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recommend a guide book for Puglia?

We're going to visit Puglia in September and would like to go to towns that we know about so far including Lecce & Otranto. We have the Lonely Planet Italy guidebook but the info is pretty brief. I was wondering if anyone has a guidebook they like for this region?

Posted by
37 posts

We visited Puglia last summer and had same experience with guidebooks - I used the National Geographic Puglia book (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645868/national-geographic-traveler-puglia-by-national-geographic/), but really in the end I relied more on travel blogs for most of my research!

We stayed in Lecce and visited Otranto for a day trip - loved both, but definitely saw more of Lecce since we were based there for several nights. We were in the region for about 2 1/2 weeks and could have stayed much longer, we loved it!

We based ourselves in 4 spots, here's where we stayed:
Trulli near Ceglie Messapica, 6 nights
Lecce apartment, 4 nights
Masseria Prosperi near Otranto, 4 nights (favorite stay of trip, amazing family and sweet dogs and horses run wild on property)
Masseria Aprile near Locorotondo, 3 nights

Here were some of my favorite blog sources: FathomAway and Hither & Thither
And then here are links to some of the articles from each source, but if you search their sites you'll find several articles about Puglia for each! Hope that helps, enjoy your trip! We loved Puglia!
https://fathomaway.com/family-friendly-guide-puglia-italy/
https://fathomaway.com/what-to-do-in-puglia-italy/
https://hitherandthither.net/travelogue-puglia-valle-ditria-lecce/
https://hitherandthither.net/travelogue-puglia-salento/
https://hitherandthither.net/travelogue-puglia-salento-polignano-mare/

Posted by
1773 posts

Getting deeper info means confronting the language issue. English language guides are just too sketchy for such a large region, by and large, as they must appeal to mass audiences. Many blogs are just photos and keywords. I've taken to making my own guide into a PDF doc and adding it to my smartphone for offline use. I organize by city and add sections of EN sources or use Google translate to add IT sources. The official regional and provincial tourist websites often have useful material, and Wikipedia is good for landmarks.