bjamie

You all have been a great help in coming up with ideas for our time in Southern Italy next summer, but you have also created the problem of having too many things we really want to see now! In order to squeeze an extra night into our time over in Puglia, I am considering trying to make this happen on one day near the middle of our trip as we leave the Amalfi coast:

Early morning take the bus from Amalfi town to Salerno and pick up a rental car.
Drive to Paestum and see the ruins ( I should note we are fairly quick sightseers)
Drive to Castelmezzano for lunch and to hopefully do the zipline
Drive to Matera in time for dinner and to stay for two nights

Thoughts? How far off the main highway is Castelmezzano? Obviously, this is not an ideal itinerary, but the other options seem to be spending the night in Castelmezzano, which means only a day and a half in Puglia, or cutting Castelmezzano out completely. Right now our travel philosophy is to see a lot on each trip so that when we come back to that region in a few years we know where we want to slow down and take more time.

kja

I haven't tried to clock it out, but I don't think this plan works well as presented.

Even if you are able to board the first bus from Amalfi to Salerno, you would still need to get to the car rental agency, complete the paperwork and pick up the car, etc. Once you get to Paestum, you will face an extensive site, so no matter how quick your sightseeing normally is, you still need to walk some distance to see the three temples for which it is best known. And the museum there is really quite special, with things that - as I understand it - simply can not be seen any where else in the world. I was glad to spend an hour there; you could probably whiz through in 1/2 hour if you were determined to do so. (Note that for the purpose of evaluating whether your plan is doable, I'm assuming you would skip the rest of the site.)

You might be able to get to Matera in time for dinner, but I would think you would be more likely to be ready for lunch while in Paestum - and that's not a bad idea, since it is known for its buffalo mozzarella.

As I said, I haven't timed it out, and I haven't been to Castelmezzano so I can't say how long you will need for the zip line there.

Hope this helps!

annhig

all this for one and half days in Puglia?

personally that would just frustrate me - you'll be spending far more time travelling than seeing, and it's not as if there is a shortage of things to do in and around the amalfi.

but perhaps i've misunderstood - where do you go after Puglia?

bjamie

We need to end up in Bari to take the ferry over to Dubrovnik. There don't seem to be any reasonable flight connections between Southern Italy and Southern Croatia, so the ferry is our best option for connecting the two and I hate to go all the way over to that Eastern coast and not get to spend at least a day or two getting a feel for it!

ekscrunchy

I would rethink. You might do better to leave out Paestum on this trip, beause as you have it now, it appears to be touch and go. Rushing in and out means missing a mozzarella farm, as well as giving the ruins and museum short shrift.

Castelmezzano does not apepar to be too far off the main road, but if you are driving all the way there, it seems a shame to rush through it, and also to miss the other interesting places in the area. Is the zip lining that important, given the lack of time?

Although I would hate to cut the time in Matera, you might have to do that to get a mroe workable plan.

Where does Puglia come into this?

annhig

bjamie - could you post your itinerary to give us a better feel for it? including the ferry date and time?

bjamie

We haved reviewed a bit, and here is the itinerary we are now looking at - this is late August:

Day1: Arrive Naples from USA west coast around 15:30
Day 2: Naples
Day 3: Pompeii en route to Sorrento
Day 4: Sorrento
Day 5: Sorrento
Day 6: Rent car, drive to Pompeii, drive to Castelmezzano and stay night
Day 7: Matera
Day 8: Matera
Day 9: Drive to Polignano a Mare via Alberobello and Locorontondo
Day 10: Polignano a Mare
Day 11: Bari
Day 12: Bari ( with possible day trip to Trani), Overnight ferry to Dubrovnik - I think it leaves around 21:00?

I realize this is crowded, but that really is our travel style. We are fairly young and for now like to travel like we are coming back at some point in the not - too - distant future and can spend more time in the places we really liked. Thanks for the help!

annhig

bjamie - if I've got the right Castelmezzano, it's about 2 hours drive from Pompeii, according to google maps. if you are intending to see Pompeii on the same day as you drive to Castelmezzano [I'm not sure from your itinerary whether you're planning to see it on this day or Day 3] then you might not want a 2 hour drive afterwards.

if you've already seen Pompeii, then this looks like a good plan.

bjamie

Oops. I meant Paestum on Day 6, not Pompeii

annhig

mm - possibly not quite so good then. what time of year are we talking about?

bjamie

Late August. It looks like Paestum is only about a 2 hour drive from Sorrento though, and Castelmezzano is about another hour - 1 1/2 after that.

ekscrunchy

There is no way that Castelmezzano is an hour or an hour-and-a-half drive from Paestum.


Are you renting the car in Sorrento, or Salerno?

bjamie

Really? Google maps says just over an hour and a half. We are renting in Sorrento

annhig

eck - that's what google maps is telling me too, to be fair.

bjamie - have you checked on mappy.com or viamichelin.com?

I hope you're reckoning on getting an early start from Sorrento. it turns out that it opens at 8.45 so if you can get there early, you should have plenty of time; here's the info on opening that i eventually found buried in the link to the museum:

Orario
8,45-19,45 (l’ingresso chiude alle 18.45).

Chiuso il 1° e il 3° lunedì di ogni mese, il 25 dicembre, il 1° gennaio e il 1° maggio.


Ingresso
4,00 euro (solo museo); 6,50 euro (museo e area archeologica).

I hope that you are not planning your visit on the 1st or 3rd monday of the month, as it will be closed!

bjamie

Thanks so much for the info - I believe it is a Wednesday we will be there, so no problems. The other map sites do put the trip at a bit longer, but about 1:45 average, so I think we could still do it. We are not in a hurry to leave Castelmezzano the next morning, so if we get there too late to explore, we can poke around the following day.

sundriedpachino

Bjamie, check out this website, it also has some links. They recommend booking in advance, and being there up to 45 minutes before your time slot. To be on the safe side, maybe you could book the Flight of the Angels for the morning. It's fairly expensive, so would be a shame to miss your booking.

http://www.volodellangelo.com/eng/web/item.asp?nav=46

If you do make it there please do a bit of a report, as there isn't much feedback available about this area.

annhig

wow - I followed your link and found my way to the website which i've bookmarked - I'd better not mention it to my adrenalin junky DS.

thank you for bringing this area to my attention - yet another to add to my italian bucket list, and i too would love to read a trip report.

ekscrunchy

Paestum to Castelmezzano is 2 hours and 10 minutes on ViaMichelin.it, which is the site I would trust.

I had one experience with the Google maps in that area of Basilicata, a few months ago.

We wasted more than an hour before I decided to begin asking passersby and ignore the Google map. That may not have any bearing on your ownn experiience, but I would caution you to backup the info with another source.