Conical-roofed trulli and pink flowers along a lane in Alberobello, Puglia, Italy

Itinerary

A Week in Puglia

Inspiration for your next adventure

A masseria among the olive groves, white towns and trulli in the Valle d'Itria, baroque Lecce and long lunches by the sea. The heel of Italy's boot, eaten slowly.

Who this is for

Travelers who plan their days around lunch. You would rather spend an afternoon at a seaside table than in a museum queue, you love a whitewashed town at golden hour, and you are ready for an Italy that feels a little less discovered than Tuscany.

The shape of the trip

Where you sleep, and the rhythm of the days

Valle d'Itria, 4 nights · Lecce, 3

A car, short drives, and one town or beach a day. Mornings are for wandering and afternoons are for lunch and the pool. The splurge is the masseria, a restored fortified farmhouse that becomes the center of the trip.

Where to go and what to eat

The places

01 · 4 nights
The Valle d'Itria
Fly into Bari and drive about an hour to a masseria in the countryside around Ostuni or Fasano. From there, every day is a short drive: Alberobello and its cone-roofed trulli, early before the buses; Locorotondo and Cisternino for their white lanes and evening grills, where you choose your meat at the butcher and they cook it for you (book ahead on weekends); and Ostuni, the white city, at sunset. Swim at Polignano a Mare early in the day, when the small cove below the old town is quiet.
02
Matera
Give one day to Matera, just over the border in Basilicata and about an hour and a quarter from the Valle d'Itria. Its ancient cave dwellings, the Sassi, were abandoned in the 1950s and are now hotels, restaurants and one of the most extraordinary townscapes in Europe. Stay for dusk, when the lights come on across the ravine.
03 · 3 nights
Lecce and the Salento
Lecce is a city carved from soft golden stone, so ornate it is called the Florence of the South. Walk its baroque churches, eat a pasticciotto, the custard pastry, for breakfast, and drink a glass of Negroamaro or Primitivo in the evening. Spend the days on the Salento coast: Otranto's old town and harbor, and the clear water and rocky coves south toward Santa Maria di Leuca.
04
What to eat
Orecchiette with turnip greens, burrata made that morning, raw seafood by the harbor, focaccia barese, and taralli with every glass of wine. In Bari Vecchia, along Via dell'Arco Basso, women still shape orecchiette by hand in their doorways. Buy from someone you can watch working.

My take on Puglia, Italy

Puglia is for when you want an Italy that feels a little less discovered than Tuscany—where you plan your days entirely around long, seaside lunches and golden-hour strolls through whitewashed towns.

Base yourself for four nights in a restored masseria in the Valle d'Itria (the ultimate splurge for a pool, olive trees, and farm-to-table dinners) and three nights in Lecce, the ornate "Florence of the South." Fill your days with short drives: beat the tour buses to Alberobello’s cone-roofed trulli, grab evening meat-at-the-butcher grills in Cisternino, watch the sunset over white-walled Ostuni, and spend an unforgettable day exploring Matera’s ancient cave dwellings just over the border. Eat your weight in fresh burrata, orecchiette shaped by hand in the doorways of Bari Vecchia, and warm pasticciotto pastries. When you head south to Lecce and the Salento coast, alternate between baroque churches and hidden rocky coves.

Smart moves: Rent a car so you can track down those out-of-the-way lunch spots, and visit in June or September for warm water and golden light without the chaos.

Skip: August, when the heat spikes and Italian holiday crowds take over, and trying to drive all 300+ kilometers of the region in a single week—sticking to the Valle d'Itria and Salento is plenty.

Whitewashed buildings perched on limestone cliffs above the sea in Polignano a Mare, Puglia, Italy

My take

Worth it, and what to skip

Worth it

A masseria for the first half. It gives you a pool, a farm-to-table kitchen and a quiet base among the olive trees.
A car. Puglia is spread out, and the best lunches are down country roads.
June or September. The sea is warm, the light is golden and the August crowds have not arrived or have gone home.

Skip it

August. It is hot, crowded and the busiest month for Italian holidays.
Trying to see all of Puglia in a week. The region runs for more than 300 kilometers. The Valle d'Itria and the Salento are plenty.