A Welcome Covid Escape to Enchanting Puglia

Escape to Puglia

It’s been a frustrating year of covid lockdowns and travel restrictions, at times I was not even able to leave the city I live in. But in the beginning of October 2020, when restrictions were temporarily relaxed a bit, a friend of mine and I managed to escape for 10 days to the beautiful region of Puglia in Italy. It was the perfect trip to take in some amazing scenery, enjoy some delicious food and simply recharge our batteries before that next wave of covid restrictions hit us.

Puglia is located in the heel of Italy, it’s been one of the poorer regions of Italy, known for its endless olive orchards and agriculture. It is dotted with picturesque white washed villages, stunning masserias – large farm houses that nowadays often have been turned into boutique hotels and wedding venues – and fairytale like little trulli houses. The coastline is wild and rugged and with it’s turquoise waters oh so beautiful!

We traveled from Bari to Locorotondo, visited Alberobello, then traveled via Fasano to Monopoli and Polignano a Mari, visited Brindisi on a daytrip and traveled back to Bari, all by public transport. It’s definitely much easier to rent a car and drive around but it is doable to travel by train and bus if renting a car is not an option for you, just be prepared to be flexible cause buses and trains may not keep to their time schedules or to their routes!!

The weather in Puglia when we visited at the beginning of October was a bit mixed, we had some lovely sunny days, but also some really grey, rainy and cold days. And because it was the end of the summer season and also because of covid restrictions it was probably much less busy than normal.

Places like Locorotondo seemed pretty much deserted, but other places like Alberobello and Polignano a Mare were still pretty lively! And as wonderful as Puglia is, I’m not sure if I’d ever want to visit when tourist season is in full swing, I think it would be very touristy and overly crowded.

Locorotondo & Alberobello

Locorotondo is a beautiful little town in the middle of the countryside. And I think it would be really amazing to do a nice cycling trip in the country around Locorotondo and maybe visit some masserias. We didn’t get the chance to do that because of our limited time there and I think the bike rental places were closed because of covid too. But the countryside there is gorgeous!

But we did take a day trip to Alberobello by train. It’s very easy, it’s just 10 minutes by train from Locorotondo. It’s not a big town, but it’s definitely worth it to spend a few hrs there. It’s just so cute with all its white washed trulli houses. They look like little fairy houses with their symbols painted on the roofs.

*Alberobello with it’s lovely trulli houses*

Monopoli & Polignano a Mare

From Locorotondo we traveled to Monopoli where we stayed for a couple of days. It’s a lovely seaside town.

Monopoli Sunset — *The harbour in Monopoli & the sunset from the rooftop of our AirBnB apartment there*

But I really loved the time we spent in Polignano a Mare. Originally our plan was to just visit it on a day trip from Monopoli but because my cousin unexpectedly happened to be staying in Polignano a Mare we changed our plans, stayed just a few days in Monopoli and then 5 more days in Polignano a Mare. And we were so glad we did! Nothing wrong with Monopoli, I’m glad I visited it but Polignano a Mare is just a little bit more cosy, the perfect place to relax.

Brindisi

From Polignano a Mare we took the train to Brindisi for a day trip. To be honest, we would have preferred to visit Ostuni, but it was just a bit too tricky to get there by public transport. But Brindisi was lovely too. I wouldn’t call it a must-see, but we had a nice walk there and visited the Museo Archeologica and the Tempio di San Giovanni al Sepolcro.

Food

If there’s one thing you can be sure about when traveling to Italy is that the food will be amazing! Puglia is one of Italy’s more poor regions and that is reflected in the traditional foods of the region. Dishes are made with simple but tasty ingredients.

There’s Orecchiette con Cime di Rape (ear shaped pasta with rapini/turnip tops), burrata cheese, taralli (little o-shaped crunchy bread rings), tiella (baked potatoes, rice, tomato and mussels), lots and lots of seafood, the most amazing pizzas, pasticciotto (a pastry filled with custard) and of course gelato on every street corner! Yum!