Best Things to Do Between Ostuni and Lecce

By Arianna · April 2026 · 8 min read

People ask us this all the time. They land at Brindisi airport, rent a car, and suddenly they're driving through a landscape of red earth, ancient olive trees, and dry-stone walls — with no real plan beyond "Ostuni and Lecce." That's fine. You don't need a packed itinerary here. But you do need to know where to look, because the best parts of this stretch of Puglia aren't always the most obvious ones.

We live right in the middle of it — our masseria sits between Ostuni and Lecce, about fifteen minutes from Brindisi. After years of hosting visitors, these are the things we genuinely recommend. Not a list pulled from a guidebook. Just what we'd tell a friend.

1. Taste olive oil at a working masseria

I'm biased, obviously — this is what we do. But there's a reason olive oil tastings have become one of the most popular things to do in Puglia, and it's not because someone decided it was trendy. This region produces nearly half of Italy's olive oil. The trees here are ancient, some over a thousand years old, and the oil they produce is genuinely different from anything you'll find in a supermarket.

At our masseria, we walk you through the grove, explain the harvest, and then sit down to taste three different oils side by side. You learn to recognise the peppery bite of a Coratina, the grassy freshness of an early-harvest blend. We finish with local wine and an aperitivo. The whole experience takes about two hours, and people consistently tell us it was their favourite part of the trip. If you want to understand how to taste olive oil properly, this is the place to start.

2. Walk the white city of Ostuni

Ostuni earns its nickname. From a distance, the old town looks like a heap of sugar cubes stacked on a hilltop. Up close, it's a tangle of whitewashed alleyways, stone staircases, and tiny piazzas where cats sleep in the shade. The cathedral sits at the very top — a 15th-century Gothic facade with a massive rose window that catches the afternoon light.

The trick with Ostuni is timing. In July and August, the narrow streets fill up quickly. Go early in the morning or in the late afternoon, when the light turns golden and the day-trippers have left. The views from the top — looking out over olive groves all the way to the Adriatic — are worth the climb.

3. Explore Lecce's baroque architecture

They call Lecce the "Florence of the South," and while that comparison gets overused, the architecture really is extraordinary. The local limestone — pietra leccese — is soft enough to carve like butter, and the 17th-century sculptors went wild with it. Every facade is covered in cherubs, flowers, animals, and grotesque faces.

Start at the Basilica di Santa Croce. Stand in front of it and just look up. The facade took over two hundred years to complete, and every centimetre is covered in carved detail. From there, walk to Piazza del Duomo — one of the most beautiful enclosed squares in Italy. The cathedral, the bishop's palace, and the seminary create a space that feels almost theatrical.

Lecce is also a living city in a way that some Puglia towns aren't. There are university students, real neighbourhood bars, bookshops. It doesn't shut down in winter. If you only visit one city in Salento, make it this one.

4. Spend a day at Torre Guaceto

Most people come to Puglia for the culture and the food, and then they discover the coast. Torre Guaceto is a marine nature reserve about twenty minutes north of Brindisi, and the water there is absurdly clear — shallow, turquoise, and calm. The beach is backed by Mediterranean scrubland and an old watchtower, and because it's a protected area, it never gets that overcrowded, concrete-boardwalk feel.

You can park at the reserve entrance and either walk or take the shuttle to the beach. Bring your own food and water — there's a small kiosk but not much else, which is part of the charm. The Adriatic side of Puglia doesn't get the same attention as the Ionian coast, but on a calm day, Torre Guaceto is as beautiful as anywhere in the Mediterranean.

5. Visit the trulli of Alberobello

Yes, it's touristy. Yes, you should still go. The trulli — those cone-roofed stone houses that look like something from a fairy tale — are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and there's nowhere else in the world quite like it. The Rione Monti district has over a thousand of them, clustered together on a hillside.

Alberobello is about 30 to 45 minutes from our masseria, depending on which back roads you take (the back roads are better). Go early, walk the quieter streets behind the main strip, and peek inside a few of the trulli that have been kept in their original state. The story of why they were built this way — dry-stone construction so they could be quickly dismantled to avoid property taxes — is pure Puglia.

6. Browse the local markets

Every town in Puglia has a weekly market, and they're nothing like the curated "artisan markets" you find in northern Europe. These are loud, chaotic, and wonderful. Stalls selling mountains of local produce — tomatoes still warm from the sun, fresh burrata wrapped in green leaves, dried figs, taralli by the kilo. Mixed in with the food, there are stalls selling tablecloths, kitchen tools, and clothes your grandmother would love.

Ostuni's Saturday market is one of the best in the area. Get there by 9am and start with coffee at a bar on the edge of the market, then work your way through. The fish stalls are at the far end — whole swordfish laid out on ice, sea urchins in buckets. Even if you don't buy anything, it's a sensory experience you won't forget.

7. Taste the wines of Salento

Puglia is one of Italy's biggest wine-producing regions, but for a long time the grapes were shipped north as blending wine and nobody paid much attention. That's changed dramatically. Primitivo di Manduria and Negroamaro are the two grapes to know — the first is bold and fruit-forward, the second darker and more earthy.

There are dozens of small wineries in the countryside between Ostuni and Lecce that offer tastings, often in settings that are just as beautiful as the wine. Many of them are working farms. We include wine in our olive oil tasting experience because, honestly, the two go together perfectly — and because no afternoon in Puglia should be completely dry.

8. Learn to make orecchiette

Orecchiette — "little ears" — are the pasta shape of Puglia, and watching someone make them by hand is mesmerising. The dough is just semolina and water. A practiced nonna can turn out hundreds in an hour, dragging each piece across a wooden board with a butter knife to get that distinctive ridged, cupped shape.

Several places between Ostuni and Lecce offer cooking classes where you learn to make orecchiette from scratch, along with the classic sauce: cime di rapa (broccoli rabe) with garlic, chilli, and anchovy. It's one of those deceptively simple dishes that's almost impossible to replicate without seeing how it's done. If you visit Bari's old town, you can still find women making fresh orecchiette on tables in the street — but down here in Salento, you're more likely to learn in a farmhouse kitchen, which is better anyway.

9. Cycle through the olive groves

The countryside between Ostuni and Lecce is flat enough to cycle comfortably, and once you're off the main roads, the traffic essentially disappears. You're riding through olive groves, past dry-stone walls and abandoned masserie, with nothing but birdsong and the occasional tractor for company.

Several rental shops in both Ostuni and Lecce offer bikes (including e-bikes, which are worth it in the heat). There's no single "bike route" — the beauty is in picking a direction and seeing what you find. You'll pass ancient olive trees with trunks as thick as cars, tiny roadside chapels, and the occasional herd of goats blocking the road. Bring water and sunscreen, and plan to stop somewhere for a long lunch.

10. Watch the sunset from the coast

The Adriatic coast near Brindisi isn't dramatic in the way that the Amalfi Coast is — there are no cliffs or hairpin roads. Instead, it's low and gentle: rocky shorelines, small coves, and a horizon that stretches forever. And because you're facing east, the sunsets here light up the sky behind you, turning the old towns on the hills pink and gold.

For the best sunset, drive to the coast road between Savelletri and Torre Canne, park anywhere you can, and walk to the rocks. Bring a bottle of something cold. The locals do this constantly — entire families set up on the rocks with folding chairs, coolers, and enough food for a small army. It's not a "sunset spot" in the Instagram sense. It's just how people spend their evenings here.

This stretch of Puglia doesn't demand a rigid itinerary. The best days here usually involve one planned activity — a tasting, a town to explore, a beach — and then a lot of happy wandering. Leave room for the unplanned: a roadside fruit stand, a church you stumble into, a conversation with someone who insists you try their homemade limoncello.

If you're staying between Ostuni and Lecce, you're in exactly the right place. Everything on this list is within 45 minutes of where you're sleeping. And if you want to start with something that will change how you think about food for the rest of your trip, come taste olive oil with us.