Title for Italy, Sicily and Sardinia trip - Matera hill-top town.

Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.  November 2019 to February 2020

We had 3 months between my appointments in November and February and decided that we would explore Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Previously we've only travelled through northern Italy and visited Venice in 2005. We returned to the UK on February 7th so were back before the corona virus shut down Italy. 

We weren't sure what to expect but we both agree that (apart from the driving and parking!!) we had a fantastic time. In all that time we only saw 1 other UK motorhome, 95% of them were Italians with a few Swiss, Germans and French. The winter weather is certainly not as good as Spain and Portugal (which is where most of the Brits seem to go) but it meant that we were able to see many of the 'sights' without too many tourists around and, because we had the time (and no timetable), were able to hole up for a few days here and there and wait for the weather to improve. 

I used the Park4Nights App to find places to stay. Sometimes we used Sosta Campers ((Camper Stops), some of the inland ones were free (including electric) but most charged between 12 and 25 Euros a night. We also spents many nights at free locations.

Our Route 

 We crossed from Dover to Dunkerque and then travelled down through France (avoiding the toll roads) and through the Alps into Italy. We then spent 8 weeks travelling down through Italy before getting the ferry to Sicily. We had 10 days in Sicily, moslty on the East Coast and then got a ferry to Sardinia. We spent 2 weeks in Sardinia, travelling from Cagliari in the South to Porto Torres from where we got the ferry to Barcelona. We took 5 days to travel across Northern Spain to Bilbao, avoiding toll roads, where we got the ferry back to Portsmouth.

Map of our route through Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.

The following links give more detailed information and lots of photos of our trip:

  Central Italy A. Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Sienna. 

Central Italy B. Lake Trasimeno, Numana, Rome. 

Southen Italy A. West Coast, Vesuvius, Herculanium and Pompeii. 

Southern Italy B. Matera, SE Coast, Gallipoli, South Coast. 

Sicily. Sant' Alessio, Naxos, Mount Etna, Taormina, Siracusa, Ortigia and Piana Calzata. 

Sardinia. Cagliari, SW region, Gira Plateau, Santu Antine and Alghero. 

Spain. Travelling from Barcelona to Bilbao.

 

As we were driving down through France I kept checking the weather forecast as we wanted to drive through the Alps. Our third night in France was next to a canal in Virignin. In the morning we awoke to blue skies and snow. As we headed south towards Italy we had great views of the mountains.

Our van parked by the canal in Virigin.

Driving over the River Isere with the Alps in the distance.

Snow-topped mountains in the Alps.

Last updated: November 2020