Puglia and Sicily - help!
 

Hello. Planning a trip for this Fall to Puglia and perhaps Sicily. Am using this Forum for research and advice as it has been so helpful in the past. Hope someone could help me with a few questions. We will stay in one place for a week in Puglia and do day trips. I was thinking of Monopoli as a base and day trips to Matera and a couple others? We are thinking of an apartment rather than the countryside as we will not have a car. Any recommendations on drivers? Apartments? Other spots than Matera? We will leave Puglia and head to Sicily. I know there are flights - but would the train be good? Does the train go to Catania? I couldn't seem to get that information on the train website. Thank you !

I'd recommend Lecce. The train system in Italy is pretty good, a little poorer in the south but still very good. The Pullman coach system in Sicily is better than the train system but still works. trenitalia is very good for searching town to town, less good area to area. It is vital to spell the names correctly.

The train is interesting, you get to take the actual train onto the ferry.

We also combined Puglia and Sicily. In Puglia we stayed in Polignano a Mate for ten days and used it as a base. This worked well. Also visited Matera. We loved Puglia.
Then two and a half weeks in Sicily. We flew on a 55 minute non stop flight from Bari to Palermo. There also were flights to Catania. That was so much better than having to fly to Rome to change planes and take another flight to Palermo.

If you want a driver in Sicily I can enthusiastically recommend Dario Cafiso of tourbarocco.it. I've been to Puglia several times and to Sicily about 3 times;just returned from a miraculously great trip and this time we did not rent a car but relied on drivers.

A train (and ferry) ride from Lecce to Catania takes at least 13 hrs.(with at least 4 changes; unless you make the big detour via Naples)).

Check rome2rio.com for a overniew.

Thank you very much for your replies. We have decided that we will just spread the whole two weeks in Puglia and save Sicily for the next trip. I am hoping to plan enough to do for two weeks in Puglia. We will pick two spots and do day trips from there. I am thinking Lecce and Monopoli? Now the task to find a place for a week?