Three Italy hotel/apartment rental sources that we used in 2004 and had good luck with are:

http://www.slowtrav.com Apartment and hotel listings and independent reviews by folks who actually stayed in them. Great for second- opinions.

http://www.domani-usa.com We rented a delightful self-catering apartment in Lucca through them.

http://www.venere.com They got us a fine hotel room in Bologna. Their site claims to have 60 listings for Puglia/Apulia.

Jerry in E TN