Naples & Puglia

BA 526 arrives. Through arrivals, taxi or bus to hotel — ~45 min.

Via Carbonara 112. Check-in from 15:00.

The great straight street through the old city — street shrines, market stalls, organised chaos. Just minutes from the hotel. Best experienced slowly on foot.

Pizzeria Gino Sorbillo — Via dei Tribunali 32 (5 min walk). Arrive 10 min before opening. Try the Margherita DOC.
L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele — Via Cesare Sersale. Cash only. Margherita or Marinara only. No bookings. The legendary pilgrimage option.

The world's greatest collection of Graeco-Roman art — all the finest finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Plan 3 hours.
Highlights: Farnese Bull, Alexander Mosaic, Pompeii frescoes, Secret Cabinet (erotic art — fine for 17+).
Metro Line 1 to Museo stop, or 15 min walk from hotel.

The authentic neighbourhood just north of MANN. Concettina ai Tre Santi (Via Arena alla Sanità 7) — creative Neapolitan pizza, less touristy than the Via dei Tribunali spots. Book ahead.
Or grab street food: frittatina di pasta (fried pasta cake) or a cuoppo from any friggitoria.

Piazza San Gaetano 68. 90-minute guided tour through 2,400-year-old Greek tunnels, Roman cisterns, and WWII shelters. Genuinely fascinating — and about 15°C underground, so bring a layer.
Book English session in advance: booking.napolisotterranea.org — €15/adult.

Grid of narrow streets west of Spaccanapoli — Maradona shrines, washing lines, cheap trattorias. Street food dinner: pizza a portafoglio, fried zeppole, arancini. Gelato wherever the locals are queuing.

Early start is essential — Pompeii is fully exposed and 35°C+ by midday.

Sorrento line. ~40 min to Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri. Trains every 20–30 min. €2.80pp (free if Artecard includes transport).

Guide options: Private guide recommended (~€120–180 for the group, 2–2.5 hrs) — worth it for a history-focused group and keeps you on schedule. Book via pompeiitourguides.com or Viator. Or download the free Rick Steves Audio Europe app before you go — genuinely good self-guide backup.

Highlights route: Forum → Stabian Baths → Lupanar → House of the Vettii → Garden of the Fugitives → Villa of the Mysteries (don't skip this — extraordinary frescoes, included in Pompeii+).

Bring: lots of water, hats, sunscreen. Almost no shade inside.

~20–25 min. 10-min downhill walk to Herculaneum entrance.

Quick stop near the station before heading into the site.

Smaller, better preserved, far less crowded, more sheltered — and many who've done both say it's the more affecting experience. Buried under volcanic mud rather than ash: wood, fabric, and organic materials survived.

Highlights: Boat Houses (hundreds of skeletons), House of Neptune & Amphitrite (finest mosaic in either site), the intact thermopolium (Roman street food counter), Suburban Baths.

~20 min. Back at hotel by 17:00. Rest. You've earned it.

The smarter neighbourhood, 15 min walk from hotel. Da Ettore (Via Santa Lucia 56) for old-school trattoria and seafood pasta. Or La Stanza del Gusto for something more modern with a good wine list.
Late stroll to Castel dell'Ovo (free, great Vesuvius views at dusk) if energy permits.

Vico Ferrovia 2, near Piazza Garibaldi. Best sfogliatelle in the city, fresh from the oven. Queue. Buy several. Eat immediately. This is non-negotiable.

Historic café near Piazza Plebiscito. Touristy but worth one visit. Stand at the bar.

~3.5–4 hours via A3 and A16 motorways. Arrive Ceglie Messapica ~16:00 — in time for Airbnb check-in at 16:00.

Contrada Pisciacalze, Ceglie Messapica. Unpack slowly. The drive from Naples is long — take the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

Whitewashed lanes, the 15th-century castle, Piazza Plebiscito. Small but charming — a 30-min wander to orient yourselves.

Cibus — Via Chianche di Scarano 7, Ceglie. Booked: 19:30, 31 July. Family-run, hyper-local, their own cellar in the rock beneath. Order the antipasti spread (bombette, burrata, fave e cicoria).

One of the Borghi più belli d'Italia — circular hilltop town with the distinctive cummerse (pitched-roof) houses. Park outside the walls and walk in.

Loop the ring road for the Valle d'Itria panorama — trulli scattered across vineyards as far as you can see. Chiesa Madre di San Giorgio at the centre. The whole place is small enough to do properly in 90 minutes.

15 min drive to Cisternino. The town is famous for its fornelli pronti — butcher shops that grill your chosen meat on the spot. Pick from the counter, sit down, they cook it. Zio Pietro (Via Duca degli Abruzzi) is the classic. Bombette (pork rolls stuffed with cheese) are the regional specialty — invented here.

An early easy day. Resist the urge to push it on day one. The afternoon heat is brutal and the rhythm of Puglia is built around long lunches and 16:00–18:00 downtime.

Piazza Plebiscito has a couple of bars set out under the castle walls. Local Primitivo or a spritz. Dinner light — focaccia barese from the local panificio, or pizza at Pizzeria Romanelli.

Park at one of the lots on Largo Martellotta. Avoid the touts trying to sell "parking" off the main roads.

1,400+ trulli on the south slope. Climb to Chiesa di Sant'Antonio at the top for the view back down over the conical rooftops. Most ground floors are now shops — fine for a poke around, but don't get sucked into the souvenir trap.

Piazza Sacramento — the only two-storey trullo, now a small museum. Quick visit (€2, ~20 min) but the only way to see inside a properly furnished one.

Across Largo Martellotta — far less touristed, still residential, the trulli used the way they always were. This is where to slow down and take the photos.

Via Garibaldi 13, just outside the trulli zone. Cucina pugliese, generous portions, locals' lunch spot. Try the orecchiette con cime di rapa — the Pugliese pasta in its definitive form.

Back by 14:30. Heat peak avoided. Evening at home or short walk into Ceglie for gelato.

Park at Piazza della Libertà (or the lots just below it). The old town is pedestrian-only and entirely uphill.

From Piazza della Libertà, climb the spiral of white-painted lanes to the top. Get genuinely lost — the whole place is no more than 500m across and you can't go wrong. Stop for cold drinks under any awning along the way.

15th-century, late-Gothic facade with an enormous rose window. €2 entry. The point is the facade, really — and the view from the parvis out over the olive groves to the sea.

Via Gaetano Tanzarella Vitale 47, inside the old town. Carved into the rock, properly atmospheric, traditional Pugliese. Reserve. Cheaper alternative: Porta Nova for the view (terrace over the olive groves) — the food's fine, you're paying for the panorama.

Optional: drive back into Ostuni for sunset drinks at La Sommità hotel's terrace. The view across to the Adriatic with the white town glowing pink is the famous Ostuni shot. Reserve a table.

Torre Canne — sandy beach, family-friendly, plenty of lidi (paid beach clubs with loungers, umbrellas, bar). Book a lido in advance in August — try Lido Bizzarro or Lido Bahia.
Alternative: Costa Merlata or Pilone for rockier, more dramatic coves north of Ostuni.

The lidi do proper sit-down lunches — fritto misto, spaghetti alle vongole, cold rosé. The Italian beach day is its own thing: arrive 10ish, swim, lunch, doze, swim again, leave 17:00. Embrace it.

Pizza or focaccia locally. You'll be sun-tired.

Via Taranto on the SS7. Park at Parcheggio Via Saragat or Parcheggio Plebiscito — both at the edge of the historic centre, walk down into the Sassi from there.

Start at Piazza Vittorio Veneto for the overlook, then descend. The southern sasso is the rougher, more cinematic half — caves still half-abandoned, the bones of the place that until the 1950s was Italy's "national shame" of cave-dwelling poverty.

A restored cave dwelling as it would have been in 1950 — family, donkey, chickens, all in one room. €5, 15 min, essential context for everything else you'll see.

Cave churches carved into the rock, Byzantine frescoes still visible. Pick one or two — a combined ticket covers several (~€7).

La Lopa (Via Rocco Scotellaro 53) — traditional Lucanian cooking inside the rock, vaulted dining room.
For a splurge: Vitantonio Lombardo — Matera's one-Michelin-star, in a cave. Book well ahead.
Cheap and good: L'Arturo — the famous Matera bread (huge, crusty, unmistakable) makes the best panzerotti.

Under Piazza Vittorio Veneto — a vast underground cistern carved into the rock, 15m deep. €3, 20-min guided. Astonishing. Book at the entrance.

10-min drive across the gorge — the view back at Matera that you've seen in every photograph (and in No Time to Die). Sunset is best but requires staying late. If you can hang on until ~20:00 it's the highlight.

~1h20 back. Light supper at the Airbnb.

Deliberately scheduled. Halfway through. The trip works better with this in.

Pick one of the historic fortified farms and make an afternoon of it — long tasting menus of their own produce, olive oil, cheese, vegetables from the garden.

Masseria Il Frantoio (Ostuni) — 200-year-old olive estate, multi-course lunch from a fixed menu, must book ahead.
Masseria Brancati (Ostuni) — ancient olive trees (some 2,500+ years old), tour + tasting.
Masseria Ferri (Ceglie) — closer, simpler, excellent.

After a 3-hour lunch, nothing planned. Maybe a passeggiata into the centro, maybe just the terrace and a book.

Park at Piazza Aldo Moro (paid). Walk through the arched gate into the old town.

The famous pebble cove between two cliffs, photographed a million times. Tiny — get there early. Swimming here, with the old town rising above, is one of the trip's set-pieces. Bring water shoes.

Piazza Aldo Moro 6. Cult fish sandwich and crudo bar. Stand in the (long) queue, order the polpo or tonno panino. Cheap, brilliant, fast. The pasta room next door is properly sit-down if you want.

Statua di Domenico Modugno (he wrote Volare, he was from here), the balconies over the sea, the painted poems on the steps. Small but pretty. Hour, max.

Far less touristed than Polignano, arguably nicer — a working fishing port with a beautiful walled old town and a swimmable urban beach.

Wander the port, the castle (Castello di Carlo V), and finish with a swim from the small beach right inside the walls. Aperitivo at Casa Cala on the cliffs.

Park at Parcheggio Carlo V or one of the lots just outside the walls — the historic centre is pedestrianised.

Via Salvatore Trinchese 7. Order pasticciotto leccese — the warm shortcrust pastry filled with custard. The Salento's signature breakfast. Eat standing.

The undisputed showpiece of Lecce baroque — facade carved by three generations of stonemasons in the soft local pietra leccese. Sit on the bench opposite and let your eyes wander. €6.

Italy's most theatrical closed piazza — accessed through a single arch, the whole space designed as a single composition. Cathedral, bishop's palace, seminary, bell tower. Climb the bell tower for the rooftop view (~€10).

Via Costadura 19. The classic cucina casareccia — run by aunts, no menu, dishes called out at the table. Ciceri e tria (chickpeas with half-fried pasta) is the Salento classic. Reserve.

The Roman amphitheatre is half-buried in the main square — visible from above for free, a fascinating layered view through 2,000 years.

Lecce's other claim to fame: papier-mâché figurines, a craft tradition for 400 years. A few workshops on Via Vittorio Emanuele II still let you watch. Buy something small.

Negroamaro spritz at Quanto Basta or Caffè Letterario, then home for late dinner. (Or stay for dinner in Lecce if energy holds — Alex Ristorante Wine Bar is the smart-casual option.)

The easternmost town in Italy — Greece is closer than Naples. The drive itself is part of the day: olive groves all the way down.

The whole floor is a 12th-century mosaic — the Tree of Life — running the full length of the nave. Adam & Eve, Alexander the Great, King Arthur, the zodiac, all jumbled together. And in the side chapel: the bones of 800 martyrs killed by Ottoman invaders in 1480. Genuinely unforgettable. Free.

15th-century Aragonese castle, walkable walls, views to Albania on a clear day. Quick wander through the whitewashed old town and the small harbour.

Seafood. Octopus, raw red prawns, spaghetti ai ricci (sea urchin) if it's on. The sea here is the source.

Long white-sand bay with the famous Due Sorelle rock stacks at one end. Adriatic at its clearest. Lidi available; the free beach at either end is fine too. Swim, then doze.

Light dinner at base.

Park near the Quartiere delle Ceramiche — Italy's most concentrated ceramic-making district, working continuously since the Middle Ages.

Wander street by street — every other door is a working studio. Nicola Fasano (Via Crispi) is the most famous; Enza Fasano is the sister studio. Look for the traditional pumi (decorative pinecone finials) and the capasoni (giant terracotta jars). Workshops will pack and ship.

Taranto itself is rough — heavy industry, scarred old town — and not a place to linger. You're here for one thing.

Quick stop — Il Caffè (Via D'Aquino) or any of the lunch spots near the museum. Don't make a meal of it.

Via Cavour 10. The single best Magna Graecia collection in Italy. The Ori di Taranto — gold jewellery from Greek colonial graves, 4th century BC — are extraordinary, some of the finest goldsmithing surviving from antiquity. €8, 2 hours. Pairs beautifully with what you saw at MANN in Naples.

If you loved it on night one — it's just up the road. Otherwise Al Fornello da Ricci for the proper splurge.

Common candidates:

• Last beach day — Costa Merlata or a return to Torre dell'Orso
• Return to Ostuni for a proper unhurried evening
• Cisternino market morning (if it's a market day) + bombette lunch
• Bari old town as a day trip if the appetite for more is still there
• Pool. Just pool. You're allowed.

Early start tomorrow. Pack tonight. Fuel the car (the airport drop-off requires it returned full).

Make this one count. Either return to the favourite of the trip, or — if you haven't been yet — Al Fornello da Ricci (Ceglie, Michelin) is the obvious farewell.

Coffee on the road. Fuel up if not done last night.

AVIS return. Photos of the car at hand-back as protection against post-hire damage claims.

Arrive Heathrow 16:55 BST.