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Practicalities
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Arriving by
ferry
from Greece leaves you at one of three landing stages: two of these are on Via del Mare, at the
Stazione Marittima
from where it's a few minutes' walk to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and the bottom of Corso Garibaldi, and another twenty minutes up to the central
train station
the other side of the town centre in Piazza Crispi. The other disembarkation point is at
Costa Moreno
, a couple of kilometres south-east of town, there's no bus to the centre, so take the ferry (7am-midnight; L800/a?¬0.41) to the Stazione Marittima, or a taxi. Marozzi
coaches
linking the town with Rome (3 daily; tel 0831.597.884) and Miccolis coaches connecting it with Naples (3 daily; tel 0831.560.678) arrive at and depart from near the tourist office on Viale Regina Margherita. For
transport around town
, lots of buses run down Corso Umberto and Corso Garibaldi; taxis sit in ranks outside the train station. The
tourist office
is at Piazza Dionisio off Lungomare Regina Margherita (Mon-Fri 8.30am-2.00pm & 3-7pm Sat 8.30am-1pm; tel 0831.523.072).
Nearly all the ferries leave in the evening so accommodation isn't usually a problem. If you do need to stay, there's the no-frills Venezia , Via Pisanelli 6 (tel 0831.527.511; up to L60,000/a?¬30.99), or fairly cheap rooms at the Hotel Europa , Piazza Cairoli 5 (tel 0831.528.546; L60,000-90,000/a?¬30.99-46.48). More upscale choices are the clean but rather dated Regina , Via Cavour 5 (tel 0831.562.001; L150,000-200,000/a?¬77.47-103.29), L'Approdo , Via del Mare 50 (tel 0831.529.667; L120,000-150,000/a?¬61.98-77.47), with small, restful air-conditioned rooms, or the slick Mediterraneo , Via Aldo Moro 70 (tel 0831.582.811; L200,000-250,000/a?¬103.29-129.11), a Best Western hotel. There's also a youth hostel , 2km out of town in Casale at Via Brandi 2 (tel 0831.413.123, hostelbrindisi@hotmail.com ; L18,000/a?¬9.29), where you can rent a bed for the day (L9,000/a?¬4.64) if you've got a night departure, with full use of their facilities including hot showers and email. The hostel is reachable on bus #3 or #4 from the train station, walkable in fifteen minutes by following the strategically placed yellow signs through town, or you can call them for a free pick-up service from town (they'll drive you back to the port or to the beach later too if you ask nicely).
It's not difficult to
eat
cheaply in BrAndisi; the whole of Corso Umberto and Corso Garibaldi (particularly the port end) is smothered in bars and restaurants staffed by waiters who will chase you down the street with copies of the menu. You should be able to grab a complete meal for under L20,000/a?¬10.33. For twice as much you can have a memorable meal at the acclaimed
Trattoria Pantagruele
, Via Salita di Ripalta 13 (closed all day Mon & Sun evening, plus weekends in July & Aug), which serves very good local dishes, especially seafood. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Italy,
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