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We arrived in Palermo on Xmas Day last year, in squally weather, and headed straight down to the S. coast.
Every time we ventured N. again we more or less found cloud and rain, but on the S. coast the weather was great.
A brilliant little port to park up in is Portopalo di Menfi, down near Selinunte.
Italian and a few German campers on the jetty and by the beach, we were adopted by a retired bar owner called Giacomo, we learned quite a lot of Italian from him, mainly by osmosis.
The nearby small town of Menfi has free internet in the library, and the old railway line to Menfi has been made into a cycle track.
Otherwise San Leone marina near Agrigento is nice, you can also park in the port of Sciacca, and we especially loved Syracusa, park up w/ the Italian and German vans in the little fishing harbour opposite the island of Ortigia, reached by several bridges. There is also a good Campervan site in the new town, near the archaeological park.
The harbour of Portopalo di Capo Passero, at the extreme S.E.tip of the island is nice too.
Will try and find time to dig out the co-ordinates !
Lovely island though, it felt amazingly safe, much more so than Spain, or parts of mainland Italy.
Sitting outside our van now in Lucca, sun has been shining and we are on our way down to Sicily. Can get quite cold at night at the moment in not by the coast.
We drove down to Sicily for the winter of 2009 and found the weather ok. However, it was the winter that Spain had bad weather so we had picked the right place to over winter that year.
We came back on the boat from Palermo to Genoa - 36 hours and a really nice ship. We bought the ferry ticket in Sicily as we couldn't bear the thought of driving all the way back. I can't remember the exact price but is was comparable to the cost of driving back.
Here are some of the places we parked up last winter in Sicily.
We saw Palermo at the end of our stay, but will start there and work round the island more or less anti-clockwise.
Palermo, Parcheggio Green Car
Nice central guarded parking, in walking distance of major sights, little (Sigma) supermarket nearby, also close to must-see Catacombs ( brilliant little coffee and cioccolata calda shop cum pasticcheria near catacombs). Wonderful markets.
Great olive oil from village of San Giuseppe Ieri, from a small shop of that name in the main Corso V. Emmanuele.
We really enjoyed Palermo, though we are not city folk normally, but you would want to drive there as little as possible, and their parking is amazing.
38.10976 13.34253
Monreale, parking just below cathedral
Amazing cathedral in hilltop town in outskirts of Palermo, has to be seen, only one serious way in, avoid the narrow streets whatever your GPS tells you.
Better dealt w/ after you have got the hang of the island.
38.07998 13.29207
Castellamare del Golfo, harbour. Several restaurants and nice shops in town, including a tiny indoor market selling excellent wine in plastic bottles, and sticky dried figs on skewers.
Hard to find way through town, David ended up following the local dustcart, who knew their way . . .
38.03086 12.88134
Torre di Namibia, possible overnight, near a Carrefour restaurant, on coast S. of Trapani
37.97644 12.49542
Torre di Mezzo, parking by sea opposite ok restaurant, basic shops in nearby Marausa
37.94703 12.48913
Mozia, embarcation point for ferry to island
good overnight, even if you didn't want the ferry
Water available all along this bit of coast
37.85600 12.47828
Mazara del Vallo, Campobello di Mazara, Cave di Cusa
This is the quarry for Selinunte, huge columns still partly excavated, a grassy, flowery place, nice museum.
You could park if your van will stand the cobbled road leading there.
37.61786 12.72761
There is a good M.D. Discount store on SS115 somewhere near here.
Gin less than 5 Euros, whisky under 6 Euros.
Parking near a beach East of Marsala, Familia supermarket not far away on main road
37.68388 12.49337
Selinunte
Parking near archaeological site
37.58325 12.83946
Selinunte, archeo site parking ( but cannot overnight)
37.58446 12.83701
Portopalo di Menfi, S. W. corner of the island, W of Sciacca, E. of Selinunte
N 37.57747 E 12.91038 edge of beach, a small all-purpose shop, bar and restaurant etc in nearby village
N 37.75445 E 12.90603 harbour, water available here
No Parking notices everywhere, but these only apply from May onwards we are told when the place is full of holiday makers.
There is a disused railway line, now a cycle track, which leads to Menfi, where there is free Internet in the library, open most weekdays.
Also a couple of supermarkets and a weekly market.
We used a Travel Agent here to book our ferry back to Genoa eventually.
Bar Rio was a nice, cheap, restaurant, the Travel Agent us directed us to it.
Lido Fiori, another parking by a beach just to the East. Next to 2 bars.
37.57128 12.94769
Piazza della Riviera nearby, another parking w/ water, but a poor flow.
37 56823 12.95604
Small beach West of Sciacca, in front of some deserted holiday flats
37.50371 13.05201
Sciacca port, lots of space, other vans parked there too, Internet in the town (above a bar full of teenagers playing table football), the French Routard guide book says to eat at Trattoria el Faro, the fishermens' restaurant in the port, but it was closed for the Xmas hols.
37.50540 13.07685
San Leone, the marina of Agrigento, small shops in the village nearby, not far from campsite noted below.
37.26234 13.57815
San Leone Camping Vallei dei Templi 21.50 Euros/ night
Smart site, washing machines, nice shower block etc, we were a bit put off by cats who wanted to adopt us.
Buses go from outside campsite to Greek temples which are in a valley below Agrigento
37.26944 13.58404
San Leone, Camping Nettuno, about 4km? East of town, peaceful, shady, by a beach, 15 Euros/ night. Washing machines.
German on site told us that Giuseppe 100m down the beach does spaghetti, pizzas etc at any time, on request.
37.24580 13.61355
The roads inland just East of Agrigento were hard work, they must have been putting in a new ringroad, or Motorway, our GPS was baffled and we ended up negotiating the small town of Favara twice, we thought the van would carry away the washing hanging from the balconies, if not the balconies themselves!
Marina di Ragusa, large flat carpark behind a supermarket, there is an Internet point in town.
36.78233 14.56202
Marina di Ragusa, enormous carpark not far from above
36.78525 14 55845
Marina di Ragusa, out of town, above a beach
36.77987 E14.57148
Good MD Discount store in M di Ragusa.
The Motorway marked on maps as heading East near Ragusa doesn't yet exist!
Portopalo di Capo Passero, the extreme Eastern tip of Sicily, in the port, excellent fish restaurant opposite.
One of the places they used to kill quantities of tuna, as they passed between the cape and the island.
Cycling into town, there is a shop just marked Frutta i Verdura, also sold small bars of amazingly good marzipan, made in nearby Avola, a centre for almonds.
A good local wine is Nero d'Avola, the name of the grape variety.
N36.67102 15.12724
Marzamami marina
N 36.73164 15.12046
Noto Could not find anywhere to park, so parked in a carpark at a road junction downhill from the town and walked in.
Lido di Noto
No parking signs but fine in winter.
36.85326 15.11334
Siracusa, Parking von Platen 18 Euros ( but only 6 Euros for acqua/scarico if you don't stay)
37.0689 15.28800
a spacious campervan site in centre of town, next to the pyramidal modern spire of the Sanctuario church, and well placed for visiting archeological park w/ includes Greek Theatre, Roman amphitheatre, also a papyrus museum, catacombs etc etc.
Buy a ticket for archeo before you go in, hard to find ticket office but you will only be sent out again if you don't!
After a day or two exploring this lot we moved down to:
Siracusa port , parking, water tap.
36.97941 15.25859
This is opposite the island of Ortigia, and connected by 3 road bridges. We walked across to the market every morning and explored all the old baroque churches etc,, and even chain stores such as Zara . . . stayed a week and had to drag ourselves away.
In addition, opposite the entrance to the port parking, is Via Piave, lots of useful small shops, including several good butchers, ( we liked Giovanni Liapi, ask for his terrine of mozzarella stuffed w/ tomato and tuna).
Also a dry-cleaners that took washing ( 6 Euros for our duvet cover, sheets and pillow slips).
Several Internet points including one in via Trieste on Ortigia, he speaks English, we wangled student rates for pensioners.
Only downside is a disco on Fri & Sat nights!
Villa Romana, restaurant car park ( Site was closed till May 2011)
37.36828 14.33449
2 Campervan shops we used for bits:
Caltlanissetta, Camping Sport, Viale Regina Margherita45/A
Did not stay, not a campsite but a Campervan shop, and a fabulous little Pasticceria next door, worth a visit if you need supplies of either sort.
No GPS noted.
Marsala, Montalto Caravan, on SS 115 2km E. of Marsala
We had our fridge mended here, cost 60 Euros but worth it.
37.71653 12.52630
It is worth noting that you can use your driving licence as a "document" on campsites etc, which saves you leaving your passport.
Internet points are sometimes betting shops !
Garages will let you fill your van w/ water when you shop for fuel, but hard to find places to empty cassette legally, Italian vans mostly do so illegally we believe, correct me if I'm wrong Eddied!
We bought off-the-peg seat covers in Siracusa, but they fitted them so well w/ lots of little hooks and straps, you wouldn't know they were not original.
Sicily would be a very different place in summer and most of the No Parking signs mentioned above would be enforced, from May onwards we were told.
Really interesting thread with some very useful information. Thanks. We are on our way to Sicily, currently on a Sosta at Civita Castellana where the sun is shining and the temperature is showing as 24 degrees. We'd be very interested in taking the boat back to Genoa but have two dogs. Are their facilities to travel with dogs?
Please say yes. Not sure my fillings will cope with the roads back up again.
TiA.
Really interesting thread with some very useful information. Thanks. We are on our way to Sicily, currently on a Sosta at Civita Castellana where the sun is shining and the temperature is showing as 24 degrees. We'd be very interested in taking the boat back to Genoa but have two dogs. Are their facilities to travel with dogs?
Please say yes. Not sure my fillings will cope with the roads back up again.
TiA.
Hi Jackie
Yes, they have dog kennels and a dog walk area on the ship.
Thanks so much for posting the places to stay, We are really sorry that we now will not be able to use them this year, as had a telephone call that meant we had to turn around and get back to the UK ASAP. We are now back in the UK after 4 days of driving after being diverted for 200 miles in Italy around, the mud slides they had.
I am hoping to go back again next winter and try again
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