This picturesque medieval town, situated near Bari, comes alive in the evenings. Stacked high above the water with winding roads leading to the intensely blue grottoes, the town has a quiet and charmingly colloquial feel during the day time.

Alberobello is a town in Italy’s Apulia region. It’s known for its trulli, whitewashed stone huts with conical roofs. The hilltop Rione Monti district has hundreds of them, rising in neat terraces. The fabric of the trulli is now protected by UNESCO.

One of Puglia's most picturesque enclaves, Ostuni is known as the White City thanks to its plenitude of white-washed houses. Built atop a hill to protect from invaders, Ostuni is a certifiable labyrinth. A maze of alleyways, staircases and arches, of houses built upon houses, of hundreds of years of history laid out before you in a way no map can truly explain or capture.

If you can’t get to Lecce, Martina Franca is like a miniature version of the Baroque city. Walk along narrow and seriously charming Corso Vittorio Emanuele flanked by little Baroque and Rococo with ornate ironwork balustrades and lovely facades. This leads to the church of San Martino and on into the Piazza Plebiscito, an elegant oval shape with porticoes on two sides.

A quintessentially southern Italian town, bursting with piazzas and palazzi, Lecce's old town centre is a wonderful setting for the strolling visitor. Built in the local soft creamy limestone with dazzling architectural surprises around every corner, Lecce is a minor Baroque masterpiece. Cafés, bars and restaurants flank the streets offering refreshments and front row seats from which to observe the comings and goings of the locals as they go about their daily business.