For Matera, I stand by my recommendation, noted above, for the Locanda di San Martino. It has parking.

Kja, we did look at your recommendations, but, at least on Booking, it is filled for the days we are interested in. Larry can call and see if, if fact, they are booked, so thanks for the head's up.

Burrata, we have booked a place in Monopoli, La Garappa, but thanks for the recommendation. The agriturismo sounds wonderful, and it's hard to chose one.

If you can't book the San Martino, you should be able to search booking.com for options that offer parking. Have you ever been in a cave hotel before? If not, then looking for something in the sassi is, IMO, well worth considering. If not, then looking at your options for the upper town would (again, IMO) be reasonable and would likely result in more options for parking. Hope that helps!

Oops: "... If <b><i><u>so</b></i></u> [for the scenario that applies if you HAVE already stayed in a cave hotel], then looking at your options for the upper town ... might make sense

In Matera, we had two lovely stays at Torretta ai Sassi--it has an incomparable view and the hosts are wonderfully helpful and kind, as well as excellent cooks (breakfast).
We never had any trouble getting street parking, both times in May.
That masseria near Monopoli looks lovely. I found Monopoli an excellent base for the Itria valley.
Enjoy--I'd gladly return to the area for a third time!

Agree. Monopoli struck me as an excellent base.

Thanks, EK, Yourkshire, Bilbo, and kja. I have looked on Booking for Matera, and although there seems to be several places to stay in Matera, the ones suggested are booked. As I said, Larry will call and see if they are, in fact, filled for the 2 nights we will be there. It is interesting that Booking showed Garappa in Monopoli as booked, but, if fact, they were not when we first wrote and then called. Advice- don't always count on Booking for your only information. Clearly, the hotels, inns, B&B's, etc. do not give all their rooms to the consolidators.

We are hoping to book the first part of the trip to the Sarento today or tomorrow. We are thinking of staying in another agriturismo fairly close to Lecce or Otranto so that we can be sure to visit leece for touring as well as a half day course in carta pasta. That will give us another 2.5-3 days to visit the southern towns. There is never enough time to see and do everything we want. Any suggestions? Thanks.

What I will say is that nearly every town you will visit has a pretty scruby outside, in fact some of the town scapes from entry look down right shabby. Do carry onto the centre where there is normally a little pearl of an ancient centre.

So, if you are running out of time, or the roads are jambed etc, don't worry there is always another place down the road.

There is a real difference between the towns up on the Murge and those down on the sea-plains. Both the air is different and the quality of the old towns is better.

Do not be put off by a view of an exterior of a buiding. We went into one small B&B in a village in a tatty square and found a Palazzo from 1790s hidden inside built as a mistress-store for a Duke of Napoli.

What great advice and reminder, Bilbo. Several years ago, we had an experience like that in southern Tuscany (can't remember the name of the village , but it wan't far from Cortona). We wandered around a rather empty and nondescript village and went into the town building, which looked like yet another building with a boring exterior. The equivalent of the mayor noticed us and took us on a tour of the building with frescoes and paintings throughout. We felt like we had found a hidden jewel.

I had heard that that the Sarento was quite different from the northern towns. I can't wait to explore!

By the way, a friend took a cooking class at the agriturismo you stayed in for your wedding and liked it very much. She got the impression that the residence was mostly for events such as weddings and for people taking the cooking classes. Since you were there for a longer time, was that your feelings as well?

Thanks.

Our advice was that the masseria was mainly used for
1) Political/business get-aways mini-conferences
2) Courses, yoga, cooking painting
3) local does, like bike races, running etc
4) B&B type business
5) Family parties
6) weddings

we booked it for a family party which morphed into a wedding but even though we had the place. I also think it had a fair bit of passing trade.

I guess that, depending on size and ease of access all the masseri do a bit of this a bit of the other. If your DH gives Ylenia a bell I'm sure she can advise as she tends to manage their out of country bookings, and can advise on other places.

Sept is not high season in Puglia so a lot of places will have wound down (especially on the sea front) and some of the Masseri may even take a day off as they head into winter.

Salento

Thanks, Bilbo. You have been very helpful and I looked at your "trip report" about your wedding, which looked just lovely. Could you send us your name via email so we can tell Ylenia how we connected with her? Our email is: ljk@alum. mit.edu/

Thanks. Just finsing up with the Sarento and on to Matera. we will check in when we get all arranged.

Oops. Thnaks, Jub. Salento...

I think you've heard this before, and maybe from me!, but just to reiterate -- walking around Lecce at night can be a true delight. The colors of the local stone take on a softness after sunset that they simply don't have during the day. And seeing some of the amazing facades of this city without the heat of the day -- which can be oppressive -- was IMO a delight. Just something to consider!

Thanks, kja. We will certainly have dinner in Lecce at least once and will make sure of staying in town to enjoy the city at night. We have also found that many towns and cities acquire their "true" personalities after the day tourists have left and the sun goes down.

The main reason we are not staying in the city itself is that, for this trip, we wanted the agrirtursimo experience and we didn't want to move more than 3 times in the 2 weeks. Often, we do stay in towns, because we love the opportunity to just take a walk after dinner and not drive. As I said in my OP. sometimes we rent an apartment in the town.

There is no right way of traveling. What we have found, though, is that we don't rush- we are fans of slow travel. We find, if we love a place enough, we will try to come back. I know that, as we meander, we will miss visiting some places mentioned in the guidebooks, but, hopefully, we will find new ones. We always think that we can come back and sometimes we do. We all have our favorite places.

Larry and I made reservations at Agristurismo Villa Conca, just south west of Lecce. It was an unusual decision for us, since it looks more like an inn than a typical ancient building and farm. Larry had a conversation with one of the owners and he sounded passionate and delightful. Also, the agriturismo, although not on the sea, is only 3 km from it and has a beach on the water. They have sailboats and wind surfers, always a draw for Larry. It wasn't expensive, was near enough to Lecce to spend some quality time there,but accessible to the southern small towns of the Salento. Hope it works out.

On to Matera. In going over trip reports, it seems that most of Fodor favorites are already booked for September. Booking.com has several well rated B&B's; I know I am looking in the Sasso, but I am a bit confused about location within that area. Does it matter if we are in the upper or lower Sasso? Are the sights and restaurants spread-out or tend to be in one part of the Sasso? Most important is the steps. I do have some ongoing, but stable, back troubles and stairs can be difficult. More important, I have vision issues- I am essentially one eyed and have depth perception issues compounded by moderate dry macular degeneration. which affects lights and darks. Given this, is one part of the Sasso easier to negotiate, particularly at night? And, then, how do I ascertain whether the B&B is in a good location?

Thanks. I appreciate your help.

OMG, justretired – I wasn’t trying to question your choices or your way of traveling! I have often expressed (on this board) my belief that I think it is absolutely wonderful that people travel in different ways, for different reasons, with different paces, and different reactions! Wouldn’t the world be infinitely more boring if we all agreed about everything? I just wanted to make sure you considered spending some time in Lecce after dark. Period.

As for rooms in Matera: As I understand it, some sassi hotels have elevator access from their upper reaches (which in some cases, would include “flat” access to Matera’s Upper Town) to their lowest regions. I think you can search booking.com for elevator access, although I don’t know how reliable that information would be. If I recall correctly – and I might not! -- some of the stairs from the Upper Town to the lower reaches of the sassi included steps of unequal length – which I think would be a challenge for those with limited depth perception – but again, I could be wrong! I know that the San Martino is not an option for you, but you might consider contacting them to see if they can recommend other lodging that links the upper and lower regions via elevator…

Good luck!

We finished our booking for the trip with a 2 night stay in Hotel il Belvedere In Matera. We decided it was probably wise not to stay in the Sassi because of my back and eye problems, and this is just outside the historic district. We also arranged for a private tour of the Sassi.

Thanks for your help. I will bw working on a restaurant and activity list and will share it with you as I go along on another thread.

Agristurismo Villa Conca is very near Riserva Naturale Le Cesine. If you are interested in nature activities, they offer tours. You can't see much without a tour, but we took a stroll through one day. It's a WWF reserve, saved from impending development.

Thanks Yorkshire. That sounds like something we would love. I've just begun to explore activities and restaurants throughout Puglia and any suggestions are appreciated.