Southern Italy itinerary

Have you been to Naples or the Amalfi coast before? I would at least consider sticking to that area and extending in Cilento, depending on the bike tour itinerary. You do have time for a quick jaunt maybe over to the Matera and Bari areas, but if you have to get back to Naples for the last night, you lose one night.
Were you going to rent a car or use train/ bus? Maybe going as far south as Maratea would work?

We have not been to this area of Italy.
We plan to use train/bus transportation.

Matera is a unique, magical place.
Think you’ll enjoy the Cilento coast. We visited last year and loved it.

Given you’ll be using public transport, I’d time it all out with a couple tentative plans and see what looks workable.
Personally I’d save Puglia for a time when you can devote more time, but it’s just a personal preference. The Amalfi area has its problems with crowds but it is perfect for no car, and there are places that are less mobbed, and maybe some good sighting like you’d get in Naples would be welcome after the peace of the bike tour. You would not run out of things to do with a week and a half.
For sure I’d save Calabria, but with Puglia it just depends on how fast you like to move, etc.

We visited Puglia 2 years ago and loved the area. However given your location I doubt it makes sense on this trip. We went from Lecce to Naples, about 5.5 hours by train. You don't say where you will be in the Amalfi coast but add on a couple of more hours to get to Naples. So you'd lose the day going to Bari or Lecce or elsewhere in Puglia from the Amalfi coast, and you'd lose the last day since you need to get back to Naples the day before your flight.

So 3 full days in Puglia. And due to the riposo most museums and shops in rural southern Italy will be closed from about 1pm to around 5pm; tourism generally takes place in the mornings or early evening. If you're ok with 3 mornings in Puglia then you could go someplace like Lecce and take trains/buses to see other towns, then Lecce in the evenings. Personally since you're already on the Amalfi coast I'd look at adding in a stop somewhere like Salerno which has been mentioned in the forum (use search at the top of the window).

Thank you for all the quick replies. They have been very helpful.

Given your responses and our re-visiting our intial plans we have decided (and I think wisely) to leave Puglia for another trip.
Instead, we are now considering what was suggested and that is to stay in the Amalfi Coast area with a visit to Ischia. If anyone has particular suggestions - things to do, accommodations, places to eat, hikes, i would welcome your ideas.

Thanks for weighing in. We really appreciate it.

That sounds fantastic, and my favorite itinerary for the area is some time on the coast, some time on an island, and some time in Naples. Really perfect plan without a car!
A few of us here have enjoyed Cilento, so you might want to post the link to the bike tour or give a quick rundown of the itinerary for tips for things it does not include.
You can find most of the Amalfi coast hikes online (AllTrails or whatever app you like), but for the print-inclined, there are two books on the area, one published by Sunflower and the other by Cicerone. The Blue Guide is great for this area if you want to do a deep dive, but once you figure in the main attractions (Pompeii, hikes, Naples sites) you’ve easily filled a week!

Has anyone been to Brindisi? My cruise ship will stop there and I am thinking to take train to Lecce. Any ideas.

The AC with a visit to Ischia, you say? Maybe this pair of TRs below will help inform some decision-making. Over on Fodors, I go by 'zebec'.

https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/costa-damalfi-a-tr-1719110/
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/beyond-capri-an-ischia-tr-1719207/

I am done. the end.

The Path of the Gods is a great hike (outlined in the sunflower guide, but a bit sparse on comprehensive info) and if you are ferrying to Amalfi to get there. Travelmar (the ferry company) has a shuttle to Bomerano to start, which sounds VERY appealing to me, as the one time I did it, we had to squeeze through the crowd to get on one of the two buses going there at midday (options were either VERY shortly after arrival or 2 hours later boo). I want to try their shuttle (only for people who bought through the ferry) and do the hike and THEN return to Amalfi via Positano ferry to explore, hopefully that will work next time!

I have been researching the Cilento Coast (for October 2026) as well. It looks like a great alternative to other more touristy places like Amalfi coast and Sorrento. What company are you using for your 7 day bike trip? We just finished up a trip on the Costa Brava in Spain and loved it! Such a great way to see the area and meet local people. Enjoy your trip!

We are using Natural Adventures for our biking portion of the trip.

We have decided on a self-guided trip with another couple who have done a few bike trips in Europe in the past. This adventure is new for us and we can't wait. We have heard good things about Natural Adventures through our friends' friend. She has done three trips with this company. We will all be using e-bikes to even the playing field in terms of experience levels.

https://www.thenaturaladventure.com/tours/italy/cycling-the-cilento-coast/?_gl=1*vfromx*_up*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrJTGBhCbARIsANFBfgso6UYmO_GPQxlUptRq1SMvvjOjCaaDYtKIRhkabrXAJwA68Qck7GAaApvpEALw_wcB&gbraid=0AAAAADp8TaTWUhxFm2AKXr5FPhrK_H-0k

The above is the link to the bike trip.
We hope to fly into Rome and spend two and half days there.
Train to Paestum the night before the bike trip starts
7 days for the bike trip
Train to Salerno to spend 1 1/2 days with our friends before they return home
The next 7 days or so are a bit of a toss up. Places for consideration are: The island of Ischia, Minori, perhaps flying out of Naples instead of returning to Rome, others?

We would prefer not to be moving every night as we don't find that to be very relaxing. We love hikes, exploring good food, wine, cooking classes and sitting at a cafe and taking it all in. Given the trip is in April, it will likely not be super warm beach weather however there is usally nothing wrong with an afternoon at the beach either.
We would welcome any thoughts.

We stayed 6 nights each in Minori and on Ischia in April of 2024. To me, the AC is most beautiful from the water. We took a small boat tour and really enjoyed it. Minori was a perfect place to stay for us. The vibe was local, not insane crowds like Positano and Amalfi. The dock can accommodate the larger ferries, so traveling to the various towns was doable. The Path of Lemons walk to Maori was lovely. Getting up to Ravello requires a bus or private driver. It’s beautiful!
The island of Ischia has so many places
to explore. When we were there, the weather was often very chilly and wet, but we muddled through. We stayed in an Airbnb on the far end of the island with a perfect view of the castle.
I advise you to check out @gregglamarsh’s trip reports. I researched his ideas for accommodations and they’re spot on. He is super helpful if needed, and a plethora of good info!
Enjoy this beautiful area!

This is awesome information! The more I read about the area and read these posts the more excited I get for April.
I will definitely look up the blog you suggest!

We are looking at our itinerary again and we are wondering given that we have one week from the end of our cycling trip until we need to be in Naples to fly back home, is it worth trying to see both Ischia AND AC or stick to AC?
Has anyone had difficulty getting carry-on sized luggage onto ferries ?

I looked into cycling the Cilento a bit over a year ago and couldn’t find self-guided tours or rentals, there. Nice to hear you did. We cycled for a week in Puglia.

We did spend a few days on the Cilento coast in Pisciotta - with a car, since we drove from Lecce through Matera to the Cilento for a couple of nights, and then through Paestum on our way to Naples for four nights. While we were in the Cilento, we also drove up to Castellabate (as opposed to Santa Maria de Castellabate), but we did not drive the entire Cilento coast. (LATE NOTE; We took the inland route since the coast road was officially closed due to a wash-out, though the owner of Hotel Marulivo said you could drive through.)

What we saw included some pretty hilly - even mountainous - areas. Your later post includes a link to your self-guided trip, which shows a lot of climbs. Two or three days with over 2000 feet of elevation changes and two days with 3000 feet (days 4 and 6). Yes, do-able with e-bikes, but you’ll be working hard unless you’re young and hardy and experienced cyclists.

As to accommodations, if you are in Pisciotta, perhaps for an add on day toward the end of your cycle trip, we quite loved Hotel Marulivo.

As to Becky’s suggestion that you include Matera, that only makes sense if you are including Puglia, which it seems you are no longer considering for next spring’s trip.

Also, FYI, let me comment on the weather. We were in Puglia and the Cilento and Naples in mid-to-late April last year and the weather was frequently on the cool side, sometimes windy and sometimes rainy. (One lesson we learned from our week of cycling in Puglia was to bring rain pants as well as waterproof jackets on our recent trip cycling in Germany and France, last month. You’ll likely be glad you did.)

We chose to skip? avoid? the Amalfi Coast and Capri as we headed north to Naples. One place where we spent a lovely day was Ischia. It deserves more time than we gave it, but hey, we were at the end of a month-long trip and you just can’t do everything. LATE NOTE - Yes, I think you can take bags onto the ferry to Ischia.

FWIW, I offer you our TR from last year. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/southern-italy-30-days-three-ways-to-travel