Puglia's Beautiful Coast and Cities

This part of the country is a wonderful base from which to explore Italy‘s ‘boot’ with charming countryside and coastline all within easy reach. Rows of knarled olive trees lead down to the sea, Inland there are the pretty towns of Alberobello, Locorotondo, Cisternina and Martina Franca. Further north are the seaside towns of Monopoli and Polignano del Mara and to the south, the magical white city of Ostuni.

Lecce is arguably Puglia’s most handsome city, with imposing baroque architecture and a grand, stately feel. Although it is one of the region’s biggest cities, it still has plenty of charm and lots of hidden corners to discover. You’ll get to enjoy an enlightening tour of the city and learn why it is known as the ‘Florence of the south’.

Whether you choose to hop on a bike and explore the pretty streets, relax at the private beach club, take a cooking class or simply sit back and enjoy delicious Italian food and aperativo in a garden, you’ll be utterly charmed by hilltop town of Bernalda.

Matera is a UNESCO World Heritage site, perched high on a beautiful hillside and characterised by cave dwellings. The town is divided into two sections, Sasso Barisano and Sasso Caveoso; sassi means stone in Italian and refers to these clusters of stone dwellings. At first sight, the town looks like a jumble of faded stone huts but behind the facades are simple caves, inhabited since Paleolithic times. You’ll also come across lots of churches, known as rupestrian churches, carved into the rock face and used by Basilian monks fleeing persecution during the reign of the Byzantine Empire.