Late morning transfers from Naples Central train station and airport, where you will be met by your tour manager. Our first stop is for a fascinating afternoon guided tour through the streets of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city that remained buried for 1800 years underneath ash and stone from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Ravello, once home to ancient Roman villas, was later the second city of the powerful Amalfi maritime republic with a population of 40,000. Spectacular views, wonderful semitropical gardens, a grand open square and 11^th century cathedral highlight this small piece of Italian paradise. In more recent centuries Ravello has played host to many famous composers and writers like Richard Wagner, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Gore Vidal. Our three night stay at the elegant Hotel Villa Maria will begin with aperitifs and welcome dinner on the hotel balcony overlooking the stunning Amalfi Coast.

Morning at leisure. Ravello, a noted resort during ancient Roman times and later part of the Amalfi Republic, has in the last few centuries been home to famous writers and composers. It has much to enjoy with its sea views, wonderful gardens, pedestrian only lanes and enormous town square.

2pm departure for a boat cruise to colorful Positano, dramatically perched on a cliffside overlooking a deep blue sea.

Late afternoon return to Amalfi, the most intriguing city of this whole amazing coastline. The Amalfi city-state, unlike the rest of Italy (Venice excluded), didn’t disappear into the so-called Dark Ages, but maintained a continuity of wealth and influence from Roman times until the 11^th and 12^th centuries when it suffered sackings first by Normans, then twice by Pisa. Its decline was completed in the 14^th century, when an earthquake caused most of the city to slide into the sea.

Today it is a beautiful small town that hugs the harbor with winding pedestrian lanes and 5,000 inhabitants. Our guided tour will take us through the tiny squares and alleyways, the Arsenal (medieval shipyard) and the Norman cathedral.

Included seafood dinner at a local trattoria.

Sorrento, our morning destination, sits atop a cliff looking down on the Bay of Naples. Narrow, winding lanes, artisan shops, wisteria hanging from terraces and the smell of citrus flowers all add to the charm of this historic resort town.

Mid afternoon we’ll take the famous Amalfi Coast scenic drive back to Ravello. Evening free.

Leaving the Tyrrhenian coast we will cross the Italian peninsula to eventually reach the Adriatic Sea.

Paestum, an ancient Greek and Roman town founded in 720 B.C., is home to three of the best preserved Greek temples in the Mediterranean. Paestum was abandoned during medieval times and its existence forgotten until the 18th century. Our local guide will walk us through the archeological complex and museum bringing this powerful town of Magna Graecia back to life.

Afternoon transfer to the “Sassi” of Matera, a spectacular agglomeration of cave dwellings built into the soft tufa stone of deep ravines. Our hotel for the next three nights is the Hotel Palazzo Viceconte, located in the heart of the Sassi historic district.

Included dinner

Inhabited since prehistoric times, there were 18,000 resident Sassi cave dwellers as recently as the 1950s when they were forcibly evacuated for inadequate sanitation. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the area has been repopulated, the homes renovated, many transformed into elegant hotels and restaurants. This morning we will have a fascinating guided tour through these antique lanes including a visit to the Peasant Culture Museum.

On the plateau above the gorge, just 100 meters from your hotel, the more modern Matera offers an architectural gem of a city center with open squares, fountains and inviting shops.

Click to read more about Matera

Altamura is a lovely hilltop, medieval hamlet well known for making the best bread in Italy. As part of our guided tour of the historic district we’ll visit the Museo del Pane. The museum, formerly a bakery dating back to the 13th century, reveals a fascinating story of the importance of bread in our past and the oven, antique utensils and processes involved.

Not long ago, the oldest complete skeleton of a Neanderthal man was discovered in a nearby cave. Dating as far back as 180,000 years ago the remarkably well preserved skeleton has been one of the most important finds in unlocking pieces of our genetic code. We’ll complete our morning at an excellent small museum that has been created around our distant origins called L’Uomo di Altamura.

Included lunch at a rural farmhouse.

Afternoon guided visit to Castel del Monte, the enigmatic octagonal castle erected by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century.

Evening on your own in Matera

Today our first stop is Manduria, where we’ll visit a local winery for a tasting of their excellent “primitivo” wines and a visit to their Wine Culture Museum. Included light lunch.

Afternoon transfer to the historic district of Lecce, where our May and October groups will be staying two nights at the 18th century Patria Palace Hotel. For September our lodging will be the Risorgimento Resort, a 14th century inn-turned-hotel in 1800.

Lecce presents an architectural feast. An ancient settlement of the Messapii tribes, it is the principal Baroque city of Puglia. Baroque, in architecture, is a theatrical style begun in late 16th century Italy as a statement of the power of the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Evening free to experience one of the best passeggiata in all of Italy.

Morning local guide tour of Lecce.

Afternoon trip to the ancient Roman and Byzantine town of Otranto, the easternmost point on the Italian peninsula. Our guide will take us through the 1000 year old walled hamlet and the 11th century Norman cathedral with the best preserved mosaic floors in southern Italy.

Evening free in Lecce

Morning visit to the medieval town of Galatina to see the 14th century Santa Caterina d’Alessandria Cathedral where there are frescoes so vast and magnificent that you might imagine yourself to be in Assisi.

Our next destination is Brindisi, the famous Adriatic Sea port of the ancient Romans and the terminal point of the Appian Way. Included lunch.

Ostuni, one of the most beautiful hill towns in Puglia, is white, all of it – the houses, shops, churches, streets – set under a deep blue sky and perched on a hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The upper historic center is a maze of twisted lanes and staircases, homes constructed one on top of another, and arches that seem to hold it all together before spilling out into an enormous square full of bars, shops and restaurants that is the lower town.

Inhabited at least since 1000 BC by native peoples, Ostuni was destroyed by Hannibal during the Punic wars, rebuilt by the Greeks, taken over by Romans, sacked by Gauls and revived during medieval times. Our hotel is the labyrinthine 13th century Hotel La Terra.

The hotel restaurant will offer us a tasting of local products. You’ll have the evening on your own to further experience the wonderful local cuisine.

If there were any one place to best detail Italy’s ancient history that place would be Taranto.  Originally an island located on Puglia’s Ionian coast, Taranto was colonized by Greek Spartans way back in the 8th century B.C. and within 200 years had an enormous population of 300,000 inhabitants and was the most dominant city in southern Italy. In the 3rd century B.C it was eventually overcome by the might of Rome and its economic influence declined with the construction of the Via Appia to Brindisi on the Adriatic Coast.

Our local guide will walk us through these centuries and what remains of them in a delightful tour of the historic center.

After lunch on your own we’ll have a guided tour of one of Italy’s most important archaeological museums, the MArTA.

Evening free in Ostuni.

At Alberobello there is a village of one thousand fairytale-like Trulli, round white houses with tall conical roofs. Our local guide will explain their mysterious origins and why people continue to build them.

Afternoon tour of an 11th century Masseria (fortified farmhouse) with a tasting of olive oils from their ancient olive trees.

Farewell dinner of local Apulian delicacies and last limoncello in Ostuni.