Beautiful South: Sassi, Trulli and Baroque

Welcome to Matera

Individual arrival to Matera and accommodation in hotel. Welcome to the City of Rocks.
It is a Unesco site since 1991 and the European Capital of Culture 2019: Matera will host you in its simple and genuine way, making you know about its historical centre, unique in the world, and its extraordinary landscapes.
Walking through Matera, you can find the ancient public oven where the housewives used to bake bread until the 1950s: they delivered it to the bakers to cook it, but first it was stamped.
Yes, you read that correctly: the bread stamps were commissioned to the shepherds, who made them during the transhumance. Away from home and with so much free time, they carved wood to make a stamp different from that of other families ... and the Matera bread is sooo good!

From Matera to Alberobello via Locorotondo

13,5km, +180m -140m

Private transfer to the Itria Valley, a territory that tries to keep its ancient balance between man and nature, focusing on a local development that emphasizes its architectural and craft peculiarities.
The walk from Matera to Otranto goes in the heart of Puglia, where the towns of Martina Franca, Locorotondo and Cisternino are the last eastern edge of the Murgia plateau, bordering the Messapian plain of Salento. Today the path will take you to the village of Locorotondo by a walk onto the Greenway of Puglia Aqueduct, the longest aqueduct in Europe.
In Locorotondo, so called because it was "Luogo Rotondo" (round place) on the ancient lithographs, we suggest you visit the historic center, made of concentric lanes and unusual low-roof houses, the "cummerse".
Back by train to Alberobello: here you will spend the next two nights.

From Alberobello to Ostuni

12km, +250m -130m

From the Capital of Trulli you will reach by private transfer a Masseria, old farmhouse, in the Natural Park Dune Costiere.
Hike through fields and crops: here the soil is rich and generous, and each season is able to give an incredible variety of fruits and landscapes. After a short break in a small family-run farm surrounded by all this nature, you will continue up the hills, through the forest, climbing slowly towards the white Ostuni and its hilltop old town.
On the way of this Walking Holiday in Puglia and Matera, you can also take a detour to the Sanctuary of San Biagio, an almost hidden rock settlement dating back to the Middle Ages. Impressive, but little preserved, every year on 3 February is a pilgrimage destination where to pay homage to the patron saint of the city of Ostuni. You will also pass close to the Archaeological Park of Santa Maria di Agnano, in which findings prove human presence in the area from the Paleolithic.
Overnight in Ostuni.

From Lecce to Otranto

9km, +95m -110m

After breakfast you will reach Otranto by train or public bus. You will spend the day in and around the most eastern city of Italy, always been a link between East and West.
Down the coast there will be unexpected discoveries and unspoiled landscapes until you see the most eastern tip of Italy: the fascinating Cape of Otranto. Here the currents of the two seas, Adriatic and Ionian, separate and come together in an incredible scenery.
We will head back to Otranto not before an impressive detour to its, now famous, abandoned bauxite quarry or Blue Lake for a breathtaking picture full of colours and strong feelings.
Before returning to Lecce, still by local transportation, we recommend to spend the time left for the visit of Otranto, its Cathedral with the impressive mosaic of Pantaleone, and the Castle.