Getting from Positano to Matera, Italy in October
 

Can anyone give me advice on getting from Positano to Matera using public transportation? Grazie.

"Matera is a little out of the way so it can be difficult to reach. The city is served by a private rail line, Ferrovie Appulo Lucane every day except Sundays and holidays. To reach Matera take a train to Bari on the national train line, go out of the station and around the corner to the smaller Ferrovie Appulo Lucane station where you can buy a ticket and take a train to Matera. The train takes about 1 1/2 hour. From the Matera station you can take a linea Sassi bus to the Sassi area or it's about a 20 minute walk.

"Matera can be reached by bus from nearby towns in Basilicata and Puglia. There are a few buses from major cities in Italy including Bari, Taranto, Rome, Ancona, Florence, and even Milan."

Above taken from http://goitaly.about.com/od/matera/a...Essentials.htm

http://ferrovieappulolucane.it/

You're going to have to do the research on timetables and connections. You could train from Salerno to Taranto and take a bus, but it might be faster to train from Naples to Bari and then the regional train to Matera. Either way, this will likely take all day, so start early.

You could also rent a car in Salerno which is what I would do. The driving time would be under 3 hours.

If you decide to drive it, it's a relatively easy and not to long (3 hrs)of a drive over autostradas and fairly good highways into Matera. Public transportation may not be too much of a hassle. A local bus, Amalfi to Salerno, and pick up a longer distance bus into Matera, or a train Salerno to Matera. Both train and bus are nearly the same time factor, a little over 5 hours with good connection.

I would once again suggest the drive, avoidng all hassles with train and bus stations....and you're the boss.

It doesn't make any sense to me to go from Naples to Bari (west to east,one coast to another)only to backtrack half the distance again from Bari to Matera. It's a great tip if you're already on the Adriatic coast. I'm not interested in driving. Does anyone know the name of the bus company that goes from the Amalfi coast to Matera? Thank you.

There is no bus service that will take you directly from Positano to Matera. You're going to have to go to either Naples or Salerno.

Google is your friend.

Marinobus has direct service (line #62) from the Naples train station to Matera. Leaves at 2:00p, arrives 6:20p.

http://www.marinobus.it/orario_autol...&arrivo=matera [Italian only]

Or you can consider this:

http://www.rome2rio.com/s/Amalfi-Coast/Matera

Look into, also, at taking an FAL train from NAples or Salerno (check which of the two) to the Ferrandina station in Basilicata. From there, there appear to be shuttle buses to Matera.

Sorry, train above is TrenItalia, not FAL; see here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...asilicata.html


The bus from Naples would be faster, though.