3 Weeks in Southern Italy - April 2019
 

Hello all,
We are planning a trip to Southern Italy for April 2019, travel dates April 5th to 27th I have a couple of logistic questions for those who have traveled through this area. We have been to Rome and north a couple of times so Rome will not be part of this vacation. Easter next year is April 21st.
First question: Fly into Bari out of Naples, or the other way around. I was thinking Bari to Naples because it would be warmer when we were at the Amalfi Coast. Will Easter be really busy on the Amalfi coast? We would rent a car when not on the coast.

Thanks for now.

The Amalfi Coast will only increase in crowds through the month. I would go there first, get it out of your system, and then go enjoy Puglia practically to yourselves.

We had a wonderful visit to the Puglia region in the Fall of 2016. Our trip report: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...uglia-1149921/

We have been to the Amalfi coast several times, and we found the sea and ferries were more a part of our time there than it was in Puglia. For that reason, we would do Amalfi last, even with a busy Easter. I would rather take a ferry to Capri or Ischia when it's 80 degrees than when it's 70 and breezy. Puglia has its seafront, but there is so much more in that region including Lecce and all the trulli homes. Easter is a big deal in Italy, and there are usually parades and processions in Sorrento and Amalfi towns, but that can be part of the charm. We have not been there for Easter, but I am told that is the beginning of season but not as crazy as say August.

Whichever direction you select, I also would drive and spend some time in one of our favorite Italian towns, Matera.

IIRC Easter next year is the 19th of April. There is the national holiday the 25th. One more May 1st. I'd expect EVERYTHING to be full on from before Easter until May 1st. Busy? Really busy. There will be a lot of people taking long weekends in that period.

I've bought flight tickets for the same regions, almost the same time, fly to London, then take a separate flight into Bari and return from Naples. My logic was similar, that the weather would be better down south and then at the tail end of the trip, Amalfi Coast and Capri should be warmer and dryer.

It would be last week of April to mid May.

I haven't selected the bases yet but probably would stay overnight in Bari since the flight arrives around 5 PM, then base at Lecce for a few days, followed by Ostuni or Martina Franca, then back to Bari for a few days before going up to Vieste and then to Salerno to return the car and spend about a week split between Amalfi and Capri.

I have to figure out the parking situation in these Puglia towns. Hotels all list street parking nearby but you have to wonder about ZTL and so forth.

Note that Easter 2019 is April 21st, not the 19th.

Of course, no prediction is ever certain, but statistics for rain on the AC show a huge drop in the amount from early April to early May. Having been there in some pretty bad rains in early April, I would follow your plan and, with hopes of average statistics, put the AC last.

I'd stay in Bari too, there is an airport bus/train to Lecce but it takes a wee time and I'd rather check in,eat and move on the next day.

Thanks every one for your insights. We have decided to start in Bari and end up on the Amalfi coast. I will probably have more questions.

We were in Bologna the week before Easter and there were scads of folks traveling by bus and train on the Wed. and Thursday before. I can only presume they will be returning en masse early the next week!

Based solely on our limited experience, I would encourage you to pre-reserve any major train trips and car rental around the Easter holiday. Also, watch for holiday schedules (we ran into a problem with a ferry on Easter Monday on a different trip). In Madrid, on Good Friday, the road to my hotel was blocked for the Good Friday Procession so I had to wait for it to pass by! That wasn't a problem though.

Have a super trip.

I would encourage you to pre-reserve any major train trips and car rental around the Easter holiday>

Regional trains however don't take reservations but any faster train requires them before boarding and in peak periods yes can sell out early so book online yourselves at Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia - www.seat61.com has loads on doing that - general info Italian trains also wwwbudgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

I've been using the SBB app. in Switzerland the past couple of weeks.

What a great way to travel on trains. You can make last minute purchases at the station as the train arrives, though you its out on advanced day saver prices. Sometimes they're as much as 14 CHFs and other times, you would only save 2 or 3 CHFs by booking days in advance.

Of course it displays all the timetables so you can choose where to go on the fly.

No tickets to validate or worry about losing. You just board and show the QRR code in the app. (or they will also email you the QRR code) to the conductor.

I know TrenItalia has an app. as well but it's hard to imagine anyone doing it better than the SBB. You can use Apple Pay so you're not giving them your actual card numbers. Purchase takes just a few taps, especially if you create an SBB account. You can purchase tickets as guest too but each time you have to enter your email to make a purchase.

Hoping that TrenItalia has something as frictionless.

scrb - we discovered that app last year. We had swiss rail passes so we didn't use it to purchase tickets but it was a real boon for checking timetables, etc. Plus it works for the rest of Europe [but not for buying tickets I think].

We used the Trenatalia app several times last fall. Typically, we would book the night before when we were certain of our departure plans. We kept the "ticket" (bar code) on our iPhone, did not have to worry about validating and simply showed it to the ticket taker. No problems. The big advantage is that we did not have to wait in ticket lines or deal with machines, credit cards and the possibility (especially in places like Rome Termini) where hustlers often try to involve themselves in your ticketing process.

I like that it supports Apple Pay so you don't have to store your credit card number with them.

Okay, you have me a little worried about Easter, we are flexible with our time so I think we will fly into Bari on the 25th of March and that way we will leave Naples on the 17th or 18th of April. We are slow travellers, not needing to see everything but enjoy where we are.

probably a good plan, sheweeble. Sounds like a fun trip.

Thank you again. I will definitely have a look at the blog, time4trave4less. Probably more questions to come. Not swimming weather is fine for us. We live on a lake and spend our summer's swimming and boating

I visited Capri once in April. Weather was fine and people were swimming in the beaches by the Marina Piccola.

But the bummer part was that the Anacapri chair lift wasn't running.