Puglia -- a week in December

We had 2 one-bedroom apartments right on the port about a block from each other. This was perfect for us; while we all love traveling together, it’s nice to have separate spaces at night for some downtime. I booked them in March for our December stay.

We loved, loved, loved our apartment. Very comfortable, clean, fully equipped small kitchen, full-sized washer and dryer, the most awesome hosts. Right across from the port; we watched the fishing boats go in and out and the fishermen selling the catch on the docks. The apartment is a second floor walkup (US second floor), so not for the mobility-challenged. Highly, highly recommend.
Residenza Rebecca

Our friends also loved everything about their apartment. Except – there’s a restaurant downstairs that plays music until 11:00 on weeknights and 1:00 a.m. on weekends, and the music carries into the apartment. But the apartment itself was very comfortable and modern, washing machine, great views of the port, excellent host.
Maison Bleu

Transportation: Departed Friday, Dec 6: We flew Burlington, VT => JFK => Rome on Delta, then Rome => Bari on ITA, arriving 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Originally had a 4 hour layover at FCO, wound up with a one-hour delay on landing, still plenty of time to make the connection. No line at immigration at FCO. As a nice bonus, our flex tickets on ITA came with lounge access at FCO, which was a great, quiet, comfortable place to chill, eat breakfast, get coffee after the overnight flight.

I will insert here that this is where my great coffee tour of Italy began. Wow, it was so good! I am very unfortunately only a decaf drinker because of acid reflux, and lemme tell you, decaf is such a letdown. But I had decaf cafes/espressos and cappuccinos at every opportunity on this trip, many times a day, after every meal and any chance to stop, and every cup was so freaking fantastic!! (except the cafeteria at the Barletta train station, but even that was better than most US coffees).

On the way back, we trained from Trani to Rome on Friday, Dec 13, overnight in Rome, then on Saturday, Dec 14, flew FCO => JFK => BTV.

On arrival at JFK, Global Entry was our hero. Super long lines at immigration; we breezed thru the GE checkpoint in 2 minutes. Super long lines at security to re-enter for our connection; our TSA precheck had us through in 5 minutes.

We did not check bags, as per our usual. Packing report is here if you are interested in the details.

What we did:

Saturday, Dec 7 – arrival day. Arrive Bari airport afternoon, private driver to Trani. Check in to apartments, grocery store run (amazing clementines!!!), wander Trani, dinner. Will list restaurants for Trani separately. Surprisingly, we were all alert and energetic, as opposed to our usual zombie-like state on arriving in Europe. So dinner was enjoyable and we were actually up until 10 or 11. We had flown on an Airbus 330 versus Boeings the last couple of trips; I wonder if that contributed to being less jetlagged.

Funny story from the grocery store: We grabbed a cart when we walked in. The store clerks by the entrance were clearly trying to communicate something to us, but we couldn’t understand what they were saying. In a few minutes, another clerk with very good English came over, different cart in tow. Apparently the cart we had picked up was for dogs! He very kindly explained the situation, we laughed and thanked him – he said it happens all the time (doubtful, but nice of him to say it).

In our wanderings before dinner, we were lucky enough to come across a procession for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A fire truck with a crane was used to place a wreath on the statue of Mary in the Piazza della Liberta. It was quite the effort on the one fireman’s part to carry the giant wreath up the crane, lots of cheering when it was done!

Sunday, Dec 8 – temps mid 50’s, rain off and on.

Private driver back to Bari airport to pick up rental car. Rented from Europcar via AutoEurope. Cheerfully paid for zero-dollar deductible. Had a heinous little Fiat 500 with giant bashes in the door and a very uncommitted gas pedal (“meh, maybe I’ll go, maybe I won’t”) that I couldn’t see out of. But the overall rental experience was very good, and I would rent again – just not a Fiat 500.

I was the driver for the trip, and it was an experience! I usually enjoy driving. I am more or less a rule-follower: I observe lane lines and stop signs, I drive in the vicinity of the speed limit, I yield when told to yield. This is a setup for abject failure in Italy! It took a day or two to figure it all out, but I got used to going when I could go, signs be damned; easing into the flow of Autostrada traffic (not easy with my uncommitted gas pedal); trusting that the oncoming truck would move over to his own lane before smashing into us; and navigating the free-for-all intersections with no stop signs. I was ecstatic to turn in the car at the end of the week, but it took us where we needed to go and we wouldn’t have seen nearly as much if we hadn’t had it. So, despite all the white-knuckling, I’d definitely do it again.

After picking up the car, we headed immediately to…..

Bari Old Town

Goodness, the parking! Took us at least 30 minutes, maybe 45, to find a parking spot somewhere near the Old Town. Finally wedged in to a parking lot by the theater, multiple onlookers helping to direct parking, thanking god for the zero dollar deductible.

We headed to the old walls for a meander and discovered a Christmas market just along and under the walls by the Basilica of San Nicola. Definitely the best market we saw during the week. Had some fresh pomegranate juice, bought some excellent honey hand cream, had roasted chestnuts and phenomenal pistachio cookies. Interestingly, we found that real handcrafted goods at the Christmas markets in Puglia were not as plentiful as the markets we visited in Spain; the majority of the goods on display were manufactured trinkets from afar, not locally made.

We also visited inside San Nicola, which was lovely at Christmas time. Saw his relics in the crypt below the church. The crypt has an interesting layout of chapels that are both Orthodox and Catholic. The website has good background information for the visit: https://www.basilicasannicola.it/

Had an excellent lunch near San Nicola and then continued wandering Old Town, taking lots of pictures of the beautiful Christmas decorations along the way. Stayed until about 4:00 and then surgically extracted the car from the parking lot and headed back to Trani for the evening.

Bari Old Town Photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322603733/

Bari Old Town Restaurant

La Cantina dello Zio – We went in because it was jammed at 1:00 (always a good sign) and it was starting to rain. Absolutely delicious meal. Traditional Italian food, casual, full of families having a meal after Sunday church. We each had a pasta dish, mine was orchiette with rabe. I love how every time I had orchiette in Puglia, it was perfectly cooked and not stuck together in little stacks like mine does at home when I cook it. I think maybe it’s because the Puglian pasta is not so perfectly shaped and also more undercooked. It was fabulous.

Monday, December 9, temps mid 50s in Trani, mid 40s inland, partly cloudy

With the good weather, we decided that this would be a good day for a hike/walk. Headed to Castel del Monte, about 45 minutes from Trani, and the walking trail around and up to the castle (AllTrails Sei Carri -- Castel del Monte https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/apulia/sei-carri-castel-del-monte ). This was about a 4-hour total hike/walk (fairly easy, some elevation going up to the castle), including about an hour spent inside the castle. Gorgeous hike with olive groves, vineyards turning fall colors, trulli, views of the coast from around the castle. Loved it; we stopped a lot to explore the trulli and take photos. We did wish we would have brought our jackets; Trani had been about 10 degrees warmer than where we hiked and there was a stiff breeze. We were fine in our fleeces, just a little chilly.

The castle itself was well worth visiting; it’s one of Fredick II’s constructions from the 1200’s. There’s a nearby parking lot for folks who don’t want to hike. It is empty inside but with good informational signs.

Photos of the hike and the castle:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322699912/

Headed back to Trani for the evening.

Tuesday, December 10; mid 50s and rainy in the morning

Spent the morning in Trani, walking out to the old fort on the harbor and visiting inside the cathedral and castle. The cathedral is beautiful, especially at Christmastime. The castle was an interesting visit with a good informational video. It has been repurposed and re-used in so many ways over the years that much of the original castle is just not there anymore, but it was a good lesson in history and understanding the evolution of this one site over a thousand years or so.

Photos of Trani:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322607004/

The weather cleared in the afternoon, so after lunch in Trani we headed to Polignano a Mare for a brief visit. Arrived at about 3:30 as the sun was starting to go down. No problem with parking in this very empty, off-season town! We walked over to the beach and took some lovely photos. Maybe a half dozen people on the beach in December; very different from summertime.

We spent about an hour and a half or so walking around the beach area. The town was nearly deserted, with only a couple of restaurants open. We grabbed some gelato and a coffee as the sun went down and then headed back to Trani.

Polignano a Mare photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322721444

Wednesday, December 11, temps mid 50s in Trani, upper 30s in Matera, partly cloudy

Matera day. I had reserved a private tour with Amy Weideman (https://www.materatours.net/) for us for 10:00 a.m. She sent very clear parking and meeting point directions (we parked in the garage at the corner of Via Lucana and Via Pasquale Vena, very easy access). We had a great 2+ hour tour, which included walking through the Sasso Caveoso, as well as a tour through the Chiesa di Santa Lucia alla Malve, with its frescoes dating back to the 11th century, and a cave museum showing the living arrangements – including a stall area for the mule and a compost area that helped heat the cave. We learned a ton about Matera’s history from Amy, and I would highly recommend her services to anyone looking for a private guide.

After the tour, we wandered a bit though the main square which had some Christmas market stalls and we picked up couple loaves of Matera bread to take back to the apartments. Had lunch at a pizzeria and then headed back to the car to go across to the Parque Regionale della Murgia Materana. Drove down a rocky dirt road to access the parking; the road was very washed out and we had to do some major swerving to avoid bottoming out.

In the park, we loosely followed the AllTrails Giro Cave de Murgia route (https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/italy/basilicata/giro-cave-di-murgia?u=i). It’s a very easy loop around the higher plateau of the park, with stunning views across the ravine to Matera. There are abandoned caves scattered throughout, ripe for exploring, plus smaller trails branching off that lead down some beautiful paths. We saw a few trulli, some domestic goats, and a wild boar (thankfully way at the bottom of the ravine), along with tons of flowers and herbs. The thyme smelled so good! We arrived around 2:30 and stayed until the sun was getting low at 4:30.

Back to the car, up the zoom-zoom washed out trail, and out to the main road and back to Trani for the evening.

Matera photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322699940

Matera food stops:

La Latteria coffee/pastry bar. Really good pastries and coffee, good place for a bio break before or after exploring the sassi.

Panificio Paoluccio – bakery – excellent Matera bread, plus focaccia, etc. Kids were lined up down the street at lunchtime school break to grab some focaccia.

Osteria L’Arco – was recommended to us by Amy but not open when we were walking by

We actually ate lunch at a place along the main square that we just wandered in to, but I can’t remember or find it for the life of me. It was good, not great, basic Italian fare. There were plenty of restaurants open at 1:00 p.m. with a ton of people dining.

Thursday, December 12, temps 50s daytime, 40s at night, sunny

Up and out of the apartments at 9:00, drove to Alberobello, arrived 10:30. Plenty of open parking lots but the meters weren’t working (even the Italians couldn’t get them to work – it was quite the social, collaborative event involving lots of hand gestures). We wound up downloading the parking app, paid online for four hours, and off we went to explore Hobbitville.

Yes the central trulli area is very touristy, but it was all decked out for Christmas and very, very cute. There were a decent number of tourists, the most we’d seen anywhere in Puglia, but not crowded at all. We wandered for a couple of hours, stopped for a coffee break along the way, taking lots of pictures. We’d seen enough by 1:00 and found a place for lunch near the central plaza, which had a few Christmas market stalls.

Alberobello food:

Bar/Enoteca/Pasticerria, along the Via Monte Nero – we stopped in for a coffee and a glass of wine and were shown to a table outside the back of the trullo, which bordered on a garden. We enjoyed our break, watching the cats, but the total bill for 3 coffees, 1 wine, and 4 cookies was 33 euro – ouch!

Paninoteca Pane e Mozza – sandwich shop with tables inside. Excellent! A very good, reasonably quick lunch of sandwiches, salads, wine, water for a total of 52 euros for 4 people.

We wrapped up lunch at about 2:00 and headed back to the car for a 30-minute drive to the starting point of our afternoon hike near Locorotondo. This was a loop starting along the old Roman aqueduct, through fields with vineyards, olive groves, and trulli. See Alltrails Acquedotto Pugliese – Bosco Calmerio (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/apulia/aqp-acquedotto-pugliese-bosco-calmerio). The total loop would have been about 3 hours; we cut off the top of the loop since it was starting to get dark. Total hike for us was just over 2 hours. We saw many, many bicyclists along the way, both on the paved roads and along the aqueduct.

We wrapped up the hike just before 5:00 and headed to Locorotondo, just 7 minutes away. Parked on the street (I couldn’t open my car door because the curb was so high and the Fiat was so low; had to crawl out the passenger side) and walked in to the old city center area.

Oh my! The Christmas decorations! I’ve never seen such beautiful ones! We walked for about an hour, stopping in to the Church of St George the Martyr for a peek.

Very sadly, we had to leave at 6:00 to get to the airport and turn in the heinous Fiat at 7:00. I have no idea what route we took to get to the airport – my friend is an excellent navigator and I just go where she tells me – but it involved quite a few miles descending along a winding cliff, nothing to our right but a dropoff, and oncoming trucks on the left who were avoiding bicycles (in the dark!!!) on their side of the road, largely by driving on my side of the road. Also, just to make it more exciting, we were driving on fumes the last 30 minutes. I was thrilled to get to the airport, throw the keys across the counter, and climb into our private driver’s car to ride in blissful passenger mode back to Trani.

Photos of Alberobello, the aqueduct hike, and Locorotondo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322719933

Back in Trani for our last night, our apartment hosts were kind enough to check in with us to make sure we knew about the next day’s transportation strike. Whoops! Of course this would happen the day we need to get to Rome. Frantic online googling and scrambling for information ensued. We originally had regional train tickets Trani =>Barletta and then high speed Barletta=>Rome at 9:15 a.m. I found the ‘guaranteed’ train list from Trenitalia and ours was not listed, so Thursday night I purchased a second set of refundable tickets on the Friday 1:00 train out of Barletta that was guaranteed to run. And our amazing apartment host was kind enough to offer a ride to Barletta in the morning since the regional train was a cancellation possibility. Whew, bases covered, we would get to Rome on Friday. Now we could relax over our last dinner in Trani!

Trani restaurants

Al Porto – Decent food on our first night; however, at the end of the meal, the waiter informed us that their credit card machine was broken and we’d need to pay cash. Um, OK, yes we are tourists. I’m sure the machine wasn’t broken for the table of Italians next to us. Paid the cash and left. Don’t recommend.

Bubbles – Too funny given the name, but we actually loved this place and went back another night. It’s on the Piazza della Repubblica, the main square. We stopped in for a drink and appetizers on our first night around 5:30 since we were starving and it was too early for dinner. The staff was super upbeat and friendly, the drinks were good, the focaccia appetizer was delicious. So the next night we stopped in again in our wanderings, intending on just drinks, and wound up staying through dinnertime. We were definitely the oldest people in the place, but the DJ was playing 80s music and we felt very trendy ‘cause we could sing all the words, lol. Anyway, silly name for a bar, but we liked it. Recommend.

Taverna Portanova – Went here for husband’s birthday. The best meal we had in Italy. Homemade spinach and ricotta tortelloni, grilled fish, rabe; so simple and so delicious. Highly recommend.

San Giovanni – traditional Italian, another excellent meal. I had fava beans with spinach as a starter and cavatelli with mushrooms and sausage. Highly recommend.

Mania di Pizza – our first pizza in Italy. Delicious! Mine had pistachio crème, ricotta, thinly sliced cured ham of some kind, and chopped pistachos. 3 out of 4 of our pizzas were phenomenal, one was rather bland. Highly recommend.

Osteria Veronique – a little upscale, traditional Italian food. Our meal was excellent with a very nice waiter who was practicing his already very good English. I had almond-crusted shrimp as an appetizer, blue cheese-stuffed ravioli with squash and shrimp as a pasta course, and monkfish as the main meal. Husband had pistachio/clam pasta and calamari. All was delicious. Highly recommend.

Lievito 72 – Pizza – Again, 3 out of 4 were outstanding, mine was the miss this time (a very soggy Margarita). Highly recommend, just not the Margarita.

Friday, December 13 (of course it was Friday the 13th!)

Woke up to find that our 9:15 departure to Rome had been canceled. Felt pretty awesome that I had purchased the second set of tickets on the now sold-out guaranteed 1:00 train. We very sadly checked out of our apartments in Trani and were driven in grand style by our host to Barletta, where we hung out in the cafeteria by the train station until our 1:00 train (the bartender was a hoot; very little English, took very good care of us, wanted to know if we were “Trump or no Trump” and seemed rather ecstatic at our “no Trump” reply; whew, we passed the test). We arrived Termini at about 5:00 p.m. We originally had a private driver from the station to our hotel, but they canceled because of the strike and advised us to take a taxi. Well, on strike days, it seems everyone in Rome takes a taxi. Waited a few minutes in the very long line outside the station with only one taxi making an appearance and decided to walk to the hotel, feeling good about our manageable luggage. It was about a 45-minute walk in a light drizzle.

We stayed at the Hotel Manfredi (https://www.hotelmanfredi.com/) based on a recommendation from friends who visit often. We loved our one-night stay here; it is well-located near the Spanish Steps, very quiet, very helpful front desk staff, comfortable rooms with a nice shower, and a very good breakfast included with the room. Highly recommend.

Our stay in Rome was so short. Original plan was to do Rick’s walk, but the train schedule change and lack of a taxi put us at the hotel at 6:00 p.m. We decided we’d walk a bit after checking in, grab a drink somewhere, walk some more, then find a good dinner spot.

Well, as soon as we headed out the door it started raining. We had good rain gear and kept on for a block or two. It rained harder. We figured it was a good time to stop for a drink and wait it out; the radar looked like it would pass through quickly. We ducked in to a bar, which turned out to be a rooftop terrace enclosed for the winter, very cozy with the rain pounding on the roof, toasty warm, all decked out in Christmas lights, with an excellent bartender. What’s not to love??? We had a round of drinks, it rained harder. We had another round, it started to thunder. We ordered food, the lightning was spectacular. Coffee, more lightning and thunder. We gave up and ran the block back to our hotel. Our 3-hour Rome adventure was spent in a rooftop bar one block from the hotel. My husband and I did get up super early the next morning for a one-hour walk around the largely empty streets, so at least we saw something!

Photos of Rome in the dark, lol:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197009824@N03/albums/72177720322727877

At 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, our driver picked us up from the hotel and took us to FCO for our 12:00 flight. We had a very easy trip home.

Final impressions:

We loved Puglia. We are small-town people and this area was perfect for us, especially in the off season. Trani was the perfect base for us for the 6 days. Had we stayed longer, we would have wanted a second base further south to cut down on the driving distances for day trips.

Our daily pace of seeing “sights” in the mornings and then getting outside for a hike in the afternoons worked well, since the smaller towns were very, very quiet after lunch. I’m not sure if attractions were open during that time since we didn’t try, but I would guess that many are closed.

Highlights of the trip for us were the beautiful Christmas decorations, the amazing food (so simple and yet so fantastic), and the gorgeous walks, both in-town and “out in nature.” I would go again in December in a heartbeat. Good weather, no crowds, gorgeous lights, festive atmosphere. We did not see many “sights,” but that was not our goal, and we were very happy with our vacation.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed information about Puglia and Italy in general on the forum. I found a ton of valuable tips and helpful information that made planning very, very easy. I hope my trip report can pay it forward.

Wonderful trip report! So many details that I want to know, like how long a hike took and exactly where and what you ate! I am so glad that you enjoyed Trani and Matera, two of our favorite places. Now I'd better re-read it and look at your photos. Good thing we are headed back to Puglia in October.

Oh, and this trip report makes me think you would really, really, really like the "hinterlands" of Liguria --- every valley that goes back into the mountains has its own delicious cuisine and there is lots of hiking (which we were not able to do either year that we went, but maybe next time!)

Thank you so much for your fabulous and helpful trip report!

Thank you....

nancys8, I read a lot of your posts when planning this trip. So much helpful information. We'll keep Liguria in mind for a future trip!

I just took it in that you did all these hikes and visited all those towns and took all those great photos in ONE WEEK! And so brave to drive that car!

Loved your report, thanks for sharing!

What a great trip report, Deb! You brought back good memories, and I really enjoyed seeing your photos of beautiful Locorotondo (one of my favorites) decorated for Christmas!

I appreciate the restaurant details - recommendations & misses! I will be staying in Trani & Matera (& others) for a couple of nights next year, so your details are helpful!

I was so excited when I saw your packing trip, so hopped right over to see your trip report. This settles it for me. I was originally thinking of exploring this area in the fall, but lately have been thinking about how much I enjoyed seeing the holiday decorations in and around Florence a few years ago, so that's it. Guess I need to plan my trip for December!

Maybe I overlooked it, but what type of camera do you use? I'm not a photography person, so just use my phone, but my goodness your pictures are stunning and make me want to take all the hikes. Would most/some of them be safe for a solo hiker if I don't go too far?

Thanks so much for this report. I've never done a trip report because I don't remember all the details like most of you do, just the joy, but I always appreciate those of you who can summarize your experience so well.

Deb, I always enjoy your helpful, descriptive reports. Puglia is on my radar. Thanks for your time and all your tips for this region.

Hi Deb, I'm really glad you liked Trani in particular and Puglia in general. I loved your trip report and photos, especially since we missed our autumn trip to Puglia this year and I've been wondering about a winter trip for a couple of years. The info about the hiking is also very useful. I wish you more happy travels in 2025.

Deb, We are thinking we'd like to do the Matera hike and the hike outside of Locotrondo. Will we want to get a subscription to AllTrails? We are also thinking we'll abbreviate the one outside of Locotrondo and start by the Roman bridge. Any thoughts on this?

nancys8 -- yes, only one week! We kept it pretty high-level since we didn't want to feel like we were rushing from sight to sight, so I know we missed out on a lot in those small towns on our brief visits. Definitely not a deep-dive into Puglia, except for Trani, but it was a great week for us and a good intro to the region we visited. And the driving.... it was an adventure! But I felt pretty smug in the Coscto parking lot here in Vermont 2 days before Christmas; my acquired Italian driving skills meant I had NO trouble snagging a parking spot, lol.

Tammy -- thank you!

Jean -- My jaw literally dropped when we came into the old town part of Locorotondo and saw the Christmas decorations. Truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

KRS -- I used my phone (iPhone 15 pro) for this trip. I have a mirrorless camera that does take better pictures, especially for enlargements -- I usually blow up one or two photos to a 24" x 36"-ish print each trip, and I can tell the difference between phone photos and camera at that size. But I left my camera at home this time since I decided I didn't want to lug it on hikes. The iPhone does a darn good job for most uses. And I keep a daily log of what we do and write my trip reports from that log. The log and my photos are the only way I remember what we did on vacation, it gets to be such a blur by the end! As for the hikes, I don't know the area well enough to say for sure that it is safe for a solo hiker, but it felt that way to me. The trails that we took were very easy, so not a climbing/injury risk. On the Locorotondo hike, we did see other people (mostly bikes), so if I were a solo hiker, this would feel safer to me. The other 2 hikes we did, we were the only people we saw on the trail.

Linda -- thank you!

Tinac -- Again, thank you for your very helpful guidance. Your blog is a wealth of information. We loved our December visit; the weather was perfect for us (cool, not too cold), no crowds anywhere, so beautiful with the Christmas lights! And I was surprised at how lovely the countryside was -- such vibrant colors from the grape vines and wildflowers. I was expecting drab browns for winter, but it was stunning.

Jules -- I'm sure you'd have no trouble with those hikes without a subscription to AllTrails. The really useful feature that I like with my subscription is to be able to download the map for offline use. I use the app enough in regular life that I'm happy to pay for the subscription and get that feature, but for just a couple of easy hikes, I'm sure you could download the area in Google or something beforehand and mark your route in case you lost your data connection. As for the Locorotondo hike, yes, I'm sure you could start anywhere. The bridge is on the part of the loop that we had to cut off because it was getting dark, so we didn't do that section. You'd just need to figure out where to park if your starting point is other than where AllTrails has you starting.

ETA: For anyone planning on hiking, bring shoes with good, thick soles. It was very, very rocky everywhere we hiked, and I appreciated my Oboz very much. I do not think sneakers would have been comfortable or safe.

Thanks, Deb! I have this bookmarked for a trip in the area in maybe 2026. Love your details and I m always interested in someone’s take on driving. lol.