Richard’s photo of the Christmas market in Brindisi.

I finished the second edition of the Puglia Marathon – La Maratona delle Cattedrali in Giovinazzo so after a bit of rest and a quick shower, we were ready for Brindisi.

Oops! There was no direct train to Brindisi and the one bound for Giovinazzo was arriving at 5:30 PM. We had an hour and a half of waiting. That called for an early dinner and a bottle of Italian red wine at a small cafe in front of the train station. We switched trains at Bari centrale station to take the one bound for Lecce. The travel, including stops and wait times, took a little more than two hours. Get the timetable of the Trenitalia here.

We finally arrived  in Brindisi around 7:40 PM on Sunday, December 20, 2015. Hotel Palazzo Virgilio is a four-star hotel in a relatively new structure and designed with a light and minimalist aesthetic. Check out their official website here.

The hotel is strategically located right in front of the train station and along the main street where their Christmas market was being held.

We checked out the offerings of their market and posed for some photos in front of some Christmas lights.

Brindisi was only a stopover so we did not get to see much aside from the Christmas market. I did like our hotel and the location. The room came with free wi-fi and continental breakfast buffet.

We waited in front of the train station for the bus (cost: 1 euro each) for the Brindisi-Salento Airport to catch our 9:50 AM Ryanair flight to Brussels. It was a short 20-minute bus ride and getting to our gate was quick and painless. You can read about the airport here.