Planning Your Southern Italy Vacation: From Rome to Lecce

In the last edition of Planning your Italy Vacation, I wrote about traveling north from Rome, with Venice as the final destination. In this post we’ll explore the alternative: traveling from Rome southward. This alternative will be attractive to travelers who have already seen the major sights in the north of Italy, and to travelers who prefer to tread the less-beaten path. I suggest traveling to Rome, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Lecce (located in the heel of the boot.)

Southern Italy is markedly different than northern Italy. To make a general comparison, the differences between northern and southern Italy is similar to the differences between the South and the Northeast in the United States. Northern Italy is more industrial and contains most of the largest cities in Italy. Southern Italy is agriculturally focused and less built up. Money goes farther in the south. Further, the attitudes change from the north and the south. I find “old Italy” much more apparent in the south, where people take afternoon siestas and life generally rolls at a slower pace. But that’s not always true.

The closest city to Rome is Naples, and nothing in Naples happens slowly. While the pulse of Naples is similar to that of a skydiver’s in mid-flight, the city offers many of the most important sights in Italy, including Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, the Naples National Archeology Museum, The Phlegrean Fields, the islands of Capri and Ischia, and, of course, there is Neapolitan pizza. I’ve written more on Naples’s Major Sights and on its pizza – check it out. The nearby town that surrounds Pompeii is quite tiny, necessitating the use of Naples as a home base. I also highly recommend visiting the Naples National Archeology Museum after visiting Pompeii, as it is home to the most impressive artifacts found in the city and fully fleshes out and explains Pompeii as a whole.

From Naples, a bus or a train to the Amalfi Coast takes one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours, allowing travelers to spend a half-day in either location. The sheer beauty of the Amalfi Coast is enough to take even the most avid traveler’s breath away. Homes and churches are built right into the cliffs. Lemon orchards likewise adorn the rocky shore.

End your visit to the Amalfi Coast in the small city of Salerno, which is located at the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast. From here, you can catch a train or bus to Lecce. Salerno is a transportation hub with excellent, inexpensive food, as well as a few sights of its own. The huge temples of Paestum are a 40-minute train ride south. Dating back to 600 B.C., they are worth a look if you have the time. If you truly want to get off the beaten track, you can visit the nearby buffalo farms where the world-renowned buffalo mozzarella cheese is produced.

However, travelers working within a shorter time frame should head straight to Lecce. You might wonder why I chose Lecce over Sicily. I did so for two reasons. First, Sicily is so large that it deserves its own trip; its largest city, Palermo, is a two-day journey from the Amalfi Coast. Second, the ferry ride to Sicily takes quite a bit of time and planning. In my opinion, it isn’t worth making a quick stopover in Sicily. Instead, I highly recommend dedicating an entire trip to Sicily, which I’ll address in the next Planning your Italy Vacation article.

Getting to Lecce from Salerno, you can choose to take a bus or a slightly more expensive train. It takes between six and seven hours. However, this under-exposed city is well worth it. Often called “the Florence of the South,” Lecce touts some of the best examples of Baroque architecture in the world. It is a city that is truly off the beaten path, and the area is entirely unique to that of the rest of Italy, from the food and wine to the beaches and agriculturally fortuitous countryside.

The only thing south of Lecce is Africa, so travelers are faced with two additional route choices, 1) take a seven-hour train back to Rome, or 2) take a ferry to Greece. Then again, there may be a third choice as Albania is a mere 69 miles from the coast of Puglia (the region in which Lecce is located).

Feel free to write in with any questions or comments.

Written by Mattie Bamman for EuropeUpClose.com