alainr

Is it true that everything closes between one and four in Puglia? lecce? otranto? martina franca? etc.
Are cafes and restaurants open?

If we drive 45 minutes to a town--Lecce_ and want to spend the day there, what do we do between 1 and 4?

Second question: if our knees are bad and we don't like to climb a lot of stairs, should we skip going to Matera?

Dai

Hi Alain, I see you read my comment on the other thread ;-). You can still find lunch being served at 1 pm, but by 2 pm you will find very few restaurants open and seating you for a meal in the small villages.

We found that the gorgeous churches were closed by 1 pm, and when we went to the little town of Cisternino for lunch, as an example, we found we were basically all alone as we wandered through the streets after our meal. You will find some bars open offering drinks, and a few ready made sandwiches. But yes, it was our experience that when we entered into these small towns during mid day that few people were out and about, and after 2 pm few establishments were open.

Dai

Regarding Matera, it is not packed with stairs. We LOVED it! In fact it may be the most spectacular place we visited because it is so incredibly unique. My husband doesn't like stairs at all because of <i>his</i> knee, but stairs were never an issue with him in Matera. At our B&B he simply asked the woman who greeted us if there was anyone who could help bring the bags up the dozen or so stairs to the reception area. She said "I'll do it", and grabbed both of our bags. When we departed, she brought them down. Same thing in PaM. He asked if someone could bring up the bags and when we departed if someone could bring down the bags. It was never a problem.

tuscanlifeedit

Lunch, nap, driving time. This happens in many places in Italy.

I would not go to visit a town for lunch and the period after lunch, until late afternoon. Maybe a beach, a lake, a woods, find a museum open.

In Matera there is a small bus that drives along the bottom road, but I think you will need to contact the TI office to get solid information.

sandralist

More like 12 to 5.

If you are going in summer, consider having lunch where you are or en route to a town like Lecce, and plan to arrive in Lecce in 3pm or later. See the outdoor things, but then visit indoor things between 5 and 7pm. You can still make it back to your "base" for dinner.

But you hit on one of the reasons why I think the idea of "bases" and "day trips" doesn't work in much of Italy (and Spain and Greece) unless the only experience you want to take home of Italy is a pictures of old buildings with empty streets. Many people really dislike switching hotels, so they shouldn't do it, but if you don't mind, the arriving in a town at 4pm, spending the night, spending the next morning, and then heading on to lunch and another town can often give you a better experience of the local life than supposedly "living like a local." Yoe end up never seeing the locals if you day trip between 9 and 5.

Mimar

When in Rome -- or Puglia -- get going early, do a lot of sightseeing in the morning, have lunch, then go back to your hotel for a little siesta or at least a shower and a rest. I actually convinced my teenage son to adopt this lifestyle. Must be his Italian blood.

bilboburgler

Churches will close at 12 or 1, Restaurants 2. All stays closed until 4 ish.

So as they say, get there early, eat and either go out into the country/beach or find a park, buy a gellato and doze off.

As well as beaches you will find hotels offering pools etc to lay beside

nytraveler

Between 1 and 4 on has a nice leisurely lunch, then finds a bench or park of cafe to sit and relax in until thing sopen again.

kja

When I was in Puglia (2007), most things really were closed for a VERY long midday siesta. In Lecce, for example, I found only one cafe that was open -- but that was a Sunday, which I'm sure complicated things.

Options include using that time to relocate if you are planning to do so, walking around (be sure to have plenty of water and are prepared for sun and heat), taking a nap, sitting in a park....

"if our knees are bad and we don't like to climb a lot of stairs, should we skip going to Matera?" -- Not necessarily. You can at least see across the sassi from the upper town, and you might find it worthwhile even if you don't climb down into them. Too, there are worthy sites in the upper town, including several wonderful churches. Too, I think you can get down into the sassi by cab, but I can't swear to that.

Hope that helps!

aprillilacs

Good advice above. We based in one place (the countryside near Ostuni) for the week and did day trips. Arrived places by 10, toured, and were ready for lunch by 1 when everything closed. Spent the afternoons walking in the countryside, relaxing at our trullo in the olive grove, or at the beach.

Matera's sassi are down the hill. There are stairs to get into the churches, etc., and you need to be able to walk up and down the hill. The new part of town has great views of the sassi, good restaurants, and the evening passegiata is lively and fun--even if you just sit in an outdoor cafe and survey the scene.

kja

"Matera's sassi are down the hill. There are stairs to get into the churches, etc" -- just to be clear, there are stairs to the churches IN THE SASSI, but there are also churches in the section of town ABOVE the sassi, and for those, you might have just a few low steps.

rosetravels

We were in Matera in May and I was traveling with an painfully injured patella and wearing a big , ugly brace. I was worried about the stairs in Matera but it turned out to be fine because of where we stayed.

We stayed at Toretta ai Sassi. It was easy to navigate to it and there was parking nearby. When we first parked and saw how high the B&B was above the streets I was worried, but there was an alley that we took to get there (no stairs.) Even better, it was near a pivot point on the hill - walk a block and there was an intersection: veer right and downhill to the old section, veer left and uphill to the new section. WITH NO STAIRS. The old section was lovely and you could walk around the edge of the canyon and then through the sassi area with no stairs. The only stairs were at the end of that tourist route when there were about 2 flights up to reach the new part of town. I took them slowly but could have also gone back the way I came and walked uphill on streets near our B&B to reach the new section.

There was a great restaurant - Soul Kitchen - just a couple of blocks (no stairs) from the B&B. Our room had just a few normal stairs. To go to breakfast I had to go down a half-flight.

When we were walking around I didn't go into a couple of churches in the sassi because of the stairs. DH went and looked inside. We did hire a tour guide and there were stairs on her tour.

Here's the link to my trip report with photos of Matera:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...basilicata.cfm

ekscrunchy

I agree that the long lunch closures can be problematic for tourists. And, as Sandra has noted, in Lecce and the south, 5pm is a more usual re-opening time.

One thing I might add: For those heading to the area near Andria/Barletta and Trani, keep in mind that the Castel del Monte has no midday closure. So that is one option for an afternoon.


http://www.casteldelmonte.benicultur...visiting-hours


If driving to Matera, and staying more than two nights, or continuing to points deeper in the region of Basilicata, afternoon might be the time to take scenic driving tours of the Lucanian Dolomites, even if mid day light is not the best for photos. This holds true for other scenic drives as well, as long as photos are not the priority.


We try to use the mid day period for transferring from place to place, not always possible. Or, on hot days, swimming at hotels with a pool.

Sassafrass

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