Struggling with southern itinerary

I too am planning for southern Italy either next spring or the following year. Besides the RS South of Italy tour I plan to spend several days in Venice. The big IF for planning is if I can get my SIL to travel with me. If so i’m planning on a couple days in remote “toe” so we can go to the village her grandparents grew up in, Mongrassano.

Thanks to previous forum posts I am using Loco2.com for train info and Rome2rio app for route info. Both are very easy to use and understand. Unless you login to Loco2, train prices will be in £ instead of €. I understand that Rome2rio prices may not be accurate but it gives you a good understanding of how to get from point A to point B.

We just came back from a wonderful 22 night trip starting in Naples (5 nights), Ravello (6), Matera (3), Lecce (4) and Locorotondo (4). We flew out of Bari on a 1pm flight via Frankfurt to Toronto. We did this with public transportation and a few taxi rides.

Key point#1 : try not travel on Sundays as the southern private trains don’t run! In theory they substitute busses but no luck in finding them.

We quite liked the energy of Naples. A different experience was going to a concert in the opulent opera house.

From Ravello to Matera meant ferry to Salerno where we left our bags and had a nice walk about and lunch, then train to Ferrandina (closest station to Matera) and then pre-arranged taxi to Matera (40euros). In theory there is a bus run by miccolis but it doesn’t leave from downtown Salerno and the weather was dodgy. Also unclear about buying tickets on a Sunday. We enjoyed Matera; hired a private guide for a walk through the rock church areas.

Matera to Lecce was easy - 830 train to Bari, left our bags and walked around the old town and had lunch then took the train to Lecce.

From Lecce to Locorotondo we first took the train to Ostuni, bus from station into town (5min but you don’t want to walk it!), left bags at TI and spent few hours enjoying the place and had an excellent lunch and then used a pre-arranged taxi (35 euro) to Locorotondo. We took a taxi to Bari airport (70 euro) - in theory could have used the train but we used it locally (going to caves and Alberobello) and it is notoriously late - the only train service that was marginal.

We REALLY liked Locorotondo; beautiful. Great base. Enjoyed walks and biking in the country side. Alberobello is way overrated crawling with tourists - we much preferred seeing the Trulli in he countryside. We ended a bike ride in Alberobello and took train back to Locorotondo. Martina Franca is worth a stroll; have butcher shops that also grill up excellent low cost dinners.

In Lecce we wanted to see the southern coast from Gallipoli to Otranto so we signed onto a minivan tour with 6 others - organised by the TI. No commentary - more of a shared taxi ride - 9 hours. We also did a one day bike tour to the coast with picnic on the beach.

Incidentally Bari has a very nice new airport - not a lot of flights but enough. Also check out Brindisi. And finally a big shout out to the Trenitalia people who designed their self service ticket machines - the best, easiest to use anywhere!

Thank you, Daniel! You make it sound easy! 😁. I appreciate your time.

The flights Bari to Rome are 44€ this October on Alitalia. This is the cheapest rate with carry on only (1 bag, not too big). Checked luggage runs about 25€ if buy ahead. We flew Alitalia this March. It was fine.

For more train information check out seat61.com