A few lessons learned from hauling luggage through train stations, changing plans at the last minute and spending one very crowded ride packed like sardines between Cinque Terre and Florence.

I wouldn’t write off Puglia’s biggest city as just a place to catch a flight. Bari was the final stop on my nine-day trip through Puglia, and admittedly, it was the city I had planned the least around.

You don’t need a car in Puglia, and I wish I had known that. After one attempt at driving through Ostuni, I realized the rental car everyone told me I needed was actually making the trip harder.