Historically overlooked by foreign visitors who rush to the Amalfi Coast or Italian Riviera, Puglia – also known as Apulia – in Italy's southeast is finally getting its moment in the sun. With more than 580 miles of coastline – Adriatic and Ionian – a hilly, Mediterranean interior and ancient forest, Puglia has incredible places to visit. If you’re keen on long, lazy lunches with excellent local wine, relaxed boat trips to hidden coves and exploring the whitewashed labyrinthine streets of atmospheric old towns, this region is for you. 

Click through the gallery to discover the best places to visit in Italy's Puglia region...

The Adriatic port city of Bari is the capital of Puglia and a gorgeous mix of narrow, winding old town alleyways and fashionable new town palm-tree lined streets. A major hub for ferries and cruises to the Mediterranean, Bari has a holiday feel with its beautiful seafront promenade and harbour, and atmospheric restaurants specialising in seafood. At sunset, the place comes alive with Italian families going for their evening stroll, or passeggiata.

In the shaded streets of Bari’s old town (Citta Vecchia), close to the 12th-century Castello Svevo, local women make and sell the traditional orecchiette pasta of the Puglia region. Round and concave with a rough edge, orecchiette means 'small ears' in Italian and the classic Puglian dish is orecchiette alle cime di rapa (orecchiette with broccoli rabe leaves). The ladies chat in local Barese dialect as they expertly roll and shape the pasta on rickety tables.

Love this? Follow our Facebook page for more travel inspiration

Inland, roughly halfway between Bari and Brindisi, lies the whitewashed hilltop village of Locorotondo – surely one of Italy’s most beautiful. It's located within the hilly Valle d’Itria (Itria Valley) characterised by red soil, vineyards and centuries-old olive groves. Wander Locorotondo's labyrinth of narrow streets dotted with ancient churches and take in the sweeping views of the surrounding countryside from the public gardens of the Villa Comunale Garibaldi.

Also in the Valle d’Itria, Alberobello is famous for one thing: its conical limestone trulli dwellings. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which describes them as “remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region”, trulli have been here since the mid-14th century. The town is touristy but charming, especially early in the morning, and if you head to Rione Aia Piccola – the small yard district – you’ll escape the crowds.

Like its better-known neighbour Matera (which is found in the Basilicata region), the Puglian town of Gravina has an underground network of rock-hewn caves and churches to explore. It's probably most famous for its Roman bridge – a James Bond filming location in No Time to Die – which is thought to have been built in the 17th century then repurposed as an aqueduct after an earthquake a century later. Gravina's rolling hillsides are also synonymous with wheat, olive oil and wine, particularly the straw-yellow wine Gravina Bianco DOC and the sparkling Gravina Bianco Spumante DOC. 

One of Puglia’s four wine-growing regions, Salento is a huge area in Puglia's south that encompasses parts of different provinces (all of Lecce, some of Brindisi and some of Taranto). It sets itself apart with a different dialect, Salentino, which is closer to the dialects of Sicily. Warm and dry, Salento produces whites, reds, sparkling wines, rosé and even sweet wines – tours to vineyards for tastings can be organised in Lecce. Don’t miss sampling the deep, dark red Negroamaro wine. 

On Puglia’s lesser-explored southwestern coast, Gallipoli can be visited by car or train. The fortified old city is reached by crossing a 17th-century bridge and this island, with its Aragonese castle and baroque Sant'Agata Cathedral, is the focus for most visitors. Watch the sunset over the Ionian Sea from beneath the old city walls on the Spiaggia della Purita beach.

Located on the Salento peninsula and often called the Florence of the South, Lecce is an extraordinary and aesthetically pleasing jumble of streets and squares. Lecce flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and has some fine examples of grand Baroque architecture – Barocco Leccese (Lecce Baroque) – in the local honey-hued limestone. The Duomo di Lecce with its impressive bell tower – part of the 17th-century redesign – has views as far as the Adriatic Sea six miles (10km) away.

The fascinating story of Venice, the world's most beloved city

In the centre of Lecce in the main piazza of the old town, a Roman amphitheatre was uncovered by accident in 1901. Built during Hadrian’s reign as Roman emperor in the 2nd century, the horseshoe-shaped amphitheatre is partially buried but still used as a venue today (but not for the 15,000 spectators it could once hold).

Not far from the city of Lecce, between Torre dell’Orso and Otranto, the coastline north and south of the village of Sant’Andrea is known for brilliant turquoise water and sea stacks (the 'torre', meaning towers, in the name come from the man-made watchtowers). There is a tiny sandy beach but most swimmers head to the natural ledges and rocky coves that punctuate this rugged coast. In winter, when the few seasonal restaurants and waterside cafes have closed, this is a wild place for solitary hiking.

On the east coast of the Salentine Peninsula and gazing towards Albania and Greece, the beautiful port town of Otranto was a stronghold of Greece and the Greek language until the Romans arrived in the 11th century – and then it was subsequently sacked by the Turks in the 15th century. The handsome Centro Storico (old town) abuts the harbour and is home to the Romanesque Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata and the imposing fortress of Castello Aragonese.

Underrated small towns in the world's most beautiful country

Close to Otranto and with its own car park is a disused quarry sunk into an intense red and dusty landscape. The mineral quarry was abandoned in the 1970s and has since returned to nature – there’s a small green lake (no swimming) and several hiking trails for peaceful walks that circumnavigate it. A unique one-off in Puglia.

A thickly forested spur of land jutting out of the northeast of Puglia, Gargano is an isolated mountain massif, with a high point at Mount Calvo (3,494 feet/1,065m) and the UNESCO-listed Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel on the lonely peak of Sant'Angelo Mount. Gargano’s stunning coastline of limestone cliffs tumbling down to azure waters is punctuated by beaches and rocky coves and is best explored by boat – the resort of Vieste has some of the best beaches nearby.

The ancient trees of Gargano’s Umbra Forest are all that remain of Italy’s once vast beech forests, and Umbra is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. North and west of the forest are wetlands and the lagoons of Lakes Lesina and Varano. Lake Varano is home to the Isola di Varano nature reserve and its many species of birds, including cormorants, great crested grebes and greater flamingos.

Off Puglia’s coast and part of Gargano National Park, Tremiti is a peaceful, mostly uninhabited and completely car-free five-island archipelago in the Adriatic. The serene archipelago had a murkier past, acting as a penal colony in the 1st century AD and again during the Second World War. Ferries cross from Termoli to the most developed of the islands – and the only one with a sandy beach – San Domingo, where the clear, deep waters of the islands are perfect for scuba diving. Spend time exploring trails through pine forests and to hidden coves.

Castel del Monte, or 'the castle of the mount' found inland in Alta Murgia National Park, is an unusual 13th-century citadel built by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Built from limestone and white marble, the octagonal castle has no ditches, no drawbridge and no basement and was likely built as a lavish home or hunting lodge. Perfectly mathematically precise, Castel del Monte is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site described as “a successful blend of elements from classical antiquity, the Islamic Orient and north European Cistercian Gothic”.

This incredible country has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The prehistoric archaeological site of Roca is a 40-minute drive from Lecce and probably best known for the evocatively named and beautifully sited Grotta della Poesia (Cave of Poetry). The area is criss-crossed with natural karst caves and tunnels and until recently Grotta della Poesia was a popular natural swimming hole, but no more. As an incredibly important site of archaeological interest, today entrance to Roca is ticketed, swimming is banned and exploration by guided tour is encouraged.

The small city of Polignano a Mare has been occupied over the centuries by the Byzantine Empire, the Normans, the Angioinians and the Aragonese. However, you don't come here for a history lesson, but to stroll the lungomare (waterfront), squeeze onto the impossibly pretty Lama Monachile beach and maybe indulge in a spot of cliff diving – Red Bull comes to this rugged coast each year as part of its Cliff Diving World Series. 

Just outside the town of Castellana Grotte is a huge underground system of karst caves that reaches as deep as 400 feet (122m), though tours only reach as far as roughly 230 feet (70m). A cool 16ºC (61ºF) year-round, the series of large underground limestone caverns and their extraordinary stalactite and stalagmite formations were discovered in 1938.

This Valle d'Itria hilltop town was founded in 1310 and is a lovely laidback place to explore on foot, a little off the tourist trail. Porto Santo Stefano marks the passageway to the whitewashed old town where the architecture is predominantly baroque; don’t miss the elaborate Palazzo Ducale. Every summer the town hosts an opera festival, the Festival della Valle d'Itria.

A medieval, whitewashed hill fortress dubbed Puglia’s Citta Bianca (white city), Ostuni is a formidable sight from the surrounding plains and olive groves. Explore its cute alleys and narrow streets, visit the Concattedrale di Ostuni – Ostuni cathedral – and order a cold drink in one of the peaceful piazzas. Just five miles (8km) from the sea, nearby beaches include the sandy Spiaggia di Pilone, or the untamed Spiaggia di Torre Pozzelle.

Puglia has some 60 million olive trees and produces at least 40% of Italy’s olive oil. Deep in the countryside of the Valle d’Itria around hilltop town Fasano are ancient olive groves planted in deep red soil and protected by dry stone walls. From Fasano you can organise a visit for tours and tastings at centuries-old farmhouses and oil mills.

The lively Puglian city of Monopoli, not far from Bari, has an impossibly beautiful fortified old port and a warren of old town lanes to explore. There are churches around every corner and on the waterfront is the imposing fortress, Castello di Carlo V. The city’s name comes from the Greek 'Monos Polis' meaning only, or unique, and of all the towns and cities in Puglia, it retains a working feel that's precious. 

Now check out Italy's most beautiful towns and villages