lunaaron
New Member
I am in the planning stages for a trip in September / October this year. It is my fathers 75th birthday and my wife and I plan to accompany my parents on a driving holiday in the south of Italy. One of the primary goals of the trip is to visit Viggiana in the province of Potenza, where my grandparents are from. Other than that it is our intention to explore the regions of Basilicata and Puglia. We have started to work out a rough itinerary starting in Salerno and picking up a rental car to drive down the coast road to Maratea, where we will stay for a few days, making a day trip to Viggiana and probably exploring further down the coast. From Maratea we intended to drive across the Puglia, to Lecce (or near by), Locorotondo, Giovinazzo, Vietse, Matera, Castelmezzano, then back to Salerno.
I was wondering if I should make a stop in the ionian coast of Basilicata, but there is very little info out there to help me make any decisions. Lonely Planet southern Italy is basically useless. We are Australian / coastal people, but we prefer to avoid any kind of formal beach club / resort type places, we are much more interested in wild coast, rocky coves and cliffs, sea caves that you can swim in, that sort of thing. My looking on google earth seems to suggest the ionian coast may be mostly rows of sun lounges, but maybe someone out there knows better?
Also any suggestions about interesting places south of Lecce? we will have a car and i'm thinking it would be a headache trying to stay in the city itself, we might be better off staying in a smaller town outside the city and visiting for a day on public transport? maybe im being paranoid about it?
id really appreciate anyone opinions on what I have so far, and I will continue to update as the plans come together.
I was wondering if I should make a stop in the ionian coast of Basilicata, but there is very little info out there to help me make any decisions. Lonely Planet southern Italy is basically useless. We are Australian / coastal people, but we prefer to avoid any kind of formal beach club / resort type places, we are much more interested in wild coast, rocky coves and cliffs, sea caves that you can swim in, that sort of thing. My looking on google earth seems to suggest the ionian coast may be mostly rows of sun lounges, but maybe someone out there knows better?
Also any suggestions about interesting places south of Lecce? we will have a car and i'm thinking it would be a headache trying to stay in the city itself, we might be better off staying in a smaller town outside the city and visiting for a day on public transport? maybe im being paranoid about it?
id really appreciate anyone opinions on what I have so far, and I will continue to update as the plans come together.