Manfredonia Italy

[svBeBe]

Has anyone berthed at Marina del Gargano in Manfredonia, Italy? We are considering clearing into Italy next week at Manfredonia and staying a few days in the marina. Interested in any pros and cons.

Judy

[beneteau-500]

Checking is easy and fairly painless marina is ok been there twice this yr outside the marina area is fairly safe and dirty but lock every thing down when not on board .Have found this summer the amount of rubbish that is lying about is unbelievable they just don't care I haven't had my passport stamped and have met others in the same situation been in Rome since December 2013 no probs one thing to ensure you get is a form from the Costa Gardia when you check in the vat status of your yacht why you need this I don't know as it only should apply to eu yachts. But if you have this and the Gardia di financia board you if you have this paper they will move on why will they board you becuase of your flag they may think you have registered your yacht in Delaware for tax purposes

[monte]

Is that the new marina?
We stayed either side last year at train and vieste. Both decent enough. Easy to check in at trani. Check the cruisers wiki, I think I added some details about it there.

[svBeBe]

Thanks Dale and Monte.

[svBeBe]

Follow up. We cleared into Italy at Manfredonia a couple of weeks ago. A very convenient clearance port if departing Croatia from Ubli on the western side of Lastovo as passage can be done in one day and no overnight required. The Marina del Gargano was fine. Very clean. A place I would return to if we were going back to the Adriatic. We opted to use a clearance agent; worth the minimal fee for a no-hassle clearance for those of us who do not speak Italian, IMO. Three police officials came out to the marina to see us and our boat. Two of the police mentioned Schengen several times. No one spoke English except the agent. Our passports were stamped inbound to Italy as it was our first clearance port into a Schengen country.

Judy

[monte]

Thanks Judy. Yes Italy is one of the rare European countries where hardly any English is spoken so get used to pointing and waving your hands around to get the message across! That coast is described in some of the guides as not very interesting but we found the southern part very nice. Good idea with the agent, we found officials in one port had totally different ideas to officials in the next as they don't understand their own rules, in fact even filling in a customs form in otranto had 3 different coastguard arguing with each other over how the for should be completed :d. In the end the chief ripped up the form and told use didn't need it...