Side trips from Bari

I hope you don't mean literally three months, because US/Canadian citizens are limited to a total of 90 days (counting both the arrival day and the departure day) in the Schengen Zone, and Italy is part of the Schengen Zone.

You need to pick up at least one comprehensive guidebook to Italy, or perhaps a few regional books if they exist. How far you can/should go on a day or weekend will depend on whether you will have a car available and your tolerance for sitting behind the wheel.

Puglia has many places of interest, and there's Matera in Basilicata. Those are generally very hot areas, so you should push forays to those destinations as early in your trip as possible. The interior of the Gargano Peninsula will probably be less oppressive.

Sorry, it's 85 days, to be precise :)

Great advice on considering the heat - hadn't even though of that. Thanks!

Matera would a day trip or maybe an overnight visit. You can get there by train, takes a bit over an hour.
Also Altamura is nice, on the same train line as Matera.
Matera is the end of the line.

Also in Bari, the Feast of St Nicholas is fantastic. May 9th, do not miss it.

I am in the process of obtaining information on all points from Le Marche down to Puglia for a trip next April, and it's truly fascinating. I've been to the other side of the country a few times, got the lay of the land pretty well there, but from what info I've gleaned so far the Adriatic coast is simply awash with great destinations, with far less tourists to boot.

Been looking at Lecce as a side/daytrip from Bari (more specifically Polignano a Mare where we'll probably be staying) and it looks great. acraven, I remember you saying you've visited there. Anthony Bourdain just did a wonderful show (his Parts Unknown series on CNN) on that area, interviewed Francis Ford Coppola outside Lecce. Immediately, someplace I want to go.

Trani is a scenic little seaport just north of Bari that would be fun for a weekend. We stayed at Albergo Lucy, near a little park. The town is small -- you can walk anywhere. It has some great restaurants. And there are several nearby places to visit: Castel del Monte, a 13th century castle on an isolated hilltop. And also Dolmen La Chianca, a prehistoric cemetery situated along the road to Corato. It's said to be the best preserved Bronze Age monument in Italy and consists of a burial chamber made up of huge slabs of stone, similar to Stonehenge. It's in the middle of nowhere and an interesting sight to see.

Also very near Trani is Margherita di Savoia, a pretty little town where they have salt plains producing more than 5 million tons of salt per year. To see the salt plains, you must take a guided tour, so I'd arrange that in advance.

Of course you'll want to see Alberobello and the other trulli villages, plus Monopoli and Polignano a Mare. Torre Canne is a little beach town with natural hot springs and a great restaurant overlooking the sea. And there are some nature reserves to explore along the coast, heading down toward Brindisi.

Lecce would be a long drive from Bari. It has over a hundred churches, with spectacular Baroque architecture. There's a partially excavated Roman amphitheater in town, which is interesting. A great paper mache exhibit. But everything in town closes down every afternoon around 2 pm. Some shops reopen around 6, but you won't find a crumb to eat until restaurants open at 8 pm ... pizza, cheese, fruit, nothing. It becomes a ghost town. So be prepared if you go there. We took lots of day trips from Lecce and enjoyed the region, but just not this specific town.