Athens to Rome - not flying

Well Thom, back many many years ago, you took a bus to Patras, where you caught the ferry to Brindisi, where you then caught the train to Rome. I'm thinking that it would take at least 24 hours, but there may be faster ferries. I searched on Greek Ferries and found that you can do this.

If they aren't flying then the ferry is the only other way. Some of the ferry companies have their own bus from Athens/Piraeus to Patras.

Ah, Pamela, that brings back long ago memories of trying to sleep with deck passage on the Brindisi ferry (which was a re-purposed Japanese ferry still featuring Japanese language maps of the Japanese islands the ferry used to frequent.) In Brindisi there were mildly menacing groups of young, swivel-hipped youths sizing up the ferry passengers. I suppose it's a different experience these days...

No, that aspect still exists.

Hi everyone and thanks for the tips so far...especially the one from Lee on bus/ferry connectors from Athens. Will check with the folks at Superfast to see if they have one. Any particular tricks once getting off in Bari to get to the train to Roma?

My husband and I just did this trek back in June. We originally flew from Rome to Athens and it took two hours. On the way back we decided to take the ferry and I would recommend flying if you have the money.

We took the train from Athens to Patras which had a connection in the middle in a little town I can't remember. From Patras we took an overnight ferry to Bari. In Bari when you get off the ferry there is a bus that takes you directly to the train station. The bus stops right at the entrance to the terminal. Then from the Bari train station we took a train to Florene. Going to Rome would cut off an couple hours but the whole thing took us about 36 hours. It was a bit of a nightmare!