RCLCOLPB

We will be traveling to southern Italy for a 14-day trip in late September to early October. We are currently planning to spend the entire time in Sicily, but we are trying to decide whether we should instead fly into Brindisi and spend a few days in Puglia and Matera before driving down to Sicily. We will be flying home from Catania.

We have visited much of the rest of Italy on a number of other trips over the years, and loved all of them, but we have never been south of the Amalfi Coast. It is quite possible that if we don’t go to Puglia on this trip, we won’t have the opportunity to come back another time. We tend to keep busier and not travel as slowly on trips like this as perhaps would be best. Although we like Roman and Greek ruins, we find that we can overdose on them if we see too many on a particular trip.

What would you recommend? If you do think we should include Puglia, how many days would you suggest spending before heading to Sicily?

Thanks very much,

Len

adrienne

You could easily spend 2 weeks on Sicily and not see everything. There are a limited number of ruins so you could not possibly overdose on these. Sicily has so much more than ruins.

The best way to decide what to do is to get a guide book and list the number of towns and sights you want to visit on Sicily and then make the decision if 9 or 10 days would be enough for you.

kja

IMO, 2 weeks is the BARE minimum for Sicily, even when traveling fast. I also travel fast, and regret that I gave Sicily ONLY 2 weeks. Part of what makes Sicily so fascinating is that it is NOT "just" Roman and Greek ruins -- there is SO much more to see there!

I agree with adrienne (as I often do ) -- consult guidebooks and plot out your time. I strongly recommend the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet as your primary resource. I would also recommend that you consult Fodor's, Frommer's, or the Michelin Green Guides to help prioritize and the National Geographic Traveler, Insight Guides, or Eyewitness for inspiration.

FWIW, I did a quick skim of Puglia -- just 4 or 5 days, enough to get a sense, but NOT enough to see all its highlights. And I gave Naples and the Amalfi Coast only 6 days -- again, not enough. For me, my trip to southern Italy was a real turning point in my trip planning -- I NEVER want to shortchange SO MANY places again. YMMV.

Sicily is fasceinating -- enjoy!

gertie3751

I spent 3+2 weeks in Sicily and 2 weeks in Puglia!!

sandralist

I think you will find most of the driving from Matera to Sicily to be fairly wearing -- and then you will face a lot more driving in Sicily. For an adventure, it might be more fun to drive to Salerno and take an overnight ferry to Sicily (and see Paestum if you haven't before boarding the boat).

You can be very selective about where you go in Sicily and what you see, and you can feel free to skip plenty of the "must sees" -- not because they aren't interesting (they are) but because Sicily has more "must sees" than can be seen in 10 weeks or 2 weeks or a month -- so you just might as well choose your own personal top 10 and hope you can return another time for more of the remaining.

I so much like Sicily better than Puglia that even if I wanted to combine more of the mainland with Sicily, then I would pick Matera and Paestum, or other parts of Basilicata, rather than Puglia. But if there are specific sights in Puglia that are calling to you and you want to go, then I would only recommend finding another way to get Sicily from there other than driving.

sandralist

(I think maybe my first paragraph wasn't clear: If you fly to Brindisi and sightsee in Puglia and Matera, you might consider driving over to Salerno after that to see Paestum and then take the overnight ferry to Sicily, rather than leave Matera and drive to Sicily.)

bobthenavigator

See Sicily--it takes at least 2 weeks.

Here is a sneak preview:
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=3828

RCLCOLPB

Thanks so much for all of your useful inputs. I think we are going to stick with Sicily for this trip, and aim to come back to southern Italy again in the future.

Len