Hello,

My husband and I are planning to visit the Puglia region in the second week of April for a week. We're unsure if we should stay in one location, like Bari, and take day trips, or if we should split our stay with 3 nights in Monopoli and 3 nights in Lecce. We're also wondering if everything in the smaller towns will be open during the second week of April. We prefer more charming towns over bigger cities, but we're open to your suggestions.

We're also considering taking the train versus renting a car, but if necessary, we'll rent a car for a better experience.

Thank you very much

Split the visit, train will be fine

Moved from Tech Support to the Europe Forum and tagged for Italy

After Semana Santa everything should be open, or almost everything...the bigger the city, the more local year-round population and the less dependence on tourism, so things would tend to be open more in the larger places, but as long as you are there after Easter, I would not worry in the least.

Split the time.....maybe Bari, but Bari IS a big city, Lecce and one other destination.......try to see Matera for an overnight. How about Matera Lecce and Monopoli? Possibilities are endless.
We found driving to be very easy but there is also good public transport, or so I learned, (see Bilbo, above) although we did not use it......

Should be a good time of year..I think we were there once in Late April and all was great......

I found it easy to use public transportation in Puglia.

We will be there before Easter week. How is the parking situation? I know that the old towns don't allow cars. Is it easy to park somewhere nearby? We will have two large suitcases as we will be in Europe for three months. Thank you

ZTLs are the constraint on where you can drive, not all towns have ZTLs Google will find them for you and not all are 24/7
Some, will allow your car number plate into the Zone if you contact your hotel. It sounds complicated but isn't really.

Some places are just too narrow, too steep or too wet to take cars.

Italians are very friendly and understand all of this. So you make a booking, then ask the host for advice. I'd reduce baggage and take the train. Big bags in cars can be a focus for car theft.