Every city in Puglia

From the capital to the smallest borghi.

BariThe capitalPuglia's regional capital and busy Adriatic port, where the tangled lanes of Bari Vecchia wrap around the Basilica di San Nicola. The Romanesque church holds the relics of Saint Nicholas, brought here in 1087 and still drawing Orthodox pilgrims, while local women shape orecchiette in the doorways.
Accadia
Acquaviva delle Fonti
AlberobelloThe capital of the trulli, where some fifteen hundred of the conical drystone houses fill the lanes of the Rione Monti and Aia Piccola quarters, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Whitewashed walls rise to grey limestone cones, many painted with mysterious symbols.
Alessano
AltamuraA town on the Alta Murgia famous across Italy for its bread, the dense, golden-crusted Pane di Altamura, the country's first DOP loaf. Its old center turns around a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral founded by Frederick II.
Andrano
AndriaA large town in the olive plains south of the coast, the nearest base for visiting Castel del Monte, Frederick II's octagonal castle on the Murgia above it. It is also known for burrata, the cream-filled fresh cheese said to have been created here.
Apricena
Ascoli Satriano
BarlettaAn Adriatic city north of Bari, guarded by a great Swabian castle and home to the Colossus, a five-meter late-Roman bronze statue standing in the street. It gives its name to the Disfida di Barletta, the famous 1503 duel between Italian and French knights.
Biccari
Bisceglie
BitontoA town in the olive country just inland from Bari, long renowned for its extra virgin olive oil. Its old quarter centers on the cathedral of San Valentino, one of the finest Apulian Romanesque churches.
Bovino
BrindisiAn Adriatic port at the end of the ancient Appian Way, marked by a lone Roman column where the great road met the sea. For centuries the gateway to Greece and the East, it remains a working ferry port today.
Cagnano Varano
Calimera
Candela
Canosa di Puglia
Carovigno
Carpignano Salentino
Carpino
Casalvecchio di Puglia
Cassano delle Murge
Castellana GrotteA town above one of Italy's most spectacular cave systems, the Grotte di Castellana. Entered through the vast open sinkhole of La Grave, three kilometers of show caves lead to the Grotta Bianca, a dazzling chamber of white alabaster.
Castellaneta
Castelluccio dei Sauri
Castrignano de' Greci
Castrignano del Capo
CastroA small fortified town on the rocky Adriatic coast of the Salento, divided between a hilltop old quarter and a tiny harbor below. Nearby opens the Grotta Zinzulusa, a sea cave famous for its hanging stalactites.
Ceglie MessapicaAn ancient Messapian hill town in the Itria valley, long regarded as one of Puglia's gastronomic capitals. Its whitewashed old center, crowned by a tall ducal tower, is known for trattorias and the local biscuit, the biscotto cegliese.
Celle di San Vito
CerignolaA town on the Tavoliere plain in a country of wheat, vineyards and olive groves. It gives its name to the large, mild green Bella di Cerignola, among the biggest of all Italian table olives.
Chieuti
CisterninoA whitewashed hill town with sweeping views over the Itria valley and its trulli. It is known for its fornello pronto, the butcher shops where you choose your meat and have it grilled on the spot to eat at the table.
ConversanoA hill town in the gentle country south of Bari, its old center gathered around a powerful medieval castle and a Romanesque cathedral. The surrounding land is planted with cherry orchards and vines.
CopertinoA Salento town set in vineyard country, dominated by a great moated Renaissance castle with a richly carved gateway. It was the birthplace of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, the friar of local legend said to levitate in prayer.
Corato
Corigliano d'Otranto
Corsano
Crispiano
Cutrofiano
Deliceto
Diso
Faeto
FasanoA town between the Itria valley and the Adriatic, set below the wooded heights of the Selva di Fasano. It is home to the Zoosafari, the largest drive-through wildlife park in Italy, and lies near the Roman ruins of Egnazia on the coast.
FoggiaThe main city of northern Puglia, set at the center of the Tavoliere, the broad wheat plain that is one of Italy's great grain baskets. Much rebuilt after wartime damage, it is the working capital of the Capitanata.
Francavilla FontanaA town on the plain between Brindisi and Taranto, its old center built around the Imperiali castle and a wealth of Baroque churches. It sits at the western threshold of the Salento.
Gagliano del Capo
GalatinaA Salento town famous for two things, the pasticciotto, the warm shortcrust pastry filled with custard that is said to have been invented here, and tarantismo, the old folk ritual of dance that cured the bite of the spider. Its church of Santa Caterina holds a dazzling cycle of medieval frescoes.
GallipoliA Salento town on the Ionian coast, its old quarter set on a small island and ringed by ramparts, linked to the mainland by a bridge. A Baroque cathedral, a sea-girt castle and old underground oil mills fill the citadel above the fishing harbor.
Ginosa
Gioia del Colle
GiovinazzoA small Adriatic port just north of Bari, its compact old town gathered on a spur above a fishing harbor. Pale stone lanes lead to a Romanesque cathedral overlooking the sea.
Gravina in PugliaAn ancient town on the edge of the Alta Murgia, split by a deep limestone ravine, the gravina that gives it its name. Cave dwellings, rock churches and an old aqueduct bridge are carved into and across the gorge.
Grottaglie
Grumo Appula
Ischitella
Isole Tremiti
Laterza
Latiano
LecceThe capital of the Salento and the great Baroque city of the south, often called the Florence of the South. Its golden limestone, soft enough to carve like wood, blossoms across church facades, above all the riotous, sculpture-laden front of the Basilica di Santa Croce.
Lesina
Lizzano
LocorotondoOne of the prettiest towns of the Itria valley, named for its perfectly circular plan. Its whitewashed lanes are lined with cummerse, tall pointed-roof houses hung with flowers, and the surrounding vineyards yield a crisp local white wine.
LuceraA historic town on a low hill above the Tavoliere, crowned by a vast fortress begun by Frederick II and completed by the Angevins. It also preserves a well-kept Roman amphitheater on the edge of the old center.
MaglieA market town at the heart of the Salento, long a crossroads of the peninsula's roads and trade. Its centro storico is lined with elegant Baroque and Liberty-style palazzi from its prosperous past.
Manduria
ManfredoniaA port town and southern gateway to the Gargano, founded in the thirteenth century by King Manfred of Sicily, whose Swabian-Angevin castle still anchors the seafront. Fishing boats work the gulf below the green slopes of the promontory.
Margherita di Savoia
Martano
Martignano
Martina FrancaThe grand Baroque town of the Itria valley, its white center crowded with curling wrought-iron balconies and the great Ducal Palace. Each summer it hosts the Festival della Valle d'Itria, one of Italy's most respected opera festivals.
Maruggio
Massafra
MattinataA small white town on the southern flank of the Gargano, set among olive groves above a coast of pale cliffs and pebble bays. It makes a quiet base for walking in the Gargano National Park.
Melendugno
Melpignano
MesagneA town of ancient Messapian origins inland from Brindisi, its compact old quarter wound around a Norman-Swabian castle. The lanes are paved in pale local stone and lined with Baroque churches and palazzi.
Minervino Murge
MolfettaA working fishing and Adriatic port north of Bari, with one of the busiest fleets on the coast. On the harbor stands the old Duomo, a striking Apulian Romanesque cathedral topped by twin towers and three domes.
MonopoliAn Adriatic port town south of Bari, where a whitewashed old town gathers around a fishing harbor full of brightly painted boats. A sixteenth-century castle guards the seafront, and Blue Flag beaches and rocky coves line the coast on either side.
Monte Sant'AngeloA pilgrimage town high on the Gargano, built around the Sanctuary of San Michele, the oldest shrine to the Archangel Michael in Western Europe. The grotto where he is said to have appeared, marked with Crusader graffiti, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Monteleone di Puglia
Montemesola
Mottola
NardòAn elegant Baroque town in the Salento, its centro storico turning around the Piazza Salandra, a stage-set square of carved golden limestone. The municipality also reaches the Ionian coast at the wild Porto Selvaggio nature reserve.
NociA small town on the Murgia near the Itria valley, its old center a maze of whitewashed lanes and tiny courtyards known as gnostre. The surrounding countryside is dotted with trulli and stone farmhouses.
Ordona
Oria
Orsara di Puglia
Ortelle
OstuniThe White City, a hill town whose old quarter glows with lime-washed houses tumbling in tiers below a Gothic cathedral. From its ramparts the silver olive plain runs out to the Adriatic, a short drive away.
OtrantoItaly's easternmost town, a walled port on the Salento coast facing the Adriatic toward Albania. Its Romanesque cathedral is paved with a vast twelfth-century Tree of Life mosaic, and a chapel holds the relics of the 800 martyrs killed in the Ottoman raid of 1480.
Palagianello
Palagiano
PeschiciA white village perched on a cliff above the northern Gargano coast, its houses stacked over a turquoise sea. Below run sandy coves and pinewoods, and the headland is dotted with the old wooden fishing structures known as trabucchi.
Poggiorsini
Polignano a MareA clifftop town south of Bari, its white old quarter perched dramatically on limestone bluffs above the Adriatic. Below lies Lama Monachile, a pebble cove between the cliffs that hosts a Red Bull cliff-diving stage. The singer Domenico Modugno was born here.
Porto CesareoA seaside town on the Ionian coast of the Salento, edged with pale sandy beaches and shallow, clear water. A protected marine reserve shelters the dunes and seagrass meadows just offshore.
Presicce-Acquarica
Pulsano
PutignanoA town in the hills between Bari and the Itria valley, home to the oldest carnival in Europe, first celebrated in 1394. Each winter its streets fill with allegorical papier-mache floats and weeks of festivity.
Rignano Garganico
Rodi Garganico
Ruvo di PugliaAn ancient town on the Murgia inland from the coast, famed in antiquity for its painted pottery. The Jatta National Archaeological Museum keeps a remarkable private collection of Greek and Apulian vases, including the celebrated Talos krater.
San Ferdinando di Puglia
San Giovanni RotondoA town high on the Gargano that has become one of Italy's great pilgrimage destinations, drawing millions to the shrine of Padre Pio, the friar who lived and is buried here. A vast modern church by Renzo Piano stands beside the older sanctuary.
San Marco in Lamis
San Marzano di San Giuseppe
San Nicandro Garganico
San SeveroA town on the northern edge of the Tavoliere plain, at the heart of one of Puglia's main wine districts. Its old center keeps a handful of Baroque churches among the streets of this busy agricultural hub.
San Vito dei Normanni
Sant'Agata di Puglia
Santa Cesarea TermeA spa town on the rocky Adriatic coast of the Salento, built around sulphurous thermal springs that rise from sea caves in the cliffs. Eclectic and Moorish-style villas look out over the water from the headland.
Santeramo in ColleA town set high on the Murgia plateau southeast of Bari, surrounded by open farmland and pasture. It sits in the cattle and dairy country that has shaped this corner of inland Puglia.
Serracapriola
Sogliano Cavour
Soleto
Specchia
Spinazzola
Statte
Sternatia
TarantoA two-sea city founded by Spartan colonists, set on a strait between an open gulf and a sheltered inner lagoon famous for its mussels. Its National Archaeological Museum holds the Ori di Taranto, an unrivalled collection of ancient Greek gold from the heart of Magna Graecia.
Tiggiano
Toritto
Torricella
TraniAn elegant Adriatic town north of Bari, famous for its cathedral set right at the water's edge. Built of warm pink-white limestone above the harbor, with bronze doors by Barisano da Trani, it is one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in Italy.
Tricase
Trinitapoli
Troia
Ugento
Vernole
Vico del Gargano
ViesteA white headland town at the eastern tip of the Gargano, its old quarter spilling down to a coast of sea caves and sandy bays. Below the cliffs stands the Pizzomunno, a tall limestone monolith wrapped in a local legend of doomed love.
Villa Castelli
Zollino