Puglia Help Needed - 4 Nights/3 Days by Public Transport
 

Hello All,

I've done hours upon hours of research and am hoping to gain some advice from this thread.
We will be traveling from Naples to Puglia by Public Transport on 12 June. We will stay in Puglia until our flight and train departures from Bari on the 16th, so we have 4 nights, 3 full days. Very aware that this is not enough time to travel the area, but this is what we are stuck with.

1. Any advice on the best home base? I'm thinking Monopoli or Ostuni. Lecce has also been mentioned quite a bit. All seem to be well equipped for public transport. What would be the best place to situate ourselves while being able to see some of the highlights?
2. What are the "MUSTS" that we should see? Matera seems to be highly mentioned but tough to get to. I've been toying of the idea of visiting Matera for the night of the 12th, but am having trouble getting transport info from Naples to Matera. Then perhaps staying in Ostuni from the 13th - 15th, and back to Bari on the night of the 15th.

Any recommendations or suggestions are so appreciated.

Public transport Naples - Puglia:
ttps://booking.marinobus.it/from/Napoli/220615/to/Bari/?adulti=1&Giovani 12%2F25 anni =0&Over 60=0&Bambini 0%2F11 anni=0&hl=de
If you like to do it in a more complicated way, you may take a train from Naples to Caserta and board there a fast train to Bari.
Sights of easy reach from Bari by public transport:
Lecce, Matera, Alberobello, Castellana Caves.
Stay at Vieste if you are interested in the stunning landscapes and beaches of Gargano Peninsula and in day trips to the Tremiti Islands.

Just a few other ideas to think about

Matera is in Basilicata not Puglia (this is relevant)
Matera has a train station which is on the Naples to Taranto line
Long distance buses in Italy are called Pullman and there are some great ones between the various airports
South of Puglia the train system is not the main Italian train system but a smaller poorer cousin so they use different stations in Lecce for example and neither are close to the main Pullman station.

Rome2rio is a good place to start

Good bases would be Monopoli, Polignano a Mare or Lecce. The train line runs between them. We were so happy that we had stayed in Polignano a Mare with water and cliff views, an old town and a great variety of dining.We did not use public transportation.
I am among those who was glad we didn’t stay overnight in Matera. It is interesting to see the caves where people lived but knowing how poor they were made it so sad to see. We were very happy to get back to Puglia.

Matera has a train station with frequent trains to Bari.
If you want to reach the Naples - Taranto line mentionded by bilboburgler, you can either
take a bus from Matera to Ferrandina (not very frequent), or
go by train from Matera to Altamura and change there to another train to Potenza Centrale.

At Lecce, all trains,Trenitalia and Ferrovie del Sud-Est (for Gallipoli, Gagliano and Otranto) leave from the same railway station (Lecce Centrale).

gosh that is a change, thank goodness, I have an image of a hole in a wall and dark dank tunnel leading to FdSE station, but if they've upgraded that, well done.