Where to base for 4 nights in central Puglia?
And how best to deal with the crowds at Puglia’s most popular spots?
Seeking your input to resolve a couple high level questions about an upcoming trip to Puglia.
Current plan is to fly in to Bari, spend 2 nights there (arriving mid-afternoon after long flights from the US west coast, but we’re flying business class so we should arrive reasonably well-rested). Our first full day (after arrival day) will be recovering from the displacement trauma and exploring Bari itself. Next day (Day 2) we head up to Vieste and the Gargano Promontory, we will spend 3 nights there.
After this “out-and-back” jaunt to Vieste, we will double back and head for the many attractive places southeast of Bari (seems to be the primary destination for most tourists to Puglia): the Adriatic coastal towns like Polignano a Mare and Monopoli, and the popular towns just inland (Alberobello, Locorotondo, Martina Franca, Cisternino, Ostuni, etc.). I plan to pick one city in this area and use it as our base for 4 nights, exploring all the nearby coastal & inland towns between Bari and Brindisi and the Valle d’Itria. My first question: which of these towns would you recommend for a base in the area? More on that below.
After departing our “base” there, I plan to continue east/southeast, in a big loop around the “boot heel” roughly following the coast going clockwise, with 3 nights in Lecce, probably a couple nights each in Santa Maria di Lueca and Gallipoli, maybe a night in Taranto, wrapping up with 3 nights in Matera and nearby day-trips in Basilicata. Finally, after Matera, we will head back to Bari, drop the car, and fly out.
I have not yet booked accoms but I’m getting ready to, and this rough itinerary is starting to solidify in my head. But I have a couple of questions/dilemmas:
There’s plenty to see and do in that core area between Bari & Brindisi, along the coast and inland. Several magical cities (named among Italy’s most beautiful). These places make great destinations but they’re all quite close together, easily reached in a very short drive. They have some things in common, making a few of them “variations on a theme.” And some of them get a LOT of touristic attention (I’m looking at you, Alberobello). It’s perfectly understandable why Alberobello is so popular (and yes, I will be contributing to it’s “overtourism problem”) but I do not enjoy places that are very crowded. In places that are being loved-to-death, I know the standard way to mitigate crowding: be there early and/or late, avoid the place between 10 am and 4 pm (“day-tripper hours”). SOMETIMES sleeping there is a good strategy: get up and get out early to experience the place at its best, get outta Dodge as the tour buses roll in, stay away for a while, come back late afternoon as the buses disappear. In some places that are subject to really intense tourist numbers, it may not really be quiet except for “sleeping hours”. It’ll be late September, so I’m hoping the numbers will have eased a bit, but I still expect some crowds.
(continued below…)