Apulia Highlights Tour – 6 days

Welcome to the warm, beautiful and pleasant city of Bari!

Upon arrival at Bari Airport, please proceed through Passport Control and collect your luggage inside the customs area.

Our Italian-speaking driver will welcome you at the airport.

Transfer to your Matera and drop off at your hotel.

Today meet your driver and departure for Altamura, known throughout Italy and beyond for its famous bread: baked in wood-burning ovens and prepared according to ancient tradition, it has a taste and fragrance that are not easily forgotten, so much so that it became the first baked product in Europe to obtain the PDO mark.

Upon arrival meet your English speaking guide and start your unique and unforgettable bread experience.

Later we drive back to Matera also known as the “City of stones” or the “Underground City”.

Are you ready to take an unforgettable journey through an engaging Matera walking tour?

Today meet your guide at your hotel and start your walking tour. An itinerary to discover the Sassi districts through suggestive alleys and hidden "neighborhoods"! A journey through the history of one of the oldest cities in the world!

The city is a maze of zigzagging staircases, steep lanes,cave dwellings and tiny courtyards: it’s a magical and unique landscape in the world.

During your Matera walking tour, you will discover that Matera is famous all over the world for its archaic structures that constitute one of the oldest existing inhabited centres (since around 15,000 B.C), as well as the first site in southern Italy to be included in the list of World Heritage sites by UNESCO.

Matera is so beautiful and inimitable that high-caliber directors, both Italian and international, have seen in this city a great scenographic potential. With its extraordinary layout, dense with winding alleys, stairways and houses carved into the rock, the Sassi di Matera has become the backdrop for auteur films and major film productions like The Passion of the Christ, Ben Hur or Wonder Woman .

So once in the city, during your Matera walking tour, go along the alleys of the Sassi: you will find houses inserted in ancient caves such as those of Vico Solitario, small rupestrian churches and see who will recognize the set of a movie first!

This afternoon and the balance of the day is at leisure.

Meet the driver and departure for Alberobello, the capital of the trulli, extraordinary testimonies of dry-stone construction with conical or pyramid-shaped roofs, will enchant you with an expanse of more than 1,500 trulli that have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996. The entire Itria Valley is characterised by the presence of these picturesque constructions finding their roots in the prehistoric era, but it is in Alberobello that the highest concentration of the best-preserved examples can be found. Enjoy your independen exploration of teh Trulli area.

Later we then continbue to Castellana to see the Home Caves. Upon arrival meet your private licensed local guide

The “Caves of Castellana”, a vast underground system of karst caves, located approx. 1,5km outside the town of Castellana Grotte, is an important tourist attraction and generally defined as one of the most beautiful and spectacular cave systems in Italy. The caves extend for 3.348 meters total and reach a maximum depth of 122m below street level. Inside the cave system the temperature stays constantly around 16,5°C.

Later we then continue to Bari.

Today meet your guide and start your walking tour of Bari.

Bari, the stunning capital of Apulia that has become a bridge between the East and West

Discover Bari strolling on the alleys and admiring the waterfront and beautiful churches and theaters.

Take part in a fantastic tour of Bari to plunge you into the authentic Apulian lifestyle, living the city as a local resident and breathing in its magical atmosphere. You will start the tour with a pleasant stroll on the enchanting seafront promenade, the longest in Italy. Then go on discovering the alleys of the ancient village, where you can visit the splendid Basilica of St. Nicholas and the Cathedral of San Sabino. After that, you will head to the famous Via Venezia, a panoramic road that surrounds the historic center, located in the famous Venetian district. From here, you will continue the tour admiring the many shopping streets, full of exclusive shops and boutiques of the great Italian fashion designers.

The afternoon and the balance of the day is at leisure.

Meet your driver and depart to Polignano a Mare. Enjoy a private boat tour to discover the Polignano caves (external view only).

Leaving form Cala Ponte Marina in Polignano you navigate along the coast admiring to the statue of Domenico Modugno, Lama Monachile, balcony of the Red Bull dives, cave of the Arcivescovato, Palazzese cave, Ardito cave, column of Hercules, Cave of the Nuns, Scoglio dell'Eremita, Grotta degli Occhi, Cala Sala. Stops for swimming during the navigation.

At the end of the tour, back to the port and transfer to the city centre to attend the Orecchiette Cooking Class followed by a light lunch.

Orecchiette is a type of pasta symbol of the typical Apulian cuisine. They are famous for their characteristic round and concave shape, smooth on the outside and rough and wrinkled inside, reminiscent of a small ear, and for their ability to capture and collect the sauce well. Traditionally, this pasta is made by hand, with a simple dough made with durian what semolina flour, water and salt that is worked on large wooden cutting boards and shaped with the hands and with a smooth blade knife.

Lose your way in a beautiful valley with fascinating whitewashed villages and fairytale atmospheres.

This afternoon head to Ostuni. 

This is the white city, the queen of the olive trees and the nativity city. Nicknames that should be enough to convey the image of one of those photogenic cities, as is also the territory that surrounds it. On the last foothills of the Murge, the town stands out against the green landscape of olive groves. A labyrinthine path, whitewashed houses on streets, winding alleyways and ladders, eight Aragonese towers (there were 15 originally) that dominate the winding streets of the medieval old town.

Upon arrival transfer in a local Masseria for a tasting of olive oil.

This afternoon we then back onto Bari.

Time to say Goodbye to Apulia.

Our italian-speaking driver will bring you from your hotel and transfer to the airport.