Driving Bari to Matera

It’s all 4 lane freeway once you get on it near Bari Nord. Just follow your google maps navigator

In Sept-Oct of this year, we did a trip that started in the airport in Bari (where we rented a car), and eventually finished in Matera (though after a good, long, multi-week wander around Puglia). All done via that rental car. We drove back from Matera to the airport in Bari, and flew away.

I did a lot of driving on this trip. 98% of it was easy, stress-free, and as pleasant as one could imagine. The last 2% was more stressful, occasionally with "a full load" of tasks and stress. I can manage a lot of task-juggling and prioritization behind the wheel (I am a lifelong pilot, which I have found makes me a good driver, able to manage lots of input all while keeping the most critical priorities covered: staying alive, staying out of collisions, making sure nobody goes to the hospital or morgue). I'll admit there were a few minutes during our roughly 3-week Puglia trip when I had just about reached "task saturation" (the point where any more additional tasks could have resulted in Very Bad Outcomes) but those were very few and only fleeting.

The biggest driving and car-related challenges I faced were:

• The initial drive out of the Bari car rental parking lot - at the airport (really, navigating out of the airport parking lot!). Part of that was due to the confusing signage or lack of signage, the narrow spaces between the parked cars, and the fact that it was my first few minutes in the car.
• Trying to find parking in a few of the old cities, in or near the center. I knew this would not be easy, and in almost all cases the best choice I made was simply to park at a paid lot well outside the old center and proceed on foot. This is almost always your best choice.
• A couple of times, as I was approaching the old center of a city, I was looking for parking but got funneled into a series of one-way streets, which inexorably led me to streets that were increasingly narrow, at one point so narrow that the tires of our car were getting squeezed by the curbs on both sides of the street at the same time - even though we had a small car, the street got so narrow I could feel (and hear) the tires rubbing on both curbs. If the street had gotten another 1/2 inch more narrow, we would have been wedged in. Of course there were cars (smaller than mine) behind me, on my bumper, so I was trying not to stop. In that case the street widened, we made it through the choke point, and drove onward to easier streets. My lesson learned: be more careful entering any one-way street near an old center, because even if you can get through a few blocks, you may have no options to bail out and turn off to a wider/better street, you may be forced to go deeper and deeper into the center, where the streets may become physically impassable. Of course, in cases like this, there's probably a ZTL ahead (in my case, we were there when the ZTL was not active, so it was legal to drive through, though neither easy nor wise to do so).

As long as you are very disciplined about avoiding situations as described above (anytime you get close to the historic center of an old city), I think most reasonably skilled/experienced drivers can do this. If you have little (or no) experience driving overseas (I have lots), you should be super-cautious.

An axiom I always remember is: The first 20 minutes of driving in any foreign country are the most stressful and dangerous. Parachuting into Italy, finding yourself behind the wheel (especially right after a long redeye flight) is not for the faint of heart. You (and your right-seat copilot/navigator/helper) need to both take your jobs seriously (deadly seriously, like as serious as a head-on collision at a combined velocity or 200 km/hr). It can be done, but it will require you to bring your A game, at least initially and at times afterward.

I'm currently working on a trip report for this trip. It'll still be a while (busy busy) but may address some of your questions if you can be patient. Hope this helps.

Oh, one more tip about exiting the airport and finding your way: "drive" the route via Google maps street view. Drive it repeatedly. Until you recognize every turn, every highway exit, every signpost, every place you'll need to merge, until you have have names for each tree or bush growing by the side of the road, and know all the details like the back of your hand. Some of the photos from Google are old and the bushes and trees may have changed, but it'll make it easier and give you confidence - especially for each turn.

Note the look of things, the kind of signage you'll see, the traffic flow, pay particular attention to what the exits look like and how they are marked. I did this and it made finding my way (once I got out of the bloody parking lot...) safely and with no missed turns. Driving there is different than here, and it will take you a while to get in the mindset so you can drive with a degree of confidence and comfort. It will get easier after you do it for a while, but be super super careful in the first 20-30 minutes, and then each time you encounter something new. Try to have good, detailed information on exactly where you are going and how you will get there.

Good luck!