The perfect six-day itinerary for Puglia, Italy

23.03.2024 - 09:25 / wanderlust.co.uk

Puglia, the heel of the great Italian boot, packs in just about everything we love about Italy: olive groves and vineyards, picturesque hill towns, extraordinary art and architecture, superb food and wine. But it all comes with a Puglian twist and a host of unexpected influences. This region was, after all, once the stomping ground of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Angevins and Spaniards, whose legacy is still keenly felt in the architecture of its churches and towns. Add to that 800km of beaches fringing Italy’s easternmost coastline, and you have a region that is forever upending expectations.

Take, for example, the geography north of Puglia, where the limestone cliffs, sea grottoes and woodlands of the Gargano peninsula (now a national park) are the setting for the uncanny Monte Sant’Angelo pilgrimage site. Yet, just inland from here, lies Tavoliere delle Puglie, Italy’s second-largest plain after the Po valley.

Edge south and you will see another national park, the Alta Murgia, whose rocky Apennine foothills are pierced by canyons and dolines. Lower down lie the masserie (Puglia’s old fortified farmhouses), set amid olive and almond groves. There is also a truly one-off landmark: the eccentric Castel del Monte, built in the 13th century AD by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

Puglia’s cities are no less compelling. Regional capital Bari once competed with Italy’s other great medieval maritime republics. In 1087 AD, Barese sailors even one-upped the body-snatching Venetians in the race to steal the relics of St Nicholas of Myra – aka ‘Santa Claus’ – to place in their Basilica di San Nicola, one of Puglia’s most remarkable Romanesque churches.

South of Bari, the Valle d’Itria is Puglia at its most original. Here, rolling hills of ancient olive groves are dotted with one of the most charming and ancient styles of Mediterranean architecture: trulli. These whitewashed dry-stone houses are typically topped with corbelled, pointed domes. The beautiful town of Alberobello has such a dense concentration of them that UNESCO even designated it a World Heritage site.

Further south lies the ancient Spartan city that became Taranto; then comes the Salento, Puglia’s stiletto-shaped peninsula that divides the Adriatic and Ionian seas. From there it’s only a short hop to lavishly Baroque Lecce (the ‘Florence of the South’), at the heart of the peninsula, followed by the clear turquoise waters that lap the Salento’s beautiful beaches and fishing villages. Here Gallipoli (from the Greek for ‘beautiful town’), Santa María di Leuca and Otranto, home to a remarkable 11th-century Byzantine-Norman mosaic in its Romanesque cathedral, await.

How to explore Puglia in six days

Start in Bari by visiting the