Transport - Southern Italy - page 533

Puglia in Bici ( www.pugliainbici.com ) A very good organisation offering bike rental and tailor-made itineraries
throughout Puglia.
Gargano Bike Holidays ( www.garganobike.com ) Specialises in cultural and scenic mountain bike tours exploring the
Gargano on half-day to weekly trips.
Boat
Domestic navi (large ferries) service Campania and Sicily, while traghetti (smaller ferries) and aliscafi (hydrofoils) ser-
vice the Bay of Naples, the Amalfi Coast, the Isole Tremiti in Puglia, and the Aeolian Islands in Sicily. Most services
are pared back between October and Easter, and some are suspended altogether during this period. Most ferries carry
vehicles; hydrofoils do not.
Ferries for Sicily leave from Naples, as well as from Villa San Giovanni and Reggio di Calabria. The main points of
arrival in Sicily are Palermo, Catania, Trapani and Messina.
The comprehensive Italian website Traghettionline ( www.traghettionline.com ) includes links to multiple Italian ferry
companies, allowing you to compare prices and buy tickets.
On overnight ferries, travellers can book a two- to four-person cabin or a poltrona, which is an airline-type armchair.
Deck class (which allows you to sit/sleep in lounge areas or on deck) is only available on some ferries.
Bus
Numerous companies provide bus services in southern Italy, from meandering local routes to fast and reliable intercity
connections. Buses are usually priced competitively with the trains and are often the only way to get to smaller towns. If
your destination is not on a main train line (trains tend to be cheaper on major routes), buses are usually a faster way to
get around - this is especially true for the Salento in Puglia, Basilicata and for inland Calabria and Sicily.
Services are provided by a variety of companies. While these can be frequent on weekdays, they are reduced consid-
erably on Sundays and holidays - runs between smaller towns often fall to one or none. Keep this in mind if you depend
on buses as it is easy to get stuck in smaller places, especially at the weekends.
It's usually possible to get bus timetables (orari) from local tourist offices and the bus companies' websites. In larger
cities most of the intercity bus companies have ticket offices or sell tickets through agencies. In villages and even some
good-size towns, tickets are sold in bars - just ask for biglietti per il pullman - or on the bus itself.
Advance booking, while not generally required, is a good idea in the high season for overnight or long-haul trips.
Car & Motorcycle
Italy boasts an extensive privatised network of autostradas, represented on road signs by a white 'A' followed by a num-
ber on a green background. The main north-south link is the Autostrada del Sole (the 'Motorway of the Sun'), which
extends from Milan to Reggio di Calabria (called the A1 from Milan to Rome, the A2 from Rome to Naples, and the A3
from Naples to Reggio di Calabria). The east-west A16 links Naples to Canosa di Puglia. From here, it becomes the
A14, shooting southeast to Bari and continuing south to Taranto. From Bari, the SS16 is the main arterial route to the
Salento; in summer this can be heavily trafficked.