miguel2661
Traveller
7 comments
Posted 12 years ago
Hey guys.
I'm going on a 2 week trip around the south of Italy.
The travel route so far is:
Palermo - Agrigento - Siracusa - Catania and Mount Etna - Taormina - Bari/Lecce/Matera - Napoli and surrounding region.
I've got the Sicilian part very figured out in terms of connections as nothing is very far away and all the trips are easily doable. Going to Puglia (Bari/Lecce/Matera) however, is proving tricky as I only have 2/3 days for it. Bari seems to be the best city for the train connections from Taormina and to Napoli. I was wondering if any of you has had experience traveling to this region and could give me a hand.
I would be extremely grateful for any help on this matter!
nltrainer
Traveller
1416 comments
1.to make only these trips-forget IR-buy when there-much cheaper.
Il treni are often late or very late overthere-manana/domani/siesta mentality.
on SICILy BUSes are often much more frequent, reliable, faster (via autostrada), but not cheaper as trains.
2.your Q is not quite clear- Bari (and also Brindisi) are mainly hell-holes, serving as ports and gathering up people going by ferry during the day-and numerous pickpockets, deceivers-there is nothing really to see, but graffittied ruined buildings.
3.connections from Reggio (tip of the IT-boot) to Puglia are indeed, bad, very bad-there used to be a direct overnite, but this is no more. Also-and not on all those planners, are in summer often unannounced works, cancellations or those eternal strikes (scioperta-look for those small sings hanging out) etc-making detours necessary.
in short: forget it-look for another part to visit more easy to fit in, OR, if hell-bent, shorter time in Sic to alow for more travel time.
miguel2661
Traveller
7 comments
Thanks for the reply! Will check the buses in Sicilia for the trips there.
As of Bari I never intended to visit or stay on it. Was thinking of using it as hub between cities since it's a large one and therefore facilitates connectrions between say Napoli and Lecce or Lecce to Matera. So I'd go from Napoli to Lecce via Bari.
Regarding the trains being late... Do you think the trenitalia frecciabianca trains have a chance on leaving/arriving late? Because I have a flight at night that day and the Frecciabianca + FrecciaRossa would allow me to go from Lecce to Milano (where my flight is) with around 3 hours to spare before leaving for the airport.
According to trenitalia the earliest Lecce-Milano connection would leave at 06:13 and arrive in Milano at 14:40 with change at Bologna. I'd have to be on the airport at around 18:10.
Otherwise I'll just ditch the whole Puglia thing and spend more days on Sicilia/Napoli.