Puglia thoughts

1. A car is recommended.
2. Puglia is too big for one base, choose a few (maybe 2 or max 3) to minimize length of day trips. Where and how long in each depends on what you intend to visit? Salento? Gargano? Alberobello? Lecce? Matera?
3. I'd say yes.
4. Sounds good.
5. In 9 days you can see more than that.

A car would make touring Puglia much easier.
Nine days is good. We loved being on the water in pretty Polignano a Mare. Monopoli is another similar seaside town. Lecce would be perfect for several nights.
No, Alberobello and Lecce would not be enough!

Linda, this blog has some great info on the Puglia area. We found it very helpful on our first trip to the region.

https://www.neverendingvoyage.com/8-towns-not-to-miss-in-puglia/

you seem to be staying in the southern-most parts of Puglia. We stayed in Trani (delightful town & port) and used that as a base to go further north. We enjoyed visiting the Gargano peninsula and would highly recommend that. 9 days sounds like more than enough to see the region. You need a car; there are trains and probably buses but you'll have the chance to visit many more towns and make better use of your time with a car.

Thank you all...will do my research based on your comments-verrrrryyy much appreciated!!

We're going this summer - here's our itinerary if it helps:

• 6 nights in Nardo' (Salento, on the Ionian coast) - a base to explore the more Southern end of Salento.
• 5 nights in Valle d'Itria (near Ceglie Messapica) in a trullo complex with pool - a base to explore the Valle d'Itria, Ostuni and central part of Puglia.
• 2 nights in Rodi di Garganico - to explore the Gargano peninsula as we meander back to Rome for our departure.

We'll probably day trip to Matera from Ceglie Messapica, or possibly pass through there on our way into Puglia from Calabria, which is where we'll be prior.

Lecce was going to be one of our bases (instead of Nardo'), but I never quite found a place in Lecce that seemed to suit us (husband & myself, our 3 kids ages 16, 23, 27). I stumbled across an Airbnb in Nardo' that looked delightful, read up on the town, and decided to go for it. So we'll take a day trip to Lecce instead.

Oh, and yes, we rented a car - everything I've read makes it sound pretty indispensable if you want to hit all the little towns & beaches.

Here's some more ideas for you, including my long list of places to go in Puglia:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/puglia-itinerary-ideas

love all this advice-perfetto! thank you all for the links as well....I will utilize all these great tips to plan!

We had a wonderful cooking class in Lecce that we enjoyed enormously. Chef had another couple reserved but they never showed up so we had a lovely private class and meal with Chef and her assistant and husband.
http://www.cookingexperience.it/en/

Thank you Maddie! Looks wonderful..I will ck it out!