A Sunday in the Itria Valley, three white villages an hour from Bari.

This is the classic Itria Valley day, in the order that dodges the crowds: Alberobello first thing, when the trulli districts are still empty; Locorotondo at midday, with its viewpoint and a fresh-pasta lunch; and Martina Franca in the afternoon, when the Baroque old town cools down. We set it out from Bari, an hour by car from Alberobello, and it works on a Sunday.

Getting there from Spain

By plane and car. There are direct flights to Bari from Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. Hire a car at the airport and sleep in Bari or already in the valley: from Bari, Alberobello is an hour away by the southern dual carriageway. Without a car there are Ferrovie del Sud Est trains from Bari to Alberobello, Locorotondo and Martina Franca, but Sunday timetables are sparser: check them first.

The day, hour by hour

8:00 · Leave Bari. An hour by car to the south, along the dual carriageway and the Putignano road.

9:00 · Alberobello and the Trullo Sovrano. Leave the car outside the old town and go up to Rione Monti, the World Heritage trulli district, before the buses arrive. Then cross to the quieter Aia Piccola. At 10:00 the Trullo Sovrano opens, the only trullo with an upper floor, a house-museum with its original furniture: €2.50.

12:00 · Locorotondo. A few minutes by car to the round village above the valley. Walk its white alleys, look at the cummerse houses with their double-pitched roofs of stone slabs and look out from the viewpoint: below, the vines and the cones of the trulli.

13:00 · Lunch at Bina. On Via Dottor Recchia, inside the old town, beneath 18th-century vaults. The cook prepares fresh pasta every day; order the one of the day and a white Locorotondo DOC. On Sunday it is open at lunchtime only: book.

16:30 · Baroque Martina Franca. Ten minutes by car. Park outside the wall, enter by Piazza Roma opposite the Ducal Palace and continue to the basilica of San Martino. Get lost in the alleys until the light falls.

19:30 · Return to Bari. A little over an hour by car.

With children

Children like Alberobello: the trulli look like fairy-tale houses and the Trullo Sovrano can be seen in a short while. Rione Monti has slopes and steps, a rucksack is better than a pushchair. If it rains, swap Locorotondo for the Grotte di Castellana: under-5s do not pay.