CAMPANIA and PUGLIA TRAVEL
 

Planning two weeks in Southern Italy including Naples/Positano/Amalfi/Solerno and then on to APULIA. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks

<BR>You don't say what means of transportation you're using. My daughter & I took trains from Naples to Siracusa, Sicily in '95, plus a bus ride along the Amalfi coast with a couple of stops. That worked well. We intended to go to Apulia but failed to determine the connecting train stop. You can't get there from Reggio di Calabria. From what I read, car rentals in that area are prohibitively expensive due to theft and vandalism, so train is probably the best way to go. Just be sure to know the stops and schedules. The trulli buildings at Fasano and the caves near Monopoli in Apulia should be worth visiting. <BR>

We were in the Puglia region last fall, Sept-Oct 1997. We flew into Bari from Palmermo. In Bari we picked up a rental car and drove south to Otranto. The area is safe and easy to get around in although the traffic in the larger cities is horendous. We drove from Otrano to Pompeii. It is a beautiful drive. It took about 5 hours. Pompeii is a poor area and not much to see except for the ruins of Pompeii. The car rental was no more expensive than the rest of Italy.

Make sure you see the greek temples at Pasteum, a little south-east of Salerno. If you get all the way down to Reggio, I understand the museum is outstanding.

Great, great trip// get to Monopoli and make the run down to Leuca at the tip of the Apulian peninsula. One of the best trips in all of Europe!!

Message: If you have time beforehand, you might want to read "Old Calabria" by Norman Douglas, a Scotsman who describes a walking tour through Calabria. Book originally published 1915

Be sure to visit Lecce and Martina Franca in APULIA.

Make sure to see the Castel Del Monte in the puglia region, not to be missed!

If you get to Apullia (Puglia) do go to see Ostunia (the white city) and also Alberobelo, the town of the trulli's-fascinating. Also some of the small communities along the southern Adriatic there are lovely, untouristed and have incredible fresh seafood. Remember, though, that this area is heavily influenced by Grecian ways and nobody eats 'til 10.

LJ is soooo right! The town of Alberobelo is so amazing. It is filled with these tiny, peaked white houses, litteraly hundreds of them all clustered together, it looks like a fairytale land!