Tour guides Italy > Puglia

5 ideas for guided tours in Puglia

• The Gargano Natural Park

  

  On the edge of the Adriatic, Gargano National Park juts out like a vast green peninsula — limestone cliffs on one side, wooded hills on the other. The winding roads shift from deep forest to bright coves, giving you the sense of crossing from one world into another. The contrast is as intriguing as it is inviting.

  The Foresta Umbra holds a dense, almost dreamlike atmosphere. The tightly packed trunks filter the light, and the air stays cool even in the hottest hours. You can walk for a long time here, accompanied only by the rustle of leaves and the distant call of a jay.

  Closer to the coast, Vieste and Peschici perch above the cliffs, their white houses clustered together, alleys dropping down toward the sea. The beaches alternate with coves best reached by boat — pale sand, water shifting shades of blue. The setting lingers in memory, both rugged and luminous.

• Polignano a Mare

  

  On the edge of the Adriatic, Gargano National Park juts out like a vast green peninsula — limestone cliffs on one side, wooded hills on the other. The winding roads shift from deep forest to bright coves, giving you the sense of crossing from one world into another. The contrast is as intriguing as it is inviting.

  The Foresta Umbra holds a dense, almost dreamlike atmosphere. The tightly packed trunks filter the light, and the air stays cool even in the hottest hours. You can walk for a long time here, accompanied only by the rustle of leaves and the distant call of a jay.

  Closer to the coast, Vieste and Peschici perch above the cliffs, their white houses clustered together, alleys dropping down toward the sea. The beaches alternate with coves best reached by boat — pale sand, water shifting shades of blue. The setting lingers in memory, both rugged and luminous.

• Alberobello and the trulli

  

  On the limestone hills of Puglia, Alberobello amazes with its maze of trulli — round, whitewashed houses topped with conical roofs. The whole scene feels like an old drawing, almost unreal, revealed slowly as you wander through. Each alley offers a new detail, a low doorway, a symbol carved into stone.

  Some trulli now house cafés or small shops, the air filled with the smell of strong coffee and still-warm taralli. The Museo del Territorio shows these buildings in another light — not just as charming backdrops but as real homes of the past. Thick walls, tiny openings, everything was designed to keep the heat at bay.

  A little further away, the Aia Piccola district stays quieter, less visited. Here, the houses are still lived in, laundry hanging from windows, children playing in the streets. You feel that life continues behind the white facades.

  To leave the stone streets and find open space again, just follow a country path. The hikes in Puglia lead you through olive groves, dry fields, and crumbling stone walls. Alberobello then becomes part of a larger landscape — a memory woven of both village and countryside.

• Castellana Caves

  

  In the Puglian countryside, the Castellana Caves open beneath an otherwise ordinary stretch of limestone ground. The entrance plunges you straight into darkness — sudden cool air, the smell of damp stone. You descend slowly, step by step, into an underground world shaped by time.

  The galleries stretch for several kilometers, alternating between narrow corridors and vast chambers. Stalactites meet stalagmites, forming columns frozen in their millennial growth. In places, the rock takes on strange, almost familiar shapes, revealed in the glow of the lamps.

  The chamber known as the Grave is striking for its opening to the surface, letting natural light reach the floor. Farther along, the route leads to evocatively named caverns such as the White Cave, where calcite gleams with every glint of light. The silence magnifies every step, every whisper.

  Back outside, the contrast is startling — dry heat and a brilliant sky after the depths’ shadow. Not far away, Alberobello and its trulli offer another kind of stone heritage, this time bathed in sunlight. The Castellana Caves leave you with a dense impression, a closed world that lingers in memory.

• Torre dell Orso

  

  On the Adriatic coast of Salento, Torre dell’Orso offers a long, pale beach framed by low cliffs. The fine sand slopes gently into the water, and the pine trees behind provide a bit of shade at midday. You settle in without hurry, lulled by the steady sound of the waves.

  Just offshore, the famous Two Sisters rise from the sea, rocks standing like motionless silhouettes. Small boats circle these limestone columns, drawing close so you can watch the green and blue reflections mingle around them. It’s a small detail of the landscape, yet one that stays in memory.

  A few kilometers away, the Grotta della Poesia draws visitors — a natural pool carved into the rock, its clear water inviting you to dive. Farther south, Otranto still keeps its fortress-like air, with narrow streets and its gaze turned toward nearby Albania. The contrasts along this coast follow one another with no clear break.