visiting Calabria

Poipu04 · Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 11:27 am Post subject: visiting Calabria

We are once again trying to plan a trip to Calabria to visit my long lost/newly discovered cousins. They live in RC and would like me to visit in August when all the family will be in RC including the one cousin who speaks English and can translate. I have to brush up on my Italian too, which will require a lot of brushing up! LOL.

So, my question is this, say we fly into Naples or RC, is it safe for us to rent a car and drive from Naples to RC or from RC to the little town where my relatives live? We drove ourselves from Rome to Benevento when we were in Italy in 2007 and it was not a problem. Rome was a little crazy with all the motor bikes, zig-zagging but the autosrada was ok for us. What do you think? We like to be independent, so we are not doing any guided tours, group things, etc. We will most likely visit my family in Calabria for a few days and drive to Foggia to visit DH's ancestral town (i.e. Celenza of my web site fame, LOL). I would not mind stopping to visit friends again in Benevento as well, but maybe I am getting carried away. It will probably be a 10-14 day trip.

Anyhow, I am open to any and all advice on travel in Calabria!

Cathy · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 2681

Reggio is pretty far from Naples. I just had to butt in here and say how jealous I am!! Please, pack me in your suitcase!! lol

Poipu04 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:19 am Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

I know, Cathy! I was thinking of you when I posted this! I think the problem is that my husband's family lives on the Foggia/Benevento line and my family is in RC, so we would maybe have to fly into RC and out of Naples. I don't know. Very confusing but we can't possibly visit my family and not his family. I have no idea if I can fly directly to RC either. Maybe Nuccia knows????

uantiti · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:41 pm Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Hi,
Reggio Calabria Airport (Tito Minniti Airport) is not an Intercontinental airport so you'll have to fly into Rome Fiumicino Airport and then get a flight to Reggio Cal.
Travelling from Rome to R.C. is a long way (440 miles). The stretch between Salerno and Reggio Calabria is very busy and there are a lot of never ending road works so you'll have to drive very carefully if you decide to go by car.

Ada

Poipu04 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:53 pm Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Thank you, Ada!

nuccia · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:04 pm Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Sorry Lori - I did see this post before I left for work this morning but didn't have time to answer. I have flown to Reggio before but I landed in Rome first and then took another plane to the airport. It only took an hour. The train was another way - but that took 12 hours and it can get quite uncomfortable at night (I had to reserve a "bed" room which I shared with 4 other people), but in the day the scenery was beautiful - and all the people were wonderful.

I wouldn't drive down - I would fly - or take the plane to Lamezia in Catanzaro and then drive from there - its a couple of hours if I recall correctly.

On a side note - my parents would like to go as well on/about August 13 to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary and my cousins want us to go as well (I can only dream at this point). Keep in mind its going to be nuts down there with all the tourists and Mid August shut down - I know the beach is filled. I am very jealous right now - and I hope you have a wonderful most amazing time.

Oh yea...I need a record from there... lol

Cathy · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 2681

nuccia wrote:

I wouldn't drive down - I would fly - or take the plane to Lamezia in Catanzaro and then drive from there - its a couple of hours if I recall correctly.
:

Then stop by Briatico!! Wink

Poipu04 · Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 3:40 pm Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Cathy: I actually think that my GGM was born in Briatico, so that would not be totally out of the question Smile

Nuccia: Thanks for the info. I think that the short plane ride from Rome to RC makes more sense then being crowded in a train for 12 hours. Ugh. I can't even imagine. Is Lamezia a big international airport?

I know August is going to be brutal, but that is when all the family from the various parts of Italy descend on the south, in my ancestral town. It would be a lot easier to meet them all in one place then travelling around. Last time I was thinking of doing this, they even said that they would round up relatives from Sicily to go to RC to meet me. I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. I hope it all works out.

charliemis · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:01 am Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Lori,

I have driven the opposite way, from San Giorgio Albanese (near Corigliano and very close to the Autostrade) to Castel Volturno (just north of Naples) and it did take much longer than expected as there was a stretch of road (it might have been near Salerno, but I don't recall) where we were detoured onto another local road for a long time with horrendous traffic.

If you do fly into a smaller airport, be carefull about baggage limitations which might be a lot less than is allowed on the International flight (possibly half the weight). This was the case when I had looked into flying into Bari, but it may vary depending on the airline you select.

Poipu04 · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:07 am Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Charlie: What airport did you fly into and where did you switch planes (if you did switch planes)? Did you fly Alitalia? Thanks for the head's up on the baggage limitations. Yikes!

charliemis · Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:55 am Post subject: Re: visiting Calabria

Lori,

We actually did not use the "connector flight".....we originally booked through US Airways from Philadelphia to Venezia and then we were supposed to fly Venezia to Bari. It turned out that they cancelled the flight from Venezia to Bari to a much later time, so we just switched to Roma instead and drove from Roma to Puglia. I did a lot of research about this and I am pretty sure that most of the connector airlines have the lower limit on baggage, but I can't say it is universal. My daughter actually had a similar problem doing a change in London on the way to Roma (but she changed airports as well). I don't know if they will book your luggage "all the way through", but you should make sure.

By the way, we were pleasantly surprized by the really nice hotel we found in Corigliano Calabro....we were leary in that the pictures are not always current, but our hotel was new and fantastic.