Sciliy help please! (1 Viewer)

[Werthefucarwe?]

We are due to leave Sciliy tomorrow from Messina to Villa San Giovani via the ferry, BUT we do not appear to be able to book this in advance - just turn up and queue?? ALso we cannot seem to identify where we queue up and buy
our ticket, as we are nearly 9m long we would like to have some clue what we are doing as 97 point turns in Sciliy are very scary!! So are any of you well travelled folkmablemto advise us - DBK for example? TIA

 

[Riverbankannie]

Use @DBK to send an alert but he is away in Spain at present.

 

[Riverbankannie]

I found this on his thread about Scicily but it’s about the crossing the other way but might help particularly with the signs and with checking which port in Messina!

Here's an extract from my next book.

"At the their closest point mainland Italy and Sicily are only about two kilometres apart although the ferry crossing from Villa San Giovanni to Messina is about four kilometres.

I hadn’t done any research on the ferries other than establishing you didn’t need to book one but could just turn up. So we followed the signs to the port as we approached the town. After a while I saw a sign saying “Caronte & Tourist” and although I had no idea what a Caronte was I knew we were tourists so I followed these signs which took us to a long car park with an office on the right hand side. A man showed me where to park and then took charge of my ticket buying. I have come across this arrangement before and I am happy with it but others might object to having to pay €5 to achieve something you can easily do yourself - buy a ticket from a window. I view it as encouraging entrepreneurship and the local economy. I suspect part of my €5 found its way to the local mafia boss as I can’t imagine this going on so close to Sicily and the mafia not being involved. The cost of the open return ticket we bought was €93 and what I expected. I had done some research.

The ticket office is not near the port but Five Euro Man had a solution to this. “Follow that car” he told me after I had paid him his fee. So I followed the car as it shot through the centre of Villa di Giovanni and subsequently joined a line of vehicles on the quayside. As it had taken us so long to escape from the clutches of Tropea we didn’t arrive at the port until the afternoon and this being a Friday it was busy. Had we arrived about fifteen minutes earlier we would have been able to board this ferry.

View attachment 214606

The name on the vessel was the name of the shipping company and it was their signs I had followed as we entered the town!"

PS: When you land in Messina make a note of the coordinates of the port entrance. There are a lot of ports in Messina spread along several kilometres. We made a grand tour of them coming back.

Here's an extract from my next book.

"At the their closest point mainland Italy and Sicily are only about two kilometres apart although the ferry crossing from Villa San Giovanni to Messina is about four kilometres.

I hadn’t done any research on the ferries other than establishing you didn’t need to book one but could just turn up. So we followed the signs to the port as we approached the town. After a while I saw a sign saying “Caronte & Tourist” and although I had no idea what a Caronte was I knew we were tourists so I followed these signs which took us to a long car park with an office on the right hand side. A man showed me where to park and then took charge of my ticket buying. I have come across this arrangement before and I am happy with it but others might object to having to pay €5 to achieve something you can easily do yourself - buy a ticket from a window. I view it as encouraging entrepreneurship and the local economy. I suspect part of my €5 found its way to the local mafia boss as I can’t imagine this going on so close to Sicily and the mafia not being involved. The cost of the open return ticket we bought was €93 and what I expected. I had done some research.

The ticket office is not near the port but Five Euro Man had a solution to this. “Follow that car” he told me after I had paid him his fee. So I followed the car as it shot through the centre of Villa di Giovanni and subsequently joined a line of vehicles on the quayside. As it had taken us so long to escape from the clutches of Tropea we didn’t arrive at the port until the afternoon and this being a Friday it was busy. Had we arrived about fifteen minutes earlier we would have been able to board this ferry.

View attachment 214606

The name on the vessel was the name of the shipping company and it was their signs I had followed as we entered the town!"

PS: When you land in Messina make a note of the coordinates of the port entrance. There are a lot of ports in Messina spread along several kilometres. We made a grand tour of them coming back.

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[DBK]

We are due to leave Sciliy tomorrow from Messina to Villa San Giovani via the ferry, BUT we do not appear to be able to book this in advance - just turn up and queue?? ALso we cannot seem to identify where we queue up and buy
our ticket, as we are nearly 9m long we would like to have some clue what we are doing as 97 point turns in Sciliy are very scary!! So are any of you well travelled folkmablemto advise us - DBK for example? TIA

Walking the dog at the moment - give me 30 mins.

 

[DBK]

We are due to leave Sciliy tomorrow from Messina to Villa San Giovani via the ferry, BUT we do not appear to be able to book this in advance - just turn up and queue?? ALso we cannot seem to identify where we queue up and buy
our ticket, as we are nearly 9m long we would like to have some clue what we are doing as 97 point turns in Sciliy are very scary!! So are any of you well travelled folkmablemto advise us - DBK for example? TIA

We didn't buy a return ticket in Messina as we had an open return but a bit of Googling suggests the Caronte & Tourist ticket office is at this address:

Rada San Francesco, Viale della Libertà, 34, 98121 Messina ME, Italy
Tel: +390903718510 they probably have someone with English who can advise. Worth calling.

On Google maps this is very slightly north of the port we used and may be in the same port complex. The coords of the port I recorded as N38.2059252, E015.5608937. if coming on the motorway from the south don't turn off too soon unless you are in need of more experience of Italian traffic. Look for the sign which says "traghetti" the Italian for ferries. From the north you should be safe following your satnav.

You don't need to book just turn up. The service is very frequent.

Good luck!

 

[Werthefucarwe?]

Many Thanks - fingers crossed for tomorrow, it surely cannot be any worse than trying to navigate around Palermo - can it????

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[DBK]

Many Thanks - fingers crossed for tomorrow, it surely cannot be any worse than trying to navigate around Palermo - can it????

No, better than Palermo I think as there is so much traffic it moves more slowly.

 

[Werthefucarwe?]

Well that was soooooo much easier than we thought! followed the coordinates to the ferry port - staying on the motorway and approaching from the north avoids most of the town. Pulled into the clearly signed ticket booth, paid our euro 56, joined the queue lane and were on board within 15 minutes! Thanks for your help @DBK. Now onto Bari for our next ferry onto Greece.

 

[JJ]

SICILY


JJ

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