Lanago, driving in Puglia is easy compared to other more touristy places. We didn't drive in Bari or Lecce, but the rest is pretty easy going rural landscape, small towns, not difficult.
You might find 3 weeks in Puglia a little long though, depending on your interests.
Have fun!

Lanago, hope you enjoy Puglia and works out well and you end up getting a car.

i envy your planning methods of "turning up and seeing", i wish i could be a bit more like this, i am such a planner i cant stand not having things planner. Would be nice to be a bit more open to travel adventures with no detailed plans.....

lanago-- yes-- we dropped off the car 2 days ago and the freedom feels great. however-- the driving was NOT that bad-- i just turned the car around if the streets started to get too little. we picked up the car in lecce (on via provinciale, maybe?) and the gps found the place easily. i just don't think i'd bail yet... just get a car that has 100% coverage (we used kenwel) and then charge it on a visa that also has coverage. then you're double covered... just wear a seat belt!!

i think you can do it... if it's not too late to change your mind yet again. it's sometimes really hard to get to a train station on time as well. all travel, as you know, has some stressful moments.
have a wonderful trip!!!
kawh

Question: I am not sure that VISA does cover cardholders in Italy; when I called them they told me they did not, but this was about a year ago.

Anyone know the answer to this question?

one of ours does and one doesn't. we called-- and our visa/britishairways card does cover-- only if the driver is the main holder of the account. and only if you decline extra insurance (which they tell us is different from having zero deductible included. we had zero deductible insurance when we rented-- and declined extra at the counter. hope that made sense).

Kawh: Thanks for that info..this topic always confuses me! I just thought that VISA always declined to cover in Italy, not realizing that there were different VISA plans!

Having the driver being the cardholder is really important, so thanks for mentioning that. A group of us rented a house in France a few years ago, with two cars between us. There was an incident that resulted in quite a bit of damage to the car. But because the driver was not the one who had actually given the credit card details, it turned into a big, expensive mess. Now I always take care to register the names of all drivers...this increases the price of the rental, but I think it must be done to avoid problems later on.

Now I am confused. My Master card does cover Italy. I am the main account holder on that card. If the credit card is in the drivers name, but someone else (me) is the main account holder they will not cover u in the event of an accident?

yestravel-- i would check with your credit card company. our visa with britishair told us pretty clearly that it would only cover the main account holder-- and that the car should be rented with their card-- not a secondary cardholder. i'm sure they're all different.

also, the guy at a certain car agency kindly instructed me that, because insurance for the car is only for accidents during driving-- any rocks that might go through the windshield should accurately be reported as rocks that fell during driving... not while the car was parked. so glad we didn't have to report any such things.

Yes, I will certainly do that. Hopefully its not the case with our card. Good info on the falling rocks--oh brother!