We were thinking about renting a place for 60-90 days in Otranto. What will we face as far as winter. We are going to get out of winter in So Cal mountains from January or February to April. We had a lot of cold days and mounds of snow. We don't mind a quiet area without tourists. Is there enough to do here? Are ferries running from Bari to Corfu during these months????
Posted by
4326 posts
You may want to ask a moderator to move this to the Italy page.
PS I'd look at Lecce instead of Otranto, probably more to do and better public transport if you are not renting a car.
Posted by
Washington DC
27062 posts
If you aren't traveling on an EU passport, be very, very careful about your timing. Americans/Canadians/etc. are allowed to be in the entire Schengen area (of which Italy is a part) for a maximum of 90 days out of any 180-day period. Both the arrival day and the departure day count, so you could easily go over the limit if you rented a place in Puglia for 90 days and spent a night in Rome at the beginning and/or end of the trip.
I'm a fan of Lecce, and it's probably the best single place to stay if you're not going to have a car. Lecce has a population of close to 100,000 and quite a few local attractions, in addition to being the public-transportation hub for that part of Puglia. Otranto's population is under 6000. To me, that would feel awfully limiting long before I hit the 60-day mark.
There are no express trains connecting the small towns in Puglia, so traveling in the area is rather slow. Some of the highlights of Puglia are north of Lecce (which is well north of Otranto). Every visit to one of those north-of-Lecce places would start with over one hour on a bus (I'm not finding evidence of trains, though there might be some) to Lecce, followed by (presumably) some sort of layover until the transportation to your actual destination departed.
Puglia is not really a good place to set up camp in one town for an extended period of time, even if you have a car. It would be a lot more convenient to stay in multiple places over such a broad area.