Ferries to Sicily - Straits of Messina

[laimeduck]

Thinking of driving down to Sicily this year. Has anyone any comments/suggestions on the ferries to get there? 

Should we pre-book or simply roll up? 

We would like to drive most of the way, so ferries from the toe, Calabria, short crossings, are what we are looking at.

Thanks 

[Brian Kirby]

Double post!

[Brian Kirby]

It is fine. A bit like an Isle of Wight ferry on steroids, pointy both ends with a central bridge. See pic below. Caronte & Tourist is the operator. There is at least one other, but their ferries are smaller and, if I remember, not large enough for motorhomes. This takes coaches and trucks.

 

No need to pre-book. There were a couple of "ticket hustlers" at the Villa San Giovanni terminal car park. I didn't twig at first, and allowed one (who I thought was a port employee; middle aged, smart casual dress, very polite, English speaking) to accompany me to the ticket window and explain what I wanted. I got the ticket OK, paid, and then he started asking for "something for me". I was a bit miffed and said no. He looked dejected and just wandered off! No, we didn't get shot at as we left (or if we did, they missed! :-D.

 

When you leave the ticket office car park you have to drive back into Villa Sa Giovanni to find the queue for the ferry. Signposted, but GPS co-ords below.

 

You simply drive away from the ferry at the Messina end. It's to the north of central Messina, but you're straight out of the port and into the town, so it will pay you to get your san nav fired up before you disembark so that you're getting directions as soon as you hit terra firma.

 

We thought Sicily was great, one of our best trips.

 

GPS for the Villa San Giovanni ticket office parking is N38.21455 E15.63671. GPS for the ferry queue (I think you'll need this! :-)) is N38.22156 E15.63328.

 

If there's anything else I can add, just ask!

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

In the Strait of Messina appears the most heavy current of seawater in the world. What about the bridge project? These ferries havy special bow propellors.

[alan k]

For both of our trips to Sicily, we've returned via the straights and just turned up and paid to go on the next ferry, the system last year was much better than in 2015.

 

For the trip south we've used the overnight ferry from Civittavechia to Termine Immerese avoiding days of driving south into the sun. We have toured much of the south of Italy though, so haven't missed out on the man sights,

 

cheers alan

[starvin marvin]

Maybe on the way home you could take the ferry to Genoa.

[vindiboy]

Great information, thanks, what about overnight stopovers is wild camping allowed ,is there Sostas, are campsites freely available  or do they need booking ? Scilly is on our bucket list to do sometime. 

[Geeco]

Monique no bridges or tunnels due to the potential for seismic activity I was told last visit. Cheers

[laimeduck]

Thanks Brian all useful stuff as usual. 

Neither my wife, nor I, like ferries very much (must be the Cowes sailor in me?) so we would not consider long crossings. In any event we want to see Italy on the way down & back. (Haven't been down the bottom since the early 70's and that was on a 3rd class train!)

Similarly we are not really interested in aires nor wildcamping, but will use sites - predominantly ACSI and there are a few in the book for Sicily. 

Rather than ask where to go in Sicily, are there any area where you would not recommend?

Thanks

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

My partner said this as a seaman entering this strait whit a huge oil tanker. You enter it traverse not going in and engine propellor off. The current will suck off the ship into the strait and than you restart. For all motorhomers you should visit this island once in your life time.

[Brian Kirby]

Didn't find anywhere that we thought off-putting. Driving in Sicily is a bit "old Italian" in style. Just don't expect things to be orderly and calm. The teenagers on scooters are completely, delightfully, innocently, nuts! They just play in the traffic rather than joining it. They'll overtake anything in a queue on whichever side has a fag-paper gap to get through. Of course, from time to time they fall/get knocked, off, but most of them seem to get away with it. So, eyes peeled! But, that is only in the towns, where the car drivers are only slightly more restrained. Once you get used to it, and you should be getting the hang by the time you've got there, it is an absolute hoot. Endless entertainment during your slow progress through the traffic! :-)

 

We went round clockwise from Messina, leaving from Palermo for Corsica, so we missed out most of the north coast. We'd been watching the Montalbano series so, as we were "in the area" and the places featured had interested us, we took in Ragusa, Modica, and Punta Secca en-route. I know you said don't say where to go, and all taste is personal, but the things that left the deepest impression on us were the Valle dei Templi, near Agrigento, the Villa Romana del Casale, near Piazza Armerina, and the Norman cathedral at Monreale, which is about as un-Norman to eyes used to what they left us in UK, as you can get! Spectacular. The Normans meet Byzantium! However, there is so much of archaeological and architectural interest that merits a visit, that almost anywhere has something worth seeing. And, all that apart, the island itself is stunning.

[alan k]

Re campsites on Sicily, as well as the ACSI sites there's also the Camping In Sicily Card, pick it up free from a campsite in the scheme, there's no charge and it gives off season prices like ACSI and although some campsites are in both, there are a number of other ones in the Sicily card. Standards are variable but we were always heartily welcomed where ever we stayed.

 

I thought Erice was over hyped as was Taormina ( we had to wait for Trump and the G7/8 ? to leave before we could go up there). Hill towns in Italy are all interesting but when you've seen a few they are much the same unless there's a special thing to see.

 

We drove up to the big car park at the Rifugio on Etna, incredible sights of lava flows and the roads were ok going up. We tried to come down on another route and got caught in narrow roads and tiny villages with poor signposting. I only have a narrow van (2.12m) but got defeated by parked cars and a very scratched wall and had to reverse around a cross roads but everybody else just hung back, moved out of the way and and gave me room without a murmur. Whereas not pushing into traffic at a junction got me all sorts of horn blowing for holding everybody in the side road up.

 

Some of the old towns like Pachino in the very south east were a real pain, a true grid with narrow streets and tight corners and no signs for the way through and only just being able to take a 90 turn.

 

We thought Noto a super Baroque town and stayed at a camper park at Lido di Noto, There was no bus service but the grandson of the owner took us into town and collected us for €10 or so, about 20 mins each way and a great little place it was too.

 

We stayed near Celafu on the north coast and drove up into the Madonie Hills, amazing untouched villages and huge cracks across some of the roads from earthquakes or hillside movement. We eventually turned around on one road, the crack in front of us was just too big but a couple of local cars went happily across.

 

We really enjoyed Sicily, I'm happy to go with the flow re the driving and we mixed up the ornate churches, and the Roman and Greek archeological sights with time spent relaxing by the sea.

 

cheers alan