Otranto in a day, two and a half hours from Bari, with a night in the countryside.

Otranto is Italy's easternmost town, on the Adriatic coast of Salento, and its cathedral holds a 12th-century mosaic that covers the whole floor. From Bari it is about two and a half hours by car: enough to see the cathedral in the morning, eat at a farm stay by the sea and spend the afternoon at the pool of a masseria among olive trees, where you sleep. The next day, you continue along the coast or go back.

Getting there from Spain

By plane and car. There are direct flights to Bari from Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia. Pick up the hire car at the airport and head south along the dual carriageway towards Brindisi and Lecce: it is about 200 km to Otranto. If you land late, sleep in Bari and set out early.

The day, hour by hour

7:45 · Leave Bari. About 197 km and two hours forty minutes to Otranto.

10:30 · Otranto Cathedral. Park outside the old town and walk up. The cathedral, consecrated in 1088, has on its floor the mosaic that a workshop led by the monk Pantaleone made between 1163 and 1165: a great Tree of Life runs along the nave, with biblical episodes, bestiary animals and an Alexander the Great carried by griffins. At the far end of the right aisle, the chapel of the Martyrs of 1480; beneath the presbytery, the crypt of more than seventy columns. Open from 8:30 to 12:00. Afterwards, walk round the wall and the castle.

13:00 · Lunch at Il Contadino. About ten minutes north, in Frassanito, 700 metres from the sea. It has been a farm of the Merico family since 1987: pasta handmade every morning from their own wheat, grill, wood-fired pizza and fish they choose at the port of Otranto. Order the house antipasto, some orecchiette with turnip tops and whatever is in the fish display. Open every day; book a sitting.

16:00 · Masseria Montelauro. Head back south, to the outskirts of Otranto. Leave your bags in one of its 29 rooms with vaults and wrought iron and go down to the courtyard pool. Dine right there, in the Fimmine restaurant, with vegetables from the house garden.

The next day. Continue south along the coast to Santa Maria di Leuca and its boat to the caves, or go up to Lecce, about 45 minutes away, before returning to Bari.

With children

The cathedral can be seen in half an hour; the chapel of the Martyrs, with the bones on view, is impressive: warn them beforehand. The farm stay has a garden and the masseria, a pool.