beach season, but we did care that we could not actually see much of the area's beautiful coast from the perimeter road --- we would have had to drive off that road down to a beach in order to see the cliffs. There were some interesting towns and good food, but you find those everywhere in Puglia.

We were told that the thick forests of the Gargano are wonderfully scenic, but since at home we live in and travel to forested areas, we did not think old trees were a big draw. There are interesting fishing huts along the coast, but, again, hard to see from the road.

We also stayed in Trani farther down the coast for almost a week and loved that town --- fishing boats and nighttime fish market, lovely harbor and a cathedral right on the water, interesting historic center, very walkable, and with a car you can reach all of the other towns along the coast down to Bari.

All of the other towns we've stayed in as home bases while in Puglia are not coastal towns, so they don't meet your first choice criterion. But our favorites are Lecce and Ostuni.

To echo what Nancy said, Gargano is far from anything else and primarily a nature destination. I've wanted to include it on two trips to the region, but it was just too much of an outlier, and I would not trade the Itria valley and Lecce for it. Since you are coming from Umbria and departing from Rome, I am sure there are manh other options to make the most of your time--I'd consider saving Puglia for a future trip when you can see more. good luck!

Thanks for the thoughts on Gargano. It looks like we should focus our attention farther south and may have to add some days. Is Lecce manageable to arrive by car? I assumed it was terrible and we would want to take the train but maybe its not so bad?

Check out flying from Rome to Brindisi. Easy to rent a car at the airport. That’s what we did two years ago.

Lecce was the only place we found remotely difficult to drive in, as we drove out to the coast and back every day, but in October, as in May for us, it should not be too bad. I don't think it would be enough to warrant not driving, but as you supposed, you can use the train for easy day trips. There was just one long oval of a traffic circle that was a little hairy (we called it "traffic anarchy," lol). It is just important to have a plan--the Roof Barocco Suites, which I highly recommend, had dedicated parking (in a garage on the second trip), so it is not difficult to avoid the ztl and park close to the old town.

Don't miss Alberobello and the Truilli houses - north west of Brindisi. We stayed in Lecce not far from the main entrance. There is a paid parking area just outside the walls. It is not difficult to top up the parking as night time is free and we were gone most of the 3 days driving around the heel -Gallipoli to a lovely. The old area you do have to park just outside the wall. We spent the morning there and proceeded up to Otranto - lunch stop on the way and had our first taste of Urchin. spent the afternoon in Otranto then back to Lecce. There was another trip out in the countryside and a day in Lecce. Travelled to Alberobello then onto Polignano de Mare(love it) for 2 nights(would have stayed longer had we not booked further up the road) .
We also stayed at Covo dei Saraceni at a room down the street from the hotel with a great view of the gorge and sea. I believe they also have an apartment in this same building. Google - By the way the restaurant below this apartment had great pizza and I don't say that very often as I am not a great pizza lover.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-bella-puglia-plus-basilicata-and-rome

I am done. The end.

PS Associated photos for this TR can be found over on the Fodors site, in their Italy section under the 'Images of Italy' thread.
Over there, I go by the handle 'zebec'.