Scenic Route to Rome
We are looking to spend around 80 days travelling to Rome and back, starting early May and finishing late July 2024. Our outfit is discovery 5 with Sterling Elite 560 van. Any places to avoid with a caravan?
We prefer fully serviced pitches where possible, but can be water carriers when needed. What are the must see places on route to visit, we would normally spend a minimum of 5 nights per site.
Which are the most cost effective routes to take?
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I wrote this blog a few years ago which may give you a few pointers as our furthest destination of the trip was Rome. http://www.davidklyne.co.uk/arrivederci_roma.html
Just for information the site we stayed on in Rome now seems to have closed as a campsite. I don't think you will find many sites in Italy with serviced pitches. More common in Germany and Austria on the way through to Italy but not exclusively so. Rome is a beautiful City and quite walkable if you are fit! Like all big cities just we aware of personal security, especially on public transport. There are so many lovely towns in Italy between the Austrian border and Rome the list would be very long. If this is your first trip to Italy then I would add Venice, Florence and Siena as possibilities but there are so many more.
David
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There were so many interesting places that after 8 or 10 visits to Italy we never quite got to Rome. But we tried.
We like the approach into Italy via the Mont Blanc tunnel into the Aosta valley - with diversions into the Gran Paradiso national park. and we wanted to see Stupinigi Palace near Turin, then Pisa (which is interesting) and Lucca (which is lovely)I’m afraid Florence bored me but Siena was better, then Città di Castello (which few people know) , Gubbio, Assisi, Perugia and Spoleto - and I ‘m afraid we spent so much time wandering hill villages in Tuscany and Umbria that even though we saw a road sign saying Roma 100km. we gave up at that point.
Why? Well the summer season of open air opera had opened up in the big Roman arena at Verona and we wanted to go back there to see it all again on the way home.
Enjoy your planning. I’m envious.
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Thank you Another David, DavidKlyne and Eurotraveller. Some great suggestions so looking forward to this trip in 2024.
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Dick and Jane
I am sure it will be a memorable trip, most visits to Italy are.
David
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Like ET we have never towed as far south as Rome. Last summer we spent 6 weeks on our Italian trip getting as far south as Lake Trasimeno. We have visited Rome 3 times always flying out and staying in the centre for 4/5 days and we have still got plenty to see. Doing this enables us to wonder round with no rush in both the daytime and the evening revisiting sites if we want to and you will want to believe me! It is a magic city. We tend to break our journey (usually the Belgium -Germany - Austria route) in Bavaria and Austria (and maybe the Italian Lakes) en route. I endorse all the suggested places to visit and we also prefer Sienna to Florence! You may find it worthwhile joining ACSI and there is no need to book sites going out of peak season, enjoy the flexibility this gives. I'm surprised we have not bumped into ET on our travels as he seems to favour the same places that we do!
Italy is a wonderful country for a caravan holiday have a great trip which I note is not until 2024 - nothing like planning ahead but don't over plan enjoy being flexible - we book the crossings only.
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David I notice from your hitch cover that you caravan prior to your motorhome was from White Arches which is where we bought our van new in 2016. We are in Raunds Northamptonshire, are you local?
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I live in MK so White Arches is probably the nearest caravan/motorhome dealer to us. We have purchased one caravan and two motorhomes from them. On one trip we were in Germany and the door lock on our motorhome decided to malfunction. Fortunately one of the guys from the service side at White Arches was able to talk me through a temporary fix! I think we were on our way to Austria that trip rather than Italy.
David
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The most cost effective route would be through Belgium, into Germany then Basel and Italy via the St Gottard tunnel. You would have to purchase two vignettes for Switzerland but its probably still marginally cheaper than going through France unless you plan to avoid the toll motorways. Even so, the scenery through Switzerland is beautiful. Very few sites Italy have fully serviced pitches. I can only think of one, Camping Capalonga, on the north Adriatic coast. They have fully serviced pitches overlooking the lagoon and in the beach area but you would have to pre-book in July. The motorways in Italy are significantly cheaper than those in France and I would not recommend trying to avoid them, especially if towing.
The architecture in most towns and cities in Italy is stunning. I recommend Bologna (the food markets in the centre are amazing), Luca, Sienna, Perugia and of course Venice. The Chinque Terra area is very scenic too but there’s a lot of walking involved.
As far as I’m aware there are no sites in the vicinity of Rome that have serviced pitches. We normally stay at the Hu Roma site. The route into the centre is via bus from outside the site then a metro train for the last part. Its messy but there are always ‘unofficial’ taxis available from outside the site.
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Thanks for the advice Dave looks like we will be lugging water for most of the trip, not too bad in the warm weather though.
Looks like we are going as far south a Salerno to visit Pompeii and Vesuvius and the Amalfi coast
Was think of coming back via the east coast bur does not appear to be much there.
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I agree. We drove down the Italian west coast to Paestum (also not a site with fully serviced pitches), not far from Salerno, and returned via the Adriatic. The return journey was a bit of an anti-climax except for stops in San Marino and later in Venice.
A couple of cities worth visiting on your way down through Italy which haven't been mentioned yet are Lucca and Pisa.
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