Motorhome trip to Sicily
My wife and I (+ dog) hope to be driving from the UK via Eurotunnel in 4 weeks time in our Dethleffs A-Class MH, with a plan to ultimately arrive in Sicily and spend some time looking around the islands tourist sites as well as enjoying the local cuisine and hospitality.
We will be away for nearly 8 weeks and plan to traverse the Alps via the St Gothard Tunnel, then travel down the Adriatic coast crossing into Sicily at Messina and then back up the Italian Med coast, returning via Provence and the tunnel.
Any suggestions for aires and sites in Sicily would be appreciated as would visits to other locations in Italy en route. We will leave visiting city centres (eg Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice etc) for another trip when we are without our dog.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Jim
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Jim
Are you in search of Inspector Montalbano? Unfortunately can't help with Sicily but it sounds like a wonderful trip.
David
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Camping Gottardo in Faido, just south of the St Gothard tunnel, is one of our favourite sites on route to Italy. Many of the sites in northern Italy will just be opening towards the end of April but there will be plenty of Sostas available. Get the Campercontact app, it will be all you need for the journey. Italy is very relaxed when it comes to camper stopovers and you can park up almost anywhere if you can’t find a campsite for the night. It’s a long way to Sicily but south of Sienna the motorways will be a lot quieter. During the two week German Pfingsten holiday and Italian Pentecost at the end May/ first week in June campsites in Northern Italy will be very busy so try to avoid the popular areas then.
Sorry I can’t help with sites in Sicily either.
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Sounds like a great trip. Maybe Cinque Terre (Monterosso al Mare · Vernazza · Corniglia · Manarola · Riomaggiore ) and Portofino are on your ‘must do’ return list? If so, beware that they can be besieged by cruise ships. Campsites are not plentiful in the area, but a good base for visiting is Sestri Levante - you can use the local train to visit all of them.
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Even for 8 weeks that sounds very ambitious given that Sicily is a long trek. From Gottard it is easy to take in the Italian Lakes, Maggiore or Garda. Coming back on the West coast of Italy the key areas are Sorento, Amalfi etc. where you can visit Pompei or cross to Capri on a day trip, then Cinque Terra. The Mediterranean coast gets jammed full in holiday season so you would need to get the timing right. Provence is a trip in itself and worth exploring at leisure.
Never been to Sicily but if you can be more specific on areas in Italy and France there will be many site recommendations.0 -
Thanks for the replies guys.
Dave Nicholson - thanks for the reminder re: public holidays.
SeasideBill - Thanks for the Cinque Terre and Sestri Levante recommendations. We had a trip to Ceriale and Alassio not so long ago, so may give the Cinque Terre a miss this time as we are going to concentrate our touring in the south.
Hitchglitch - I agree it's a long trip, about 4,000 miles door to door. We hope to visit Alberobello and Matera on the Adriatic side before touring around the coast of Sicily. Then we will return along the Med coast via Salerno, Naples, Ostia and the Maremma National Park, before turning left at Genoa.
We will just "follow our nose" on the return journey through France stopping every 150 miles of so. Last autumn we came up through France from the Costa Brava stopping at aires located in some of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France". Quite fancy doing that again as it is a very relaxing way of finding our way back to Calais.
Onward and upward with the planning .....
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It sounds great, Jim - and there’s a ferry to bring you halfway back if you are running short of time. I hope things go well for you.
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It does sound exciting - we did a similar trip nearly thirty years ago - not in a motorhome - but in our yacht and spent over two years in and around the Med. Remember coming into Milazzo in northern Sicily at night with a Force 7 up our chuff having had a tricky passage through the Eolien Islands. Our perspective was very much sea-based so can't help that much with places to see but for us, Syracuse was a must-see. Catania - very industrial as is Messina and Reggio on the mainland. On the way back, our favourite spots in all of southern Italy were Amalfi and Tropea. Don't know if it's still relevant but the pilot book warned of going anywhere near Naples because of the incidence of street crime - particularly pick-pockets.
Will never forget coming down the Straits of Messina, watching smoke belching from Etna as we were closely followed by a pod of whales - the smell from the latter was overpowering!
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Jim
Montecasino is a very interesting stopover on the way down. You can park up at the monastery. The Polish cemetery is a very beautiful place and a must visit if you go and the British cemetery at the bottom is very sobering. Europacamping is a quaint site in Casino with the monastery and hill as a back drop. The campsite is tricky to find but the owner is very welcoming.
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