Puglia and Matera: Trulli, Lecce and the Salento Coast

Arrive in Bari

Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport to your hotel in Bari

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Bari
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Plan to land by mid-afternoon; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week ahead, then leads a first walk through the old town as the lights come on: the Basilica di San Nicola, built to hold the relics of St Nicholas that Bari sailors brought from Myra in 1087, the Romanesque Cattedrale di San Sabino, and Strada Arco Basso, where women make orecchiette by hand at tables outside their front doors.

Soir

We come out on the seafront promenade and sit down together to a welcome dinner of Apulian dishes at a local trattoria. Bari is the only one-night stop on the trip.

Compris

• Pick-up at Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (BRI)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk in Bari Vecchia: the Basilica di San Nicola, the Cattedrale di San Sabino and Strada Arco Basso
• Welcome dinner

Trani by the sea, then Matera

Bari to Trani, then inland to Matera

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Matera
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

Its Cathedral of San Nicola Pellegrino, begun in 1099, stands on its own at the edge of the sea, and in the morning the stone looks almost white against the water. Your guide takes you through the cathedral and down into its crypts, then into the Swabian castle that Frederick II began in 1233, and along the harbour, where fishing boats tie up at the quay.

Après-midi

Lunch is seafood in Trani. In the early afternoon we cross the Murgia plateau, a high plain of wheat fields and dry-stone walls, about an hour and a half inland to Matera in Basilicata, where we stay two nights in or beside the Sassi.

Soir

The evening is free: walk out to a belvedere above the Sasso Barisano at dusk, when the cave houses light up one by one, and choose your own dinner.

Compris

• Trani with your guide: the Cathedral of San Nicola Pellegrino and its crypts, and the harbour
• The Swabian castle in Trani
• Seafood lunch in Trani

The Sassi of Matera, early

A full day in Matera, with the Murgia Timone viewpoint

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Matera
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

The afternoon is free.

Soir

Late in the day we drive 15 minutes to the Murgia Timone viewpoint across the ravine to see the whole city in low sun, from the Sasso Caveoso to the convent of Sant'Agostino on the rim of the ravine, then have dinner together at a restaurant in the Sassi.

Compris

• The Sassi with a local guide: the Sasso Caveoso and the rock church of Santa Maria de Idris
• A furnished cave house
• The Palombaro Lungo cistern
• The Murgia Timone viewpoint in the late afternoon
• Dinner in the Sassi

Alberobello and into the Valle d'Itria

Matera to Alberobello, then a masseria in the Valle d'Itria

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Valle d'Itria
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

An hour and a quarter north-east across the Murgia brings us to Alberobello by about 10 am, ahead of the midday coaches. The town is built of trulli, limestone houses with dry-stone conical roofs, and was listed by UNESCO in 1996. With a local guide we walk up through Rione Monti, a hillside of trulli that are now shops and guesthouses, to the trullo church of Sant'Antonio, then cross to Aia Piccola, the quieter quarter where people still live in them, and step inside the Trullo Sovrano, the town's two-storey trullo. Lunch is your choice in town. In the early afternoon we drive about 20 minutes to our masseria, a fortified farmhouse among olive groves and vineyards that is home for the next three nights, so you can unpack properly.

Soir

The rest of the afternoon is for settling in or a walk along the farm lanes, and dinner tonight is at the masseria, cooked from what the farm and the valley grow.

Compris

• Alberobello with a local guide: Rione Monti, the trullo church of Sant'Antonio and Aia Piccola
• The Trullo Sovrano
• Dinner at the masseria

Olive oil, orecchiette and Locorotondo

The Valle d'Itria: an olive farm, Locorotondo and Cisternino

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Valle d'Itria
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

In the morning we drive a short way to an olive farm in the valley, where the producer walks you through groves of old trees and explains how the oil is made, from picking to pressing; from about late October to December the harvest is on and you may see the mill working. Taste several oils side by side with bread, then roll up your sleeves: a local cook shows you how to make orecchiette by hand from durum wheat semolina and water, drawn across a board with a knife, with a sauce of cime di rapa or tomato depending on the season.

Après-midi

What you make is lunch. In the afternoon we drive 15 minutes to Locorotondo, a round white town on a hilltop with views over the trulli-dotted valley, and taste its dry white wine at a cantina.

Soir

The evening is free: rest at the masseria, or the van takes you to Cisternino for a fornello pronto, a butcher's shop that grills meat to order.

Compris

• Olive farm visit and olive oil tasting
• Orecchiette lesson with a local cook, and the lunch you make
• Locorotondo with your guide
• Wine tasting at a cantina in Locorotondo

Activités en option

• Dinner at a fornello pronto in Cisternino (the van ride is included, dinner is on you)

Polignano a Mare and the white town of Ostuni

Valle d'Itria to Polignano a Mare, then Ostuni, and back to the masseria

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Valle d'Itria
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

The rest of the morning is yours: swim at Lama Monachile in season, sit over a coffee on the cliff, or take a boat out to the caves.

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice in Polignano, where raw seafood and fried fish are the local habit. In the afternoon we drive down the coast and climb to Ostuni, the white town on a hill above a plain of olive trees that runs to the sea. Your guide walks you up through whitewashed lanes to the 15th-century cathedral at the top.

Soir

The evening is free for an aperitivo on the walls as the light goes and dinner in town, and the van brings everyone back to the masseria at an agreed time.

Compris

• Polignano a Mare with your guide: the old town, the cliff terraces and Lama Monachile
• Ostuni with your guide: the old town and the cathedral
• The van back to the masseria after dinner in Ostuni

Activités en option

• A boat trip to the sea caves of Polignano a Mare (in season, extra cost)

Baroque Lecce

Valle d'Itria to Lecce

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Lecce
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we leave the masseria and drive about an hour and a half south, past Brindisi and into the Salento, the flat peninsula at the heel of Italy. Lecce is built of pietra leccese, a soft honey-coloured limestone that masons carved into the city's baroque facades in the 17th century. With a local guide we walk from Porta Napoli to the Basilica di Santa Croce, its facade crowded with animals, cherubs and a great rose window, into the enclosed Piazza del Duomo, and on to Piazza Sant'Oronzo, where a partly excavated Roman amphitheatre of the 2nd century AD lies below street level beside the column of the city's patron saint.

Après-midi

We stop at a cartapesta workshop, where papier-mache saints are still shaped by hand, then sit down to lunch together.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free, and the hotel is inside or beside the old town, so everything is a short walk.

Compris

• Lecce with a local guide: Porta Napoli, the Basilica di Santa Croce, Piazza del Duomo, Piazza Sant'Oronzo and the Roman amphitheatre
• A cartapesta (papier-mache) workshop
• Lunch in Lecce

Otranto and the Salento coast

Lecce to Otranto and Punta Palascìa, then north along the coast to Roca and back to Lecce

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Lecce
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

Your guide walks you round the walls of the Aragonese castle and down to the harbour, and lunch is fish by the sea. In the afternoon we drive to Punta Palascìa, the most easterly point of mainland Italy, where on a clear day the mountains of Albania show across the strait. Then north along the cliffs to Roca, where we stop at the Grotta della Poesia, a round sinkhole in the limestone open to the sky with the sea flowing in beneath, and walk the cliff edge past the ruins of the old fortified town. Swimming is not allowed in the cave; we come to look.

Soir

Back in Lecce, we end with a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Otranto with your guide: the cathedral and its mosaic floor, the castle walls and the harbour
• Lunch in Otranto
• Punta Palascìa, the most easterly point of mainland Italy
• The Grotta della Poesia at Roca, with the entry ticket
• Farewell dinner in Lecce

Lecce to Brindisi Airport

Lecce to Brindisi Airport (BDS), or by train to Bari

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

A last breakfast in Lecce, and if your flight is later, time for a pasticciotto, the custard-filled pastry the city eats in the morning, and a final walk through the old town. Your guide sees the group to Brindisi Airport (BDS), about 40 minutes away, with a transfer leaving mid-morning; book a flight leaving after about 12:30 pm. Brindisi connects through Rome, Milan and other European hubs for the flight home. If you are flying from Bari instead, we book you on a train from Lecce to Bari Centrale, about an hour and a half to two hours, and you take the airport train from there: tell us when you book, and plan on a flight after about 3 pm. If you want to stay longer in the Salento, or carry on to the Amalfi Coast on the other side of the country, ask us and we can add nights in Lecce or connect you to our Amalfi Coast trip.

Compris

• Drop-off at Brindisi Airport (BDS), or a train ticket from Lecce to Bari Centrale