As we continued our motorcycle touring and camping in Italy, we were now on the far west coast of Sicily.
Trapani – Contrada Rais-Gerbi – Catania (again) – Tropea – Montecorvino Pugliano
Accommodation scoring: 0 = Worst 3 = Average 5 = Best
Trapani (distance from previous location – 168km )
- Roads (Scenic, Surface, Twisties, Police Presence) – 3
- Accommodation (Clean, Comfort, Space, Room Access, Shower) – 4
- WIFI (Download, Upload, Reliable) – 3
- Parking (Secure, Level Ground, Covered, Distance with luggage) – 3
- In the area (Shopping, Restaurants, POI) – 4
Our room was spacious and had room for bike gear and laptops to work on. The room looked out onto a courtyard where we had parked our bikes. Other rooms also looked out onto the courtyard and tables and chairs adorned the area, giving it a very social atmosphere.
The staff here are very friendly and the lovely lady in the mornings made us eggs for breakfast each day. Full disclosure, if you are diabetic, Italy is potentially not the place to eat hotel breakfasts. With the exception of bread, cold meat and cheese, everything is basically cake!
Something I’ve noticed about the dogs that wonder around the streets of Sicily is that they all look the same. Same size, same colour and same clotted wirelike hair. I imagine there is some big white gigolo hound roaming the Sicilian countryside terrorizing neighbourhoods.
During our stay here and on the advice of Natale, we visited Erice. Can you guess where it was? Yup, up another bloody mountain with a barking bouncing dog again! Erice is a fairy-tale medieval village that sits on top of a mountain peak. From here, you can see the sea, the islands and the countryside. The town centre is filled with cobblestones and pastry shops. Loud toothless waiters were barking “cappuccino” and “pizza” to passersby in an effort to draw them into the café, ha, like that ever works! After we finished our Cappuccino, Cannoli and Arancini, it was time to head back down to our accommodation!
Contrada Rais-Gerbi (distance from previous location – 191km)
- Roads (Scenic, Surface, Twisties, Police Presence) – 3
- Accommodation (Clean, Comfort, Space, Room Access, Shower) – 4
- WIFI (Download, Upload, Reliable) – 3
- Parking (Secure, Level Ground, Covered, Distance with luggage) – 4
- In the area (Shopping, Restaurants, POI) – 3
On to our second time camping at a great location with pitches that overlooked the sea, each with its own olive trees to act as natural shade for tents. Unfortunately, we were not able to take our bikes down to these areas which were accessible by stairs only. Plus, the toilets were a bit of a yomp up hill, which neither of us fancied at 4 in the morning, just about the time the 3 beers you had the night before kick in.
The other usual types of accommodation were available such as campervan sites, small chalets but it was the small igloo type structures that caught my eye, I would love to have had a peek inside but no luck. They looked so cosy and if you covered them in grass, you would have had another sequel to the Hobbit movies.
On the evening, we visited the local onsite pizzeria which is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays but this could be because it was the low season. As we arrived on a Saturday, so we got lucky. Zsofi did briefly chat with a Swiss chap who had caught a ferry down from Genoa and was going to ride back. He told us he was concerned about the weather returning back home but I’ve been keeping my eye on storm reports etc and haven’t seen any real issues hitting the west coast as yet. Watch this space, everything can change from day to day.
After another night sleeping on our carry-mats, it was time to find a Decathlon and upgrade our camping equipment.
Catania (distance from previous location – 203km)
- Roads (Scenic, Surface, Twisties, Police Presence) – 4
- Accommodation (Clean, Comfort, Space, Room Access, Shower) – 2
- WIFI (Download, Upload, Reliable) – 3
- Parking (Secure, Level Ground, Covered, Distance with luggage) – 3
- In the area (Shopping, Restaurants, POI) – 4
Now heading back to a campsite in Catania, crossing the centre of Sicily through the mountains was both exhausting and wonderful at the same time. I love my equipment and dogs but there have been many occasions I have fantasised about tackling some of these roads on a naked Tiger! Not having to worry about turning a bike around without dropping it or even just to drift effortlessly around twisties, instead of bouncing and hanging on to the handlebars for dear life.
Just outside of Catania, we made a point to detour via a Decathlon. Rush hour traffic is always fun in Sicily and today was no exception. After a few wrong turns, we found our favourite sports shop and now kitted out with small compact airbeds, a couple of covers, extra pillows, another camping light and an electric hookup adapter, we moved from camping to glamping! A 10-meter electric cable is proving to be a challenge at the moment but I’m sure we’ll find one soon. This wasn’t a problem at the moment because our next campsite didn’t provide electric hookup for tents, racist bastards.
Camping Jonio is pretty basic but it is set in a great location for bikers to use as base to visit the local surroundings, such as Etna, beaches, national parks or even going into Catania itself. The coastline in this area is stunning and filled with cafes and restaurants to suit everyone’s tastes.
During our stay in Italy, we purchased an Insta 360 camera to mount on Zsofi’s bike but have had a real issue trying to find the official moto mount for the camera. The best we could do was order it and have it delivered to a store. Once again Natale came to the rescue who organised and picked up the part. Picking us up at our campsite for an evening of, yes you guessed it, pizza and beer, he not only dropped off the part for us but also got hold of a copy of the newspaper we featured in. He also presented us with a bottle of olive oil that he had produced from his own olives (best olive oil ever by the way)
After a great night’s sleep with our new camping gear and before we even had a chance to pack up, Natale bombarded us with routes and places to visit as we left Sicily to head north in Italy. He truly is in the wrong business and should think about running a tour business or at least something in the hospitality trade.
Tropea (distance from previous location – 222km)
- Roads (Scenic, Surface, Twisties, Police Presence) – 3
- Accommodation (Clean, Comfort, Space, Room Access, Shower) – 2
- WIFI (Download, Upload, Reliable) – 0
- Parking (Secure, Level Ground, Covered, Distance with luggage) – 3
- In the area (Shopping, Restaurants, POI) – 2
Now back in mainland Italy, our next destination was accessible by roads that seemed to want to twist up as much as they wanted to twist back down again. Now on a bike that is no longer powered by petrol but instead is propelled by dog barks, I bounced my way around the Italian countryside until we finally reached our campsite by the sea.
Odd little campsite, as it was right on the beach but it was fenced off to stop people accessing the sand from the site. The town with all its shops, bars and restaurants was high above and accessible by steep stairs. The electric hookup says I had power but I would guess it was only kicking out about 1 amp, so pretty much a waste of time trying to charge anything but it may have just been our electric unit at the pitch at fault.
The highlight of the evening was stopping a big toad from trying to crawl in the tent with Zsofi while she slept or the small tarantula type spider that I encouraged to walk in a different direction. God I love camping, Australia here I come!
Montecorvino Pugliano (distance from previous location – 364km)
- Roads (Scenic, Surface, Twisties, Police Presence) – 4
- Accommodation (Clean, Comfort, Space, Room Access, Shower) – 4
- WIFI (Download, Upload, Reliable) – 4
- Parking (Secure, Level Ground, Covered, Distance with luggage) – 2
- In the area (Shopping, Restaurants, POI) – 3
On to our next location and the further north we pushed, the harder it was to find open campsites. Luckily we hit gold with our next stop. This place that is located about an hour away from Naples and set among some very fancy houses, cost us the same as it did for camping in a tent. The first thing I though was ‘ok, what’s wrong with it?’. Over 900 reviews on Booking.com with testimonies from hundreds of people. We got a ground floor spacious apartment with a pool view at the back, easy access to the bikes at the front and plenty of greenery for the dogs. A Lidl was only 7 mins away, this place is too good to be true and guess what, it’s fantastic! As I write this, I’m sitting at our kitchen table with great WIFI drinking coffee after eating a great lunch produced in our own kitchen. Obviously we opted to stay for an extra night to use the facilities to get on with some much-needed blogging and for the first time since we hit the road, I am finally up to date with our updates. Now I’ll be able to blog in real time and not have to rely on previous notes and memory to capture our adventures from weeks gone by.
Cerveteri (distance from previous location – 326km)
Cerveteri was to be another 2-night stopover before pushing on further north for an overnight camp. Although we were only 45mins away from Rome, we decided to check out the local area, specifically a lake nearby called Lago Di Bracciano. We headed to a town on the far side, which was also called Bracciano, for some street food and coffee but this was to be a real challenge. There were plenty of restaurants sitting right on the lake but trying to find some simple food was an adventure on its own. After walking up and down the length of the promenade, we eventually found a place right opposite where we had parked in the first place! The opening hours in Italy can vary depending on region, store, the weather or basically if the owner feels like it. We found bars that were open but the restaurant is only open tomorrow or even a pizzeria that is only open on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For the smaller shops, be prepared for most places to be closed between 1:00pm and 4:00pm due to siesta time.
A burger and a coffee later, we were back on the bikes to head back to our apartment via a supermarket for some supplies, supplies mainly consisting of marshmallows and plum cake!
Azienda Agricola Sinisil Lago is a nice little accommodation but the road into it is another dirt track with gravel parking. We were in a small bungalow set away from the main building next to the chickens and geese, so the dogs were entertained. This was going well until we caught Molly chasing a chicken which ended up in her mouth. the chicken was fine by the way, although therapy may be required at some point both for the chicken and me.
Breakfasts are starting to become a bit boring in Italy because of all the cake, this is not good thing when you are diabetic. You try to be good but it is a bit limiting as to what to eat. We were able to make a ham and cheese toasty here, so not so bad this morning.
Bolsena (distance from previous location – 96km)
What a nightmare of a day this turned out to be! We set off to head towards a campsite in Tuscany and decided to call in to a hardware store to pick up an electrical cable for camping. All was going well, we had the usual pictures taken by onlookers, had a snack and used the facilities before the 4-hour ride ahead of us. While riding, I noticed quite a few open fields and decided to leave the highway to find a place to let the dogs off for a run around. Eventually we came across a gravel track that led downhill to the fields I was looking for. I didn’t like the look of the track but we decided chance it anyway. I will never ignore my intuition ever again; it wasn’t long before Zsofi came off her bike on the gravel. Then while I was trying to manoeuvre her bike, I dropped it again.
We finally got the bikes parked on the field and it was at this point Zsofi said, “where is my leg bag?” This would be the leg bag with here credit cards in! After a bit of hunting around the area that the bikes had gone over, the dawn of realisation swept over us that we had left it behind at the hardware store, which was an hour and a half away. Phone calls were made to the store but nothing had been found. I remembered seeing that Zsofi had put her bag on the pannier of the bike and knew we must have ridden away with it still there. There was nothing for it but to ride all the way back and hope for the best but finding it ever again was very unlikely.
It was my turn to come off my bike on the gravel track as I hit a rut. I was lucky not to land in the ditch but we still couldn’t pick it back up. Nothing else for it but to unload the bike to get it back up. Eventually we got the bike back up and reloaded it minus Molly, who Zsofi would walk up the hill. I can honestly say this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done on a bike! The bike was just sliding backwards down the hill and Zsofi was doing her best to hang on to it. After a couple of failed attempts to get traction, I decided the best course of action was to just power out of it, I’ll either come off again or make it to the top of the hill. Thankfully, it was option 2.
On the way back to the hardware store in the vain hope we would find her bag, I remembered the time I lost my wallet while riding and found it again by circling back a few times and watching the roadside. I decided to keep my eye out when we were about 15 minutes away, I figured that it would never have lasted any longer than that laying on the pannier. I also considered that if we were ever to see it again, it would have to have fallen off where no one walks, very unlikely. Riding in silence, we both ran the scenarios of what we would need to do next; cancel all the cards, replace the cards and driving license, have them sent to Zsofi’s parents, fly home to get them or even were we going back to Budapest for the winter? 20 minutes away from the store we hit a stretch of road and I thought ‘this would be an ideal place for it to be, a country road with no footpaths. Low and behold, out the corner of my eye, I spotted the bag on the grass verge! A slightly illegal U-turn later and the bag was safely retrieved with all its contents intact. Finding a bag that fell off a bike at speed over 3 hours previously, well you don’t get much luckier than that.
In the space of 5 hours that day, we managed to travel 96km’s from our starting point. Tonight’s destination wasn’t going to be camping, nope, tonight we were having a hotel and beer!
Le Naiadi Park Hotel Sul Lago is a lovely hotel that sits right on a beautiful lake that somehow reminded me of the Lake District. I would have been quite happy to spend a couple of days exploring the lake here but we really needed to push on.
Continuing our motorcycle touring and camping in Italy, we were now on our way to Tuscany, our next destination was going to be a very pleasant if not slightly alcoholic experience!
