In July 2019 we set out for two weeks in a little Fiat 500 to travel around the coastline of Puglia. As an amateur photographer, pasta enthusiast and major beach-lover this trip was a dream. I am so excited to share the photos with you as I’m sure they’ll make you fall in love with Puglia as quickly as we did.
Puglia, or Apulia as it is otherwise known, is the very south-easternmost region of Italy. It encompasses the heel of Italy’s boot (the Salento Peninsula.) It is a hot and dry part of Italy that features pristine coastlines, whitewashed towns and cactus studded countryside. It has long been a favourite holiday destination for Italians, but is less well-known amongst tourists from abroad. This means it is an enviably authentic part of Italy to explore, where you won’t hear much English spoken at all.
Puglia by Car
We choose to fly in and out of Bari which is a 3hr flight from London. We flew in with Easy jet and out with British Airways and paid about £300pp for the round trip. When it came to car hire we opted for an automatic car which proved to be a good choice as driving in Italy is challenging enough without having to also worry about conciously changing gears. We picked up our little Fiat 500 from Sicily by Car at Bari Airport, that we booked via rentalcars.com. The total cost of our car hire was around £600 for 10 days hire.
Our Itinerary
I’ve included a map of the route we followed below. We stayed for 12 nights/13 days in total. Our first stop was Matera and then we travelled down the western coast of Puglia to Santa Maria de Leuca and back up the eastern coast (that borders the Adriatic Sea) towards Bari. We booked all of our accommodation with Airbnb (places with decent aircon were a must at this time of year!) You can find out more about why we usually stay in Airbnbs and what to look for when you book here. Along the way we chose to stay in:
- Matera – 2 nights
- Santa Maria al Bagno – 2 nights
- Santa Maria de Leuca – 2 nights
- Otranto – 1 night
- Ostuni – 2 nights
- Monopoli – 1 night
- Bari – 2 nights
Day 1 & 2: Matera
Matera is only an hour’s drive from Bari, so we headed straight there once we had collected our car. Matera is a hillside town that is famous for it’s Sassi– ancient residences built into the rock. There is evidence that this area was inhabited as early as 7000 BC and locals continued to live in houses built into the rock until they were deemed unsanitary and uninhabitable by the Italian government in the 1950s. Matera was a fascinating town to explore and probably one of our top two places on this trip.
Day 3 & 4: Santa Maria al Bagno
This small seaside town is a real delight and by staying here for two nights we were able to spend some time sunbathing & swimming at the beach at Santa Caterina, and also explore the bigger towns of both Nardo & Gallipoli that are nearby. In Nardo we really enjoyed our dinner at Antica Macelleria Fai where we tried a local specialty bombette.
Day 5 & 6: Santa Maria de Leuca
Leuca as it is known amongst locals is at the southernmost tip of the Salento Peninsula. This is another spot where we did plenty of sunbathing, this time hiring a sunlounger & umbrella at a Lido as the July sunshine was really beating down on us. Leuca was also the first place we tried orecchiette which is the local pasta speciality, meaning ‘little ears’.
Day 7: Otranto
Otranto was mainly somewhere that we chose to stay on the way from Leuca to Ostuni to break up the stage a bit but we found an unexpected highlight along the way- a scrumptious lunch with wine pairings at the Osteria and Store Menhir Salento in the village of Minervino di Lecce.
Day 8 & 9: Ostuni
This was my favourite stage in terms of the photo opportunities as this whitewashed town set on a hill is undeniably photogenic. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here.
Day 10: Monopoli
On this stage the countryside scenes are nothing short of idyllic and the towns of Locorotondo and Alberobello are not to be missed. This is where you can see Trulli, the traditional pointy roofed stone dwellings that are so very Puglian. We also wished we had more time in Monopoli as it is a lovely seaside town with a lively dining scene.
Day 11 & 12: Bari
We chose to stay in Bari at the end of our trip so that we could have a few days to relax with no driving to do. If we did this trip again I think we would stay one less night here and one more night at Monopoli, as we found that Bari is not as charming as the rest of Puglia. The spot not to miss before you reach Bari is Polignano a Mare – a famously packed little beach just 15 minutes north of Monopoli.
So there you have it- the perfect two week trip around Puglia. do I have you dreaming of an Italian seaside holiday yet?!