In short. Trenitalia reaches the main Apulian stations on the Adriatic line. Below it sits a second network most visitors never discover — the local railways, which are how you get to the inland towns without a car.
The train is the restful way to arrive: someone else drives, and the coast goes past the window for the last three hours of it.
Getting here
Trenitalia runs fast, modern services to the main stations of the region. Coming from the north, the line follows the Adriatic — which means that the journey itself is worth a window seat rather than an aisle one.
The railways nobody tells you about
The useful part is the second layer. Alongside the national network, Puglia has a set of local railways that serve the small towns:
- Ferrovie del Sud Est — the Valle d’Itria and the Salento, including Locorotondo, Martina Franca and Alberobello
- Ferrovie del Gargano — the north and the spur
- Ferrotramviaria Bari Nord — Bari and the towns above it
- Ferrovie Appulo Lucane — inland, towards Basilicata
What this means in practice. If you are staying in a town on one of these lines, you can do a good part of a holiday without a car — the Valle d’Itria in particular. Outside them, the buses are infrequent and a car goes back to being close to essential.
Back to getting to Puglia.
