Southern Italy Tour

Posted by juliedrezner on 12/04/16 04:17 PM

My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy in September 2017. We have about 16 days to tour before getting ourselves to Venice to rendezvous with family. We have never explored Southern Italy and are considering spending our time there. We want to go to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast for sure but would like to explore other regions. We first thought of getting to Sicily either before or after Pompeii/Amalfi but are concerned that it will be too much and still be crowded and hot in early September. Maybe that's another trip? I've been reading about Puglia and Basilicata and see lots of interesting places, food and Italian life to experience. I'm interested in suggestions from those of you who have traveled the regions I mention. Also, we will be flying from Amsterdam and could fly into Rome, Naples or Sicily, if we decide to go there. One option I've considered is to hire a driver/tour to take us to Pompeii and then to our hotel (yet to be selected) on the Amalfi Coast. Then we'd rent a car from there to explore other regions. Any advice or ideas on how to plan our time and travel would be very much appreciated! Julie in Monterey California

Note, after leaving Venice we will be in Spain for 1.5 months so this is really the beginning of a longer trip.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

12/04/16 05:53 PM

28472 posts

I'm one of the huge Sicily fans on this board. Although it sounds as if you might have enough time to see a good bit of Sicily between the Amalfi Coast and Venice, you appear to be able to take long vacations, and more time--and perhaps a springtime trip--would be better in Sicily. I think Puglia and Basilicata would be very nice. You'd have enough time to include the Gargano Peninsula in northern Puglia, which is so often overlooked. It's hilly and green. I must say, though, that your trip may be late enough that it will not be very festive, and some of the small lodging places may have closed for the season, so that's something you'd want to consider.

I think it would be wonderful to have a car at your disposal in Puglia and Basilicata. I was limited to trains and buses. I managed to see a lot of small towns in 2015 only because of the great one-day van trips arranged by the tourist office in Lecce. Lecce's a very handsome baroque city, quite different from most of the small towns in the area.

Any comprehensive guidebook covering southern Italy should give you good capsule descriptions of many possible destinations, from which you can choose the ones sounding the most intriguing. Don't miss Alberobello in Puglia or Matera in Basilicata.

Just in case you have extra time: There's some lovely countryside in Calabria, which I passed through on a bus from Sicily to Lecce. Several people recommended the coastal town of Tropea to me, but I didn't have time for it.

Posted by Zoe

Toledo, Ohio, US

12/04/16 09:19 PM

11613 posts

The Calabrian Coast is stunning. Definitely visit Matera (Basilicata) and some of the "white towns" in Puglia. You could go as far as Otranto, or Lecce, and/or Castel del Monte in Northern Puglia.

Let us know if you need details.

Posted by Katherine

Philadelphia, PA, United States

12/06/16 10:19 PM

174 posts

We loved Ravello, up in the hills above the Amalfi Coast. Gorgeous place. I would strongly recommend going to Sicily in the spring if you get a chance. It is a solid mass of wildflowers growing among the wonderful Roman ruins. We enjoyed the whole island, but had to leave before we wanted to because it was Eastertide and most of Italy seems to go there at Easter. Every hotel on the island was full and when we got off the ferry on the mainland the line waiting to go over stretched for miles down the autostrada.
We also found Chieti to be a very interesting town as we headed north from Alborobello.