When friends tell us they’re heading to Puglia, the plan usually sounds the same: a night in a trullo, a burrata as big as a fist, beach and a swim somewhere turquoise.
Excellent plan if you’ve got just couple of days in summer!
Yet, this just covers a small slice of what the heel of Italy’s boot has in store!
Puglia is a region we know pretty well (Isa is from here:)), and over the years we have driven it up and down with our van several times, testing pretty much everything it has to offer 🙂
So here we thought of writing this article with 10 unique attractions in Puglia that deserve a spot on your bucket list.
Between those, you’ll find a very geometrical castle, a cave where Dante’s Inferno comes to life, a red lake that looks like Mars and what I believe to be the clearest water in Italy!
I’ve put them in order from north to south, so you can follow them like a road trip.
Notice that Puglia is a veeeery long region: from Vieste to Gallipoli it takes almost 5 hours of driving!
So don’t try to squeeze all ten into a long weekend: pick a few, and give each one the time it deserves 🙂
Ready? Let’s go! 🙂
In this article:
1. Meet Pizzomunno:
the Stone Lover of Vieste!
Let’s start up north, in the Gargano, the rocky “spur” of Italy’s boot.
Here, if you’d drive to its edge, you will find the city of Vieste, a pictoresque town build on top of a cliff.
At the town’s feet, there is a HUGE 3km, extremely wide beach perfect for everyone, children and adults alike, with stretches of organised lidos alternated to free wild beach.
At the end of a 3-kilometer beach of fine sand, stands Pizzomunno: a white limestone monolith about 25 meters tall, planted on the sand as if someone forgot it there.
Locals will tell you it isn’t just a rock…
According to the legend, Pizzomunno was a young fisherman in love with a girl called Cristalda.
One day, some jealous sirens, dragged her into the sea, drowned and she never returned.
Still, he kept waiting for her on this beach for so long that he turned to stone.
The story is so loved here that the Italian singer Max Gazzè brought it to Sanremo, Italy’s biggest music festival, in 2018 🙂
Once you’ve said hello to Pizzomunno and bathed in Vieste’s shallow waters, be sure to walk up into Vieste’s old town, perched on a rock above the sea.
It is an absolut maze of white alleys and steps, and close to the cathedral you will find the Chianca Amara, in English the “bitter stone”.
Tradition says this is where the inhabitants were executed when Ottoman pirates sacked the town in 1554. Heavy story, but stunning view!
Traveling with kids? The beach of Pizzomunno is perfect: shallow water, sand made for castles and plenty of space for everyone (we talk about it in our guide to the best beaches in Puglia).
Last but not least, if you’d drive a bit east of Vieste, on the coastal road towards Peschici, keep an eye out for the trabucchi, the old wooden fishing machines standing on stilts over the sea.
If you fall in love with them, we wrote a whole guide on the Trabocchi Coast in Abruzzo, just a bit further north too 😉
2. Enjoy the Bella Vita in the
Picturesque Port of Bisceglie
Mention Bisceglie to a foreign traveler and you’ll probably get a blank stare.
That’s exactly why we love it xDxDxD😄
Bisceglie is a seaside town between Bari and Trani, and its beating heart is an old, circular, medieval-looking port.
Small fishing boats still bob in the harbor, fishermen sell the catch of the day early in the morning, and right behind the water rises the old town, with a magnificient Norman cathedral and narrow stone alleys where I personally got lost more than once 😉
This is the place to do what Apulians do best: nothing in particular, and slowly.
I spent months in Bisceglie, and it bugs me how life can be so damn slow here.
Waking up late, get a coffee, go buy something which takes ages because alleys are narrow but still everybody takes his own car to do 20 meters because, as I jokingly created the saying, “the Biscegliese don’t walk!”…and then another coffee, check out the local market, another coffee with someone else…and din,don, it’s 14.00, time for lunch, see you at 17.00… stroll by the port with half the town, coffee in the city centre, start eating again, and the day is over!🤣🤣
Everything goes soooo slow here, but I believe that for a foreign visitor this is exactly what a cool experience in Apulia could be.
If you visit here, remember to try raw seafood (a specialty of this Italian province!) and find a Sospiro di Bisceglie (literally, a “sigh”). A “sospiro” is a a small dome of sponge cake filled with custard and covered in a thin sugar glaze, and it has been a Slow Food Presidium since 2014 :))
The name comes with a legend (as most things around here lol).
Lucrezia Borgia’s husband, Alfonso of Aragon, was the Duke of Bisceglie, and the story goes that the local nuns baked these sweets for a wedding party in town. The bride never showed up, the guests got tired of waiting and, sigh after sigh, they ate all the sweets. 🙂
3. Count the Eights at
Castel del Monte
Have you ever looked closely at an Italian 1-cent coin?
The castle on the back is Castel del Monte, and seeing it for real, alone on top of a hill in the Murgia, is a whole other story.
Emperor Frederick II had it built around 1240, and here’s the twist: nobody knows exactly why. There’s no moat, no drawbridge, none of the things you’d expect from a fortress.
What it does have is an obsession with the number eight. The building is an octagon, with eight octagonal towers, around an octagonal courtyard.
Hunting lodge? Astronomical calendar? A stone riddle left behind by an emperor nicknamed “Stupor Mundi”, the wonder of the world?
Historians are still debating it. It’s been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, so if it leaves you confused, you’re in very good company.
Quick Tip: Go in the late afternoon. The light turns the pale limestone golden, and walking around the walls while you count the towers is half the fun.
4. Watch the Orecchiette Ladies
at Work in Bari Vecchia
In Bari’s old town there’s a narrow street that everyone simply calls “the orecchiette street”: Via Arco Basso.
Here, old women still today sit at wooden tables right outside their front doors.
They cut the dough with a knife and, with a quick flick of the thumb, turn it into orecchiette (“little ears”), Puglia’s most famous pasta. They’re hands are surprisingly fast, often faster than people’s cameras! 🙂
Most of them sell bags of pasta to take home, and dried orecchiette travel well (way better than another fridge magnet…although they also make orecchiette magnets!).
One honest note, though: in 2024 a video went viral accusing some sellers of passing off industrial pasta as handmade, and it became a national case. So my advice would be to buy from the ones you actually see making it, right in front of you!
While you’re in Bari Vecchia, also remember to step into the Basilica of San Nicola.
In 1087, a crew of sailors from Bari reached Myra, in today’s Turkey, and brought back here the relics of Saint Nicholas.
Yes, that Saint Nicholas: the bishop who inspired the legend of Santa Claus.
So, technically, Santa rests in Puglia (but no worries kids, we are joking, we know he is alive and well in Lapland! We meet him also! 🎅
Last but not least, if you visit Bari don’t miss out rewarding yourself with a slice of focaccia barese, a super-cheap, super-oily, super-yummy snack to walk around with! 🙂
5. Swim Below the Cliffs
of Polignano a Mare
If you’ve scrolled through Instagram at least once in your life, you’ve probably already seen Polignano a Mare: a white town sitting on top of limestone cliffs, with a tiny pebble cove squeezed between two walls of rock and water so turquoise it looks edited.
That cove is Lama Monachile (also called Cala Porto), and you reach it by walking down under an old bridge, right in the middle of town.
It’s small, it’s all pebbles, and by late morning in summer it’s packed like you don’t see the beach anymore, so go early or late in the evening!
Polignano is also the hometown of Domenico Modugno, the man who sang “Volare”.
His statue stands on the seafront with arms wide open, and to get there, there is a long street where the words of the song are written every 30 meters…so it only becomes natural to walk there and sing “vooooooolare, ooooh ooooh, cantaaaaare, ooooooooooooooOoOoOoh!” xD
Here’s something most visitors don’t expect: Polignano has hosted the Red Bull Cliff Diving many times since 2009. The best divers in the world jump from a terrace 27 meters above the sea, right over the cove, while the whole town watches from the rocks and from boats. If your trip falls on competition days, don’t miss it!
And for a dinner you’ll talk about for years, Polignano is famous for its restaurants carved into the rock.
The most iconic one, Grotta Palazzese, is literally inside a sea cave (book well in advance).
More tips on the cove? You’ll find them in our guide to the most beautiful beaches in Puglia.
6. Descend into Dante’s Inferno
in the Caves of Castellana
.jpg?width=1400 "La Grave, the huge entrance cavern of the Grotte di Castellana in Puglia")
On 23 January 1938, a speleologist named Franco Anelli was lowered into a huge hole in the ground near the town of Castellana.
The cavern below was so big that his acetylene lamp couldn’t even light up the walls.
He had just found one of the most spectacular cave systems in Italy.
That first giant chamber is called La Grave: about 60 meters deep, with a single opening in the ceiling where a beam of daylight falls into the dark.
From there, the caves continue for about 3 kilometers of stalactites, stalagmites and underground halls, all the way to the Grotta Bianca, the White Cave, so bright and crystalline that it’s often called one of the most beautiful caves in the world.
There are two guided tours: a short one of about 1 km (around 1 hour) and a full one of about 3 km (around 2 hours) that reaches the White Cave. If you have the time, go for the full one. The White Cave alone is worth it.
Now, the part that makes Castellana unique.
On selected evenings, the Grave becomes the stage of Hell in the Cave, a show inspired by Dante’s Inferno: actors, dancers, music and lights, 60 meters underground, with the audience walking among the damned souls.
Can you imagine a better stage for Dante’s Hell than a cave deep under the Earth? 😄 The show is an absolute blast, incredibly immersive, scary at times, but so artistic and inspireful!
Quick Tip: It stays cool down there all year, so bring a light jacket even in August, and wear shoes with good grip because the paths can be wet. Hell in the Cave only runs on certain dates, so check the calendar on the official website before you plan your evening.
7. Wander the Trulli
of Alberobello
Yes, it’s the most famous stop in Puglia.
And yes, it deserves a spot in the top 10, although it takes less than 2 hours to visit it all:)
Alberobello is the kingdom of the trulli: whitewashed houses with cone-shaped stone roofs, built without any mortar.
Its two trulli districts have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
Why no mortar?
The story goes that in the 1600s the local count, to avoid paying taxes to the Kingdom of Naples on new buildings, made the peasants build dry-stone houses that could be taken apart in a few hours whenever the royal inspectors came by.
A 17th-century tax trick that ended up on the UNESCO list. Only in Italy! 😅
Once there, looking up at the cones you will notice white symbols painted on many of them: religious, pagan and astrological signs whose meaning is still debated!
The secret to enjoying Alberobello is choosing where to walk.
Rione Monti, the hillside postcard district, is packed with souvenir shops.
Our tip is to start from Aia Piccola instead, on the other side of the main road: it’s smaller, quieter and people still live there. Go early in the morning, before the tour buses arrive, and don’t miss the Trullo Sovrano, the only two-story trullo in town.
Alberobello is also about an hour’s drive from Matera, the City of Stone, just across the border in Basilicata (here’s our guide to visiting Matera).
If you don’t feel like driving the narrow country roads of the Murgia, some Italy tour packages combine the trulli and Matera in the same trip, with transfers and a tour leader handling the logistics, so you can keep your eyes on the cones instead of on Google Maps.
8. Get Lost in the Alleys
of Ostuni, the White City
About 40 minutes from Alberobello, you’ll spot it from far away: a hill completely covered in white houses, rising above a sea of olive trees!
That’s Ostuni, “La Città Bianca”, the White City.
Why so white?
The houses are painted with lime, which was cheap, made the narrow alleys brighter and, according to the most popular explanation, worked as a disinfectant during the plague epidemics of the past.
Today the town keeps the tradition alive, and the old center still shines like a sugar cube in the sun.
The best way to visit Ostuni is to have no plan at all, just get LOST!!
Climb the steps, follow the alleys, get lost on purpose, and sooner or later you’ll end up in front of the Cathedral, with its huge rose window, at the top of the hill.
Now a fun fact few visitors know: in a cave near Ostuni, archaeologists found “Delia”, a young woman who lived about 28,000 years ago and was buried while pregnant. Her story is told in the Museum of Pre-Classical Civilizations in the old town, and it’s one of those things that make you stop and think for a minute.
Before leaving, look down at the plain between Ostuni and the sea. It’s full of monumental olive trees, many of them centuries old, with twisted trunks that look like sculptures.
9. Walk on Mars at the
Bauxite Quarry near Otranto
We discovered this place by chance, thanks to some Apulian friends who made us take an unplanned stop while we were driving along the coast.
We parked the van, walked for 5-10 minutes and suddenly found ourselves… on another planet!
Picture this: red earth carved by the rain, green Mediterranean bushes all around and, in the middle, a small lake that changes from emerald green to deep blue depending on where you look. This is the Bauxite Quarry (Cava di Bauxite), just outside Otranto.
Technically, humans made it.
Bauxite, the rock aluminum comes from, was discovered here in the 1940s and mined until 1976, then shipped all the way to Marghera, near Venice.
The rock turned out to be poor in aluminum, the quarry was abandoned and groundwater slowly filled the pit. Nature took back what humans left behind, and did a much better job.
It’s free, and from Otranto you can even walk there in 25-30 minutes.
Half an hour is enough to walk all around the pond, so count about an hour in total, including the time you’ll spend staring with your mouth open.
Quick Tip: Don’t wear white shoes. The red dust won’t come off (we learned it the hard way 😉). And officially, swimming in the pond isn’t allowed (although somebody did it!).
While you’re there, don’t skip Otranto itself: its cathedral has a huge 12th-century mosaic floor where, among zodiac signs and mythical beasts, you can even spot King Arthur riding what looks like a goat!
Everything you need to plan your visit (parking, how to get there, the 4K drone video) is in our full guide to the Bauxite Quarry near Otranto.
10. Float in Italy’s Clearest Water
at Baia Verde, Gallipoli
I saved my favorite for last.
I’ve been coming to Baia Verde since I was a kid, and I’ll say it without fear: for me, this is the clearest, most crystalline water in all of Italy. Period.
Walking into it feels like stepping into a swimming pool, except the pool is the Ionian Sea.
Baia Verde (“Green Bay”) is a 2-kilometer stretch of white sand just south of Gallipoli. When I was little, it was a quiet spot for families. Today it’s a lively place loved by young people, with lidos, beach bars, volleyball courts and music until late. But go for a swim in the morning, and the magic is exactly the same.
Practical tip: Baia Verde has a limited traffic zone (ZTL), and parking near the beach in July and August can be a nightmare. The easiest option is to park on the road near the Hotel Costa Brada, at the southern end of the beach, and walk in.
Then spend the evening in Gallipoli’s old town, built on a small island connected to the mainland by a bridge. Its name comes from the Greek Kallipolis, “beautiful city”, and when the sun drops into the Ionian Sea, you’ll understand why.
Want more beaches like this one? Here’s our list of the 10 best beaches in Puglia and how to reach them.
Conclusion
And here we come at the end of this article! 🙂
From the stone lover of Vieste to the pool-like water of Baia Verde, these 10 unique attractions in Puglia show you a side of the region that a quick trip between trulli and beach clubs usually misses.
- Have you ever been to Puglia?
- Which of these places would you put first on your list?
- And do you know a hidden gem we should add?
Let us know in the comments below! 😀
If you’re planning a trip to the south of Italy, these articles will help you too: our guide to the best beaches in Puglia, the Bauxite Quarry near Otranto, Matera, the City of Stone, our 10-day itinerary to travel Italy like a local and 100 interesting fun facts about Italy.
Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article! 🙂
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