We have just returned from another lovely trip to Calitri. On this occassion we flew from London Stanstead to Bari, with Ryan Air. Our trip was primarily to take over some creature comforts to the house, one of which was a small LCD television. This was carefully packed into my hand luggage, wrapped in my clothes to protect it. Now a little tip here -when packing electrical goods into hand luggage, make sure that when requested to remove them from the bag for an X-ray machine you don’t have them packaged in your delicates!
Our friends joined us to help do the few odd jobs we had planned so we collected our Renault Scenic from Europcar and set on our way to Calitri. The drive from Bari was lovely and much easier than from Naples, although it does take a little longer, it is much easier to get onto the Autostrada, which reminds me of one fundamental rule that you need to remember, when an Italian driver flashes their lights at you, it isn’t to let you go first, it means “I’m coming through!”. Another tip worth mentioning is when you return to the airport in Bari, you will see it sign posted as Aeroporto Pelese, don’t drive past it!
On our arrival in Calitri we noticed the restoration work taking place on the castle along Corso Matteotti. This will make such a difference to the aesthetics of the street as it is reconstructed. Our second surprise was the new restaurant on Via Tozzoli, La Gatta Cenerentola. This lovely place is just oppposite Casa del Rosario, our rental house. It is open on just a few nights, usually at the weekend, on our visit there was no menu. Instead we enjoyed a 3 course set meal of pasta, a succulent lamb dish and the most wonderful lemon cake for dessert, coming to about 15Euro’s each including our drinks.
During our stay we also took the opportunity to visit Pompei. This is a vast area to explore so allow yourself at least 2 hours to get the most of your day. The entrance to the site was 11 Euros, you can buy combined tickets to the other sites in the area if you want to make the most of your visit.
Some pictures of Pompei can be found on our new pages as well as a guide to the local bars and shops that can be found around Calitri.
If you would like to stay at Casa del Rosario email us for more information rosario@exploresouthernitaly.com
