I don’t know why I didn’t know of Cinque Terre in Italy until early last year so I
told myself I would visit it this year (couldn’t fit it in my trip last
September). I also almost kicked myself when I realised I should have visited
Alberobello when I was in Bari in September. So I decided that I must cover
Alberobello too this year. I searched for tickets during the MATTA Fair and
finally bought the last Etihad seat on offer. I had planned on flying to/fro
Milan but wanted to visit Luxembourg City properly (my first trip there was too
short and very limited) so I spent some time looking for connections. I thought of flying easyJet
from Milan to Luxembourg but stopped when I found the airline only allowed one
bag on board - hey even RyanAir allows
one cabin bag (max 10 kg with certain dimensions) and one other bag. Then I realised
I could just buy a multiple city ticket and did just that: I bought ticket to
Frankfurt with return trip from Milan. Then I searched for ground connections.
There’s a Flibco coach service from FRA all the way to Luxembourg City stopping
at Frankfurt Hahn and some other towns en route – and it would cost me only €5.
And I could take a coach to Brussels Charleroi also for €5 (my first time
flying out of this airport) and fly to Brindisi from there. I continued my
search and found I could fly to Pisa from Bari and decided to make it my base
for Cinque Terre (I did consider staying in La Spezia but accommodation there
is either more expensive than Pisa or far from the train station). In Pisa, I found
a B&B which was within walking distance from both the airport and train
station so it was a no brainer to decide on Pisa. From Pisa, I found an
intercity train to Milan for only €9.
I
had a choice of staying in Brindisi but when I started reading, I found a lot
of references to Lecce and surmised that Brindisi is a stopping point for
Lecce. There’s even a coach from Brindisi Airport to Lecce but I decided
against it as the coach goes to Lecce City Terminal which is 2.3 km away from
the train which isn’t ideal if I wanted to leave early in the morning. Sure I could
take the city bus but it’d be such a hassle. So I decided to take a bus from
Brindisi Airport to the station and take a train to Lecce (only €2.80) and find
accommodation near the train station. The next challenge was finding
accommodation in Milan: I can’t recall where I stayed on my first visit there
but was surprised to find accommodation pretty pricey in Milan. Finally I decided
to book a dorm bed in a 5-bed all girls’ dorm at Central Hostel Milano. I was
still trying to find a single room near to Milano Centrale and even
contemplated AirBnB but in the end, decided to stick to the hostel.
Having
bought the Etihad air ticket, RyanAir tickets, Flibco tickets and TrenItalia
ticket, and booked accommodation, I then searched for train connections.
To be continued
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