Current plan-
5/5 land Florence,
5/6 david and duomo reserved
5/7 pick up rental drive through Chianti to Sienna
5/8 cathedral am reservation, pm drive to Volterra
5/9 heart of tuscany drive, pienza/montepulciano
5/10 siena am, pm drive to orvieto
5/11 drive to todi/bevagna/montefalco
5/12 orvieto
5/13 drive to Matera
5/14 walking tour Matera
5/15 drive to locorotondo
5/16 drive to alberobello/cisternino
5/17 drive to grotte de castellana
5/18 drive to polignano a mar and monopoli
5/19 drive to Otranto
5/20 castle and cathedral
5/21 beach if can or coastal drive
5/22 drive to Brinidisi for 11:20 am flight leg one of trip home-
So if we have to do this by train ( will they have enough fuel and/or strikes)?
Train to siena on 5/7, no chianti drive
5/8 I think Volterra will be out, bus options are longer than we probably want to deal with so more time in Siena
5/9 I can currently reserve a tour to pienza and montepulciano with a 48 hr cancellation policy- as a back up
5/10 train to orvieto- this is a sunday, train option is 3.5 hrs and either 10 am or 2 pm but not a deal breaker
5/11- where can we go easily via train for a day- not rome- smaller town?- civitia di bagnorgegio, it not on our list- but maybe it will be or we just spend two days in orvieto,
5/13- how to get to Matera - Original research said if I took the train from Orvieto to Bari I would probably want to sleep overnight in Bari and then head to Matera, the next day via bus. We have been less successful with buses in the past, so we were trying to avoid bus transfers. And research said driving would be fine for us. We speak no italian. - Hate 1 night stays
5/14- need to change morning walking tour of the sassi to afternoon, I assume this wouldn't be an issue.
5/15- not sure how to get to locorotondo, lots of buses with luggage, I know travel light but we have medical equipment that has to be carried if we travel (1 additional carryon size bag full), booked in a trulli 20 minutes out of town, lots of walking but doable
5/16- I assume we can do alberobello and cisternino trains/buses- much shorter trips
5/17- won't be able to get to grotto castellana as this is a sunday, - not sure what a plan would be-
5/18- How best to get to polignano a mare from locorotondo- I think this must be a bus- what is the best place to find bus schedules? Google maps is showing 2-3 buses. Certainly not the way we want to travel.
5/19- no idea how to get to Otranto from Locorotondo, looks to be an all day affair. Where should be go for three nights before a (hopefully) flight to LHR/PDX on 5/22? We wanted small town beach, more relaxing. Maybe near Brindisi or Bari for a possible train to Rome to try and fly home from there if Brindisi is canceled.
Not sure how any of this will play out and really wondering what the travel insurance will pay for in need to book additional hotel if we can't get to reserved hotel because of no fuel for a rental car or no trains running. That is all completely out of our control. Only thing I feel I can do is plan to do trains instead.
Thank you for any information you can give me.