Puglia, Italy 2025

The Ryanair flight from Albania brought us to Bari Airport. We caught a train to Bari Centrale and then another onto Lecce. The trains were comfortable and almost on-time. We had an apartment organized that was next to the Lecce cathedral so orientation was simple; aim for the cathedral tower.   Catharine had recommended the accommodation ("Charming apt with Baroque View") and we were quite pleased with the unit. The almost 70 steps up from street level was a bonus built-in stair master. We were met by Lori, who gave us a tour of the unit and various instructions, all in Italian. We understood the gist of it. We saw a little bit of Lecce that afternoon, but mostly on the way to and from the Conad supermarket.

The Lecce old city is beautiful. The Baroque limestone buildings invite walking around and around the city. That is exactly what we did on our first full day in Lecce. I tracked our walk at 13km the first day. We weren't the only tourists in town. We tried a Puglia style sandwich for lunch, and well, it was like a sandwich. For dinner, we tried the pizza at Ciro, considered one of the better pizza places in town. Alas, we didn't think that it was as good as pizza we'd had in Montenegro or Albania, but what do we know? 

We had another full day in Lecce, that was meant to be more of a rest day, but we still clocked 11km on foot. We made sure all our laundry was done because it would another 5 days before we'd have easy access to a washing machine.

We were at the Salento Bici Tour office by 9:00am and we sorted out the e-bikes that we had reserved and left a couple of small bags behind with them. The operation seemed friendly but quite professional. We were on the road by 9:30am. We were armed with a gpx and maps on our phones, with a destination of the coastal city of Otranto.

We made our way out to the coast on quiet side roads to the Riserva Naturale Le Cesine. We followed the coast line on the SP366 as far as Torre dell'Orso, with more traffic than we wished for. Thereafter, the route kept us on small roads through olive trees and fallow fields. When we reached busy Otranto, I contacted our host, Giorgia and she organized us at Camere Sulle Mura. I hadn't indicated that we were on bicycles, but the ground floor room was not booked, so we stored our bikes there. Otranto was humming on  the Sunday evening and we joined in with the crowds and walked the waterfront area. The ride was 65km with a minimal 100m of ascent.

Sheila had some issues with her bike seat as it kept loosening and slipping. We didn't have any luck with tightening a  stripped bolt, so I sent a message to Salento Bici, inquiring if they had a contact in Otranto who could help. They offered to send a driver down with a replacement seat. However, I worked at the stubborn bolt that evening and it held up for the remainder of the bike trip.

The breakfast included with our lodging was a credit at a waterfront coffee shop. We could have started the day with gelato, but opted for coffee and baked goods. We were all fired up with sugar and caffeine  to make a small detour south of Otranto for a walk too see a "bauxite lake", an old quarry site, hmmm. The riding improved as the SP87 approached the coast and coastal riding became the theme of the day. We  rolled past a number of porto's and torre's  with cactus growing alongside the road.  We opted for a steep detour to upper Castro, but the highlight of the day was another detour down to Marina Serra natural pool for a mid-day swim. We trundled along the up and downs of the Adriatic coast without issue on e-bikes. 

We checked into Villa Ines B&B in Leuca and our host, Mario, sat down with us and briefed us on the local scene. That prompted us to ride back up the hill to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria at the "world's end". If the pope visited the church, surely, we should pop over to it. It was the busiest place we had been all day and we rewarded ourselves with gelatos on our return down the hill into town. Later in the evening, we ate at the Osteria La Sagrestia. 

The ride from Otranto to Leuca totalled 72km with side trips and 700m of ascent. It was mostly along the Adriatic coastline and it was unquestionably the best riding of our Puglia tour.

Over breakfast at the B&B, Mario encouraged us to ride the coast to Gallipoli because there wasn't anything of interest inland. However, we stuck to the original inland route without regrets. We travelled along small roads through the towns of Castrignano, Patù, Barbarano, Salve and Gemini that didn't have a hint of modern day tourism. After Ugento, we headed for the coast and picked up a bike path that went off and on the SP215, leading us to Gallipoli. We crossed over the bridge into the old city and located our accommodation of B&B Palazzo Barba.

The Palazzo was another accommodation recommended by Catharine and it was a winner. The heritage apartment oozed with charm and character with a view to the harbour. Gallipoli had a fair number of tourists at the end of October, but no doubt much less than in the main season. That evening, we opted for pizza at Valentina 2.0 where the chef had been gone to "pizza university", so our expectations were high. Alas, the pizza did not reach the lofty heights established in Albania.

The ride from Leuca to Gallipoli via the inland route was 66km with almost 300m of ascent.

Breakfast at the Palazzo was served after 8:00am. We had our coffee making gear that allowed us to enjoy the sunrise from our atmospheric room with a cup of filtered coffee. Our host served up a full breakfast and we were out on the street by a little after 9:00am. First, we rode the coastal road around the old city, then we set out for a half-day ride inland to Tuglie. We rode through Alezio and then reached Tuglie and enjoyed the narrow streets. Our main goal was to reach the Provenzano Tuglie for gelato, so you can imagine our disappointment to see the ice cream section completely empty. We returned to Gallipoli for lunch at the Santi e Massari  restaurant. We had enough time to then wander the old city and by 4:00pm, Sheila was in the water at the town beach. We rode a modest 35km with 100m of ascent.

We had a day of logistics ahead of us and opted to skip the Pallazo breakfast so we self-catered and we were rolling before 7:00am. We followed the coastline north as far as Santa Caterina and then progressed in a NE direction.  It was mostly quiet rural riding and we passed through Nardo and Copertino to reach a dedicated rural bike path that brought us to the outskirts of Lecce. We dropped the bikes off at Salento Bici and reached the Lecce train station before 11:00am. 

A north-bound train brought us the Fasano station. The  bus journey to Locorotondo from the train is  convoluted and sporadic, so the plan was to take a taxi instead. There were no taxis at the station, but there was a bus there. We found out that we needed tickets that could be purchased at a nearby bar/tabacco shop. The bus brought us to Fasano proper, and still no taxis in sight, so we opted to walk uptown to a different bus stop. We stopped at another bar/tobacco for tickets to Locorotondo and the bus arrived, albeit a little late. We were the only passengers aboard and we reached our destination by 1:30pm. Our apartment was ready for us and with the code, we were in before 2:00pm.

We had time for a little look around Locorotondo and a walk to the well provisioned InterSpar supermarket for self-catering materials. The day had included a 52km ride between Gallipolli and  Lecce (minor amount of ascent of 135m), a train ride,  two bus trips and we had some how navigated purchasing tickets for Italian public transport.  

We had booked two nights in the pleasant Locorotondo apartment and the original plan was to rent bikes to see Martina Franca and Alberobello. However we woke up to a windy, rainy morning. We had a wander around Locorotondo and stumbled upon the weekly market. We then caught a train to Alberobello which has a large concentration of Trulli buildings. Alberobello also had a large concentration of tourists, and that did not encourage us to linger. We were back on a train to Locorotondo before noon. The weather had improved and we had plenty of time to wander the white tufa stoned Locorotondo in the afternoon. 

Travelling around southern Italy by the non-integrated  public transport system can be somewhat confusing.  Our next destination was Matera, slightly over an hour's drive west of  Locorotondo. We didn't have a car. So we took the train north to Bari Centrale. The  train to Matera was not operating that particular day, so we took another train to the Bari airport and caught a bus to Matera. Fortunately, I had purchased the bus tickets in advance on-line because the bus left the airport full leaving a number of ticketless  people behind.  We arrived at our rental apartment by 1:00pm and our host Sergio arrived shortly thereafter. We were masters of the Italian transport system!

The apartment seemed large enough for a bowling alley  and it was very close to the action. Our host, Sergio, gave us an overview and a suggested 2 day itinerary for Matera. The old town was heaving with visitors, but mostly Italians, so it had an fun buzz. We were on our feet for the next three and half hours wandering around the sometimes surreal old part of Matera.  The city is chocker block full of ancient cave dwellings carved into the limestone cliffs; it is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited settlements.

We had a full in Matera and were out the door by 8:00am. In the morning, we walked down into the pit, then across the river and up for views of the city. In the afternoon, we stayed higher up and wore ourselves out even more. We somehow  summoned the energy to walk around in evening as well.

On our final full day in Italy, we had time in the morning for a short walk in Matera  before heading for the bus stop and a return drive to the Bari airport. We had an apartment booked nearby, and discovered there were no short cuts out of the airport area. We stopped at the popular cafeteria  in Supermercato Famila and had a delicious lunch before proceeding to  the nearby apartment for an early check-in at 1:30pm.