Tea Cup Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Just gazing out of the window at the rain, and wishing for next summer - already, and it's only October! So thinking of where to go next year, and have got an fancy for Italy. We were there a few years ago, about 5 years ago I think, we went to the lakes with a group of 4 or 5 vans, and had a great time. But I was not at all keen on the Italian drivers, or the roads. I don't suppose the drivers have improved, but the roads might have improved, or at least will be on par with ours, since ours have deteriorated so much in the last few years. I'm thinking of the doing lakes, then down the Amalfi coast, but probably not including Rome, unless on a day outing. I certainly don't fancy driving through Rome. So, camp sites OK? Security? (East Europeans - I've been dipped twice in Rome). Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Hi Geoffrey , nice to be thinking about the sunshine but don't wish your life away...... We have holidayed many times in Italy tho not oset in the van. We have taken the van to many parts of Europe and have Italy high on the list for next year or the year after. I have heard that the roads are still not up to much and we all know what the driving is like over there! Getting down to Naples and the Amalfi coast is quite a drive and to do it restfully I think you will be needing several weeks, what sort of dates and timescales are you thinking of? Also, which part of Somerset do you live in? PS Plenty of time to get out in the van yet in 2013' good travelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Beautiful sunny day here in Bedfordshire, maybe you should holiday here? :D I think the general standard of roads in Italy has got even worse than those here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Cup Posted October 8, 2013 Author Share Posted October 8, 2013 bolero boy - 2013-10-08 4:42 PM Hi Geoffrey , nice to be thinking about the sunshine but don't wish your life away...... We have holidayed many times in Italy tho not oset in the van. We have taken the van to many parts of Europe and have Italy high on the list for next year or the year after. I have heard that the roads are still not up to much and we all know what the driving is like over there! Getting down to Naples and the Amalfi coast is quite a drive and to do it restfully I think you will be needing several weeks, what sort of dates and timescales are you thinking of? Also, which part of Somerset do you live in? PS Plenty of time to get out in the van yet in 2013' good travelling. I'm thinking of spending a few weeks there, but am not necessarily intending to go as far as Naples. We have friends near Bari but I think that is best left to Ryanair trips. I'd prefer to travel in hops of a few days, say 2 nights at least, once we get there. This way we get at least one day in each location. We normally go to Gascony for a week or two (rellies) and would want to fit this in, so am thinking of a 2 month trip. If we find it is too far to go, we will stop, if we want to go further we will. We normally go for one month early, say May, June, even April this year, plus one month later in the year, this time I'm thinking of rolling those 2 months into one trip not two. As regards the remains of the year and spring, we have plans/intentions, but are not expecting the warm sun here that we get near the med! That's what we're missing here in the good old UK. We have a small campervan which is not so winterised as yours! We live in Wells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Italy great to go & see, we went for a month 2 years ago and would love to go back. There are some really super sites, as well as some horrors, but we used ACSI most of the time without a problem. The roads are not brilliant, they seem to be trestles & tunnels: long elevated sections with huge drops either side followed by long tunnels, often 2-3km long. Standard of driving can be alarming but no worse than France or Spain- or even Birmingham earlier today! We went straight through France down to Cagnes sur mer then crossed the border and stayed at a super site in San Remo before heading on down to Rome & Pompeii. 8 days in Rome was not enough to see the city but there was a great site outside the city which had its own minibus which took us to the station from where Rome was 20 minutes by train, we went nearly every day. We went on to Sorrento & Pompeii, definitely worth a few days at the ruins and Naples as well as enjoying the limoncello in Sorrento. We were advised that the police would not let us down the Amalfi coast as our motorhome was too big & too high , only 6.5m x 2.9m but apparently we would not get by some of the overhangs. We will definitely go back to Italy, despite the roads, despite the fact the supermarkets don't sell vodka, despite being thrown off a train by a conductor who thought I was Turkish & despite the fact that all we found to eat out was pasta & pizza. Why? The glory of the churches, the beauty of the art , the wonders of ancient Rome, Assisi in the evening sunshine & topping the lot? The Trevi Fountain. A definite must in our opinion, we went September / October which was fine both for weather & finding places to stay. Enjoy the planning bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Bojitoes - 2013-10-08 8:48 PM despite being thrown off a train by a conductor who thought I was Turkish bob Did you validate your ticket before getting on train? A common mistake made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Tea Cup - 2013-10-08 8:43 PM bolero boy - 2013-10-08 4:42 PM Hi Geoffrey , nice to be thinking about the sunshine but don't wish your life away...... We have holidayed many times in Italy tho not oset in the van. We have taken the van to many parts of Europe and have Italy high on the list for next year or the year after. I have heard that the roads are still not up to much and we all know what the driving is like over there! Getting down to Naples and the Amalfi coast is quite a drive and to do it restfully I think you will be needing several weeks, what sort of dates and timescales are you thinking of? Also, which part of Somerset do you live in? PS Plenty of time to get out in the van yet in 2013' good travelling. I'm thinking of spending a few weeks there, but am not necessarily intending to go as far as Naples. We have friends near Bari but I think that is best left to Ryanair trips. I'd prefer to travel in hops of a few days, say 2 nights at least, once we get there. This way we get at least one day in each location. We normally go to Gascony for a week or two (rellies) and would want to fit this in, so am thinking of a 2 month trip. If we find it is too far to go, we will stop, if we want to go further we will. We normally go for one month early, say May, June, even April this year, plus one month later in the year, this time I'm thinking of rolling those 2 months into one trip not two. As regards the remains of the year and spring, we have plans/intentions, but are not expecting the warm sun here that we get near the med! That's what we're missing here in the good old UK. We have a small campervan which is not so winterised as yours! We live in Wells. Thanks for the update, we are lucky enough to be fairly spontaneous when we are in the UK and try and slip away when no one is looking.....although our longer trips across the Channel require a tiny bit more planning. We live in Street incidentally, and have been a member at Wells GC since 1968 tho don't play so much since we got into vanning such a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwyn Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Be aware that fuel is expensive but toll roads are cheap and better than the ordinary roads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Getting thrown off the train was quite entertaining. we were travelling back to our campsite after a day in Gerona but the local train was delayed by 30 minutes, so we hopped on an express train which was going to the stop next to ours before heading on to Rome. A number of locals did the same thing but no sooner had the train started than the conductor came around giving everybody a surcharge- apparently it costs more to travel on the express trains. As the surcharge was more than the cost of our 2 combined return tickets we decided to feign ignorance of what the conductor was saying- I think I may have made a reference to Mussolini & trains running on time. When he realized that he was not getting through he made a comment to the effect that I must be Turkish & put us off at the next stop, this enabled us to have a nice glass of wine & read how Dickens, Nelson & other well known English had lived in the town before our delayed local train arrived. we did learn from our lesson however & now check which trains we can catch whenever we are on the continent. I still do not think I look Turkish though! bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 I quite fancy Italy when we start long terming..............It must be 35 years since I went to Pompeii, Naples and various other ports.................I'd like to do it now that I can appreciate stuff more :D.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candapack Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Actually going to be spending a few days in Naples from 19th Oct. Without MH, but I will be keeping an eye out for UK regd. MH's and if poss. buttonholing their users for third degree questioning - it's somewhere I quite fancy taking the MH to sometime. If I get any useful info, and if I remember, I'll pass it on when I get back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Bojitoes - 2013-10-09 5:55 PM I still do not think I look Turkish though! bob I live next door to Sulliman Bojitoes......so Bojitoes is definitely a Turkish surname. (lol) Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest adhple Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 We did a two week trip down to Pompeii last June the roads were not too bad they are only poor out in the country side, the standard of driving is poor and there are thousands of motorbike and mopeds at the weekend which come at you from all directions especially south of Naples. We stopped on a small site in the center of Pompeii which was within walking distance of the ruins; the tourist center also arranges sightseeing trips around. Do as much of the Amalfi coast as the police will allow you, they will turn you round but it’s worth the journey. We took our large MH into Rome and found a camper stop next to the station where we found a taxi driver who spoke a small amount of English and we arraigned with a price before the journey where he would take us to the main sits around Rome & wait whilst we took photos etc. We entered Italy via Austria and came back via Switzerland, Two weeks was a little short for the amount of miles, so next time we will try three weeks, four would be perfect! Italy has lots of lovely camp sits to visit, we used ACSI, and we cannot wait to go back.https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/images/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Cup Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 What's the weather like in April, generally? Mid Italy looks about as far south as southern Spain, so I was thinking we could maybe go early in spring. Actually we went early to SW France this year, about mid April, and the weather was good, we were there a month, came back for a few weeks, during which time it apparently rained alot. We returned in July, just in time to catch the (very) hot weather. So you can never tell. But the good thing about an MH is, you have a steering wheel. Chase the weather (though there have been times ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiesgrandad Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 I always thought that one could recognise a Brummie by the shamrock in his turban, or maybe that's changed since I left home. AGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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