Anyone have any experience visiting either Calabria or Basilicata. Going to look for family roots and having difficulty getting info, especially about southern Basilicata province and the east coast of calabria (Ionian) side.

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience to share with you. However, I do have the same interest! Two of the towns of my ancestral origins are Accettura (province of Matera, Basilicata) and Ciro (province of Crotone, formerly prov. of Catanzaro, Calabria, also eastern side). I'm aware of two tours to Basilicata, one of which I'm considering taking. I can give you the contact info if you're interested. (One of them concentrates on southern Basilicata near Calabria - Pollino Park area.) If you know of tours to either area, would you let me know? I think it would be difficult to travel in these areas completely independently, even knowing some Italian. There was a travel article in NYTimes Sunday Sept. 3 re Basilicata.

Dear Bob, We are leaving on Friday.Flying into Naples...going over to the Adriatic south to Lecce ...then across. I got a lot of good info from the web site initaly.com....That site lists the provinces ,,info about each one.It is not a sales site.All the info is from travelers.History,itineraries, hotels&lt;with comments&gt;,restaurants etc <BR> One thing they did say was to be very careful with purses,luggage AND even your car!Especially in towns...like Bari.It mentioned that there are still kidnappings in Calabria &lt;outlaws for money&gt;.I understand if you stay in the countryside..it is safe.Let you know.I return on Nov.9th.

Hi, We are leaving in November and shall be driving South from Florence to <BR>Sicily coming back to US, Dec 4. We plan to explore a little of Basilicata on the way. Will be glad to share our experiences, <BR>we are going on our on,as usual , and I'm sure it will be perfectly ok to do so . <BR>Best of luck <BR>

Another great website: www.basilicata.com <BR>I had the impression that it would be difficult for a person alone to travel around to small towns by public transportation. True or not? So I'm looking for a tour of the area, then would go on my own to one little town after the tour (by bus or hired driver?)and stay a few days. I did that when visiting a little mountain town in Sicily after a tour and it worked very well. The little town was very, very safe, friendly, and almost tourist-free (except for me), and I'd guess a small town in Basilicata might be similar.