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Difficult itenary : Italy to Istanbul ...

Posted by (Los Angeles, CA) on

I have racked my brain to find the best solution. I wonder if anyone has any other ideas.

I have 6 weeks in Italy, Greece and Turkey. Starting in Milan, somehow hitting Palermo and Puglia, and flying back from Athens. Got a rail pass.

My original plan was to proceed down from Milan to Puglia over time, then take a ferry to Corfu, and train to Athens (before we added Turkey). Also, I wanted to add Palermo, since I have been to eastern Sicily and loved it but never the main city and that area.

A. Its possible to take train down to the tip of the boot and ferry over to Sicily, roam around, then come back that way, and train over to Bari/Brindisi/Monopoli. But these are slow trains for the most part. Then get to Greece and try to take their trains up around to Istanbul. This is also slow and time consuming. A year ago, I took the train from Paestum to Taormina and it was essentially 8-9 hours. Its only 3 hours to get to Region Calabria, but despite the ferry taking 30 minutes, I think it took a full 2 hours of screwing around with putting the train on the ferry, then taking it off the other side.

B. I can just fly from Milan down to Palermo train over to Puglia stopping in Amalfi coast, then fly from Bari to Istanbul, then fly or ferry back to Greece. So two flights that cover a long distance. They are not too expensive. Bari seems to be the air hub for hat region. But the Bari - Istanbul flight is only a few days a week, and sometimes arriving at night, and price varies a lot and is super expensive the most ideal day ($135-$250).

C. Another idea is to take high speed train from Milan to Bologna to Ancona to Bari - make Bari a base and go up and down the coast, then go west to Naples/Salerno/Amalfi, down to the tip of the boot, over to Sicily and to Palermo. Then just make one flight from Palermo to Istanbul. Only problem with that is there is no non-stop flight at all, so you end up flying to Bucharest, Romania or elsewhere, and taking two flights and spending the whole day.

D. there are also a fair number of non-stop flights from Naples to Istanbul. A little more expensive ($180 ish). That works well for hitting Puglia then Naples. But what about Sicily? Overnight ferry to Palermo, and back?

Posted by
1806 posts

" I can just fly from Milan down to Palermo train over to Puglia stopping in Amalfi coast, then fly from Bari to Istanbul, then fly or ferry back to Greece." You are trying to force a square peg into a round hole. You can't just imagine transportation options. Start with finding simple transportation options and then decide where to go.

Posted by
15798 posts

When is your trip? It sounds to me like you are going to places that don't have much in the way of trains, so your rail pass sounds like a poor plan. AFAIK the only efficient way to go from AThens to Istanbul is a short flight. If you have time and are interested, you can probably find a sea route by ferrying and visiting some islands - if it's in tourist season. Otherwise, you won't find ferries between the two countries.

I found out a long time ago that the best planning is to choose the places to visit, then plot the logistics including the gateway cities, then buy the flights from/to home. It sounds like you're doing it backwards and getting all twisted up. If it were my trip, I'd change the itinerary to fit into the logistical parameters I'd locked myself into.

Posted by
1135 posts

I think you'll find that train from Greece to Istanbul is impractical. Google it to see if its improved, but it was not when we went. The only practical connection is by air. And as you say, Istanbul to smaller cities in Italy will not have direct flights.

So I would fly Milan to Istanbul first. Fly Istanbul to Athens second. Then overland to Igoumenitsa, from where you can take ferries to several destinations in Italy (Venice, Ancona, Bari, or Brindisi, from north to south). Then all your overland travel in Italy from wherever you get off the ferry.

Or do that whole thing in reverse.

Posted by
700 posts

Thank you for the concern for all those doubting my wisdom. I planned the trip pretty well, but then we have some people joining mid-trip, and we added two locations to the original plan. Of course I am aware of the need to check different schedules, times, and options. Even with a flight or two, we still save enough on the train travel - its not have to be all or nothing. What the plane does is swap a 1-3 days of train for 1/2 of flight. With flights not being too expensive, its way to supercharge our trip. Instead of waiting to return in 2-3 years, go ahead and go some place now.

I was actually looking for new and fresh ideas. Some options I was hoping for ...
- is there any hydrofoil from Palermo to Naples/Salerno?
- is there a bus route after the ferry from Messia to mainland that goes up to Brindisi or somewhere?
- Is there another hub city for flights? I just experimented and found Bari to be the hub of Puglia.

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