Seeing Italy

[Wellington]

So, for those that have been following along with my mission to get us to Europe in time for my cousins 40th, we made it and things have settled down a bit. It has changed out travel plans somewhat, though. Initially we had not planned to spend a lot of time in Italy itself, so I haven’t really thought about it much. Also, my Italian is dire!

The girl child would like to go to Pompei (we are going to start again from Venice, tomorrow now we have some spending money) so we will make our way down there, possibly stopping off outside Rome and Florence. So far we have been staying on Sosta’s en route, and while they are very well appointed, it’s not really what I’m after. I’d like to stay in smaller places, away from the roads and the crowds, and ideally with good local food to sample. Any suggestions what resources I might use to find smaller places to stay? Does Italy have an equivalent to France passion? Don’t mind paying for stops, either in cash or local produce, but would love to see more of Italy than car parks with drainage facilities and tourist tat.

 

[hilldweller]

There is a campsite just outside the gates to Pompeii. Herculaneum is better preserved and you can get there by train from that campsite.

But we love the manic crowds enjoying themselves in Italy, it's full of life, so can't help with your other request. You could go looking for a monastery or nunnery.

One of our favourite spots which you will more or less pass is Camping Cappuccini, Peschiera del Garda. Full of life.

 

[DBK]

All I can suggest is reading the descriptions of the potential stops. I use CamperContact and it has a filter which you can use for example to show only places graded say 7 or above. This will weed out most of the non-starters. We stayed at an amazing organic smallholding in Italy (further south than you are going) so such places do exist. If you find a stop which describes itself as an Agri-tourism then it will be a sort of France Passion place. The difference is unlike an FP place it won't be free. We used campsites quite a lot in Italy as they were generally much pleasanter than many of the sostas, which could be dusty car parks. But we travel outside the high season and get the ASCI discount. Coastal campsites will be rammed I fear now if you can even get in.

Our last major trip to Italy was to Sicily, apart from the short hop this year to catch a ferry to Corsica. The route we took down to the south is described on this thread. On the return journey we stopped at Pompeii.

Two Go To Sicily

It is worth coming to this aire just to have a walk around the town of Soragna, the centre of which is just a few minutes walk away. The centre is pleasant: Just beyond this is the Fortress Mela Lupi. I got it's age completely wrong, perhaps early 19th or 18th Centuries I wondered, no...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

The Pompeii bit starts on this page:

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/two-go-to-sicily.159019/page-8

 

[Wellington]

Thank you. I shall peruse. We aren’t in nearly such a hurry now, as we have until August 22 to meander back to Calais, so I can pick and choose a bit. We had a couple of super taster menu/vineyard tours in Padova, so I think there’s plenty of it, just a case of searching it out.