Visiting Sicily February! Help!!!?

Question

We are taking our camper van to Italy then sicily. It will be February. Do you know best camp sites? Attractions? And how do we ensure we can mix with locals, not remain stuck with tourists, like ourselves?

Answer 1

Good to hear that you are visiting Sicily - it's where my husband comes from and we visit there really often. In fact, he is there right now!

Regarding campsites, I'm not too up on those. The only one I know of is on the slopes of Mount Etna. You can't miss it as there is really only one road up and one down the other side. There are a lot of camper vans round and about in Sicily though so there must be the facilities for them, it's just that I haven't noticed them.

As far as things to do, it will be too cold to go to the beach, obviously, and out of season but a drive along the coast from Messina to Taormina and then down to Giardini Naxos is worth it. Messina is pretty much a port town like many others but Taormina is beautiful. It is perched high up on the mountainside and overlooks the sea. There is a virtually complete Greel ampitheatre there with spectacular views of Mount Etna. It is really worth a visit and it only costs a couple of Euros. Taormina is very much a boutique town and has lovely little cobbled side streets with cafes and ice cream parlours. Also an impressive 12th century church, if you like that kind of thing. Giardini Naxos is the beach resort and worth taking a peek at en route to the autostrada. You will also see my favourite place, the Isola Bella on the way down from Taormina. Oh, to own one of the big villas overlooking it!

Catania is the main port and airport town on the east of the island and has some interesting architecture and nice pizza.

Aci Castello and Aci Terreza are small traditional fishing villages which come alive at night time. They are perhaps a bit on the inaccessible side if you have a large camper. Try going there fairly early on in the evening as they use the fishing port area to park on and it gets full very quickly. There is some stunning seafood available here which you pick from a tray outside the restaurant and they cook it for you. There is even a restaurant which juts out into the sea on wooden stilts.

Mount Etna itself is well worth a visit. It will take most of the day and in February is likely to be snowy. The lava makes the surface seem like a moonscape and very surreal. There is a restaurant/B and B about 2/3rds of the way up called La Quercia which serves wonderful food, coffees and hot chocolates. At the top, there are the usual touristy shops and the opportunity to go to the crater by cable car. We did this about 5 years ago. There is a small bar right at the very summit and providing it is safe, you can virtually go to the rim of the crater itself. You come back down by this odd bus thing which stops off to give good photo points along the way. It is very cold at the top even in summer so wrap up well.

There's also Gole Alcantara which is a river which has carved out a gorge through the lava and you can use waders to walk up the gorge itself in winter and swim up there in the summer. The water is a peculiar shade of blue green there.

The other side of the island is just as interesting but I have only been there a couple of times. Palermo is a scenic city on the sea front. Go to Agrigento and see the Greek temples which are worth a photo or two and I understand that at Trapani there are a number of mosaics, if that floats your boat.

Try the local delicacies at the bar - the term tavola calda literally means hot table. There are arancini which a cone shaped objects filled with rice and bolognese sauce. Cippolina which are pasty-type object with tomatoes and onions (my favourite) and Sicilianas which are like savoury doughnuts with ham, olives, tomatoes in. Beware some have achuighe in which are anchovies.  You can also try a granita which is a flavoured ice cream type thingy which comes in fruit flavours or the more popular coffee, chocolate or nut flavours and is served with a brioche and usually eaten for breakfast.

If you steer clear of the main tourist areas, you can eat really cheaply. For instance, a large tray pizza which will comfortably serve at least 6 people is about  7 Euros. Local beer called Moretti brewed in Messina is also cheap as is the local wine.

Answer 2

Listen to jacg, she knows what she is talking about.

My favorite restaurant, just south outside Catania, was Lo Spiedo (the spit).  It specialized in grilled kabobs and was reasonable in price because it is way off the tourist trail.  And, believe it or not, my favorite pizza joint was the restaurant attached to the bowling alley not far from Sigonella, a Catania burb.  Sorry, don't recall the name of the bowling alley, but their Four Seasons pizza was to die for.

For cheap, filling, excellent meals, try a tavola calda (hot table).  Buffet style, they are usually family owned and serve whopping portions with wine for about 1/2 the price of meals elsewhere.  TC's were all over downtown Catania.

Get a Michlein Guide to find the RV sites or go online.  But do spend time in Toarmina; it may be one of the most beautiful towns on the Med (and there are a lot of beautiful towns on the Med). [See source.]

The Valley of the Gods is also worth a drive from the coastline.  It boasts more Greek temples than any other site in the world other than Greece itself.  The failed Zeus temple there would have been the largest one in the world, but for the fact they couldn't get it erected because its columns, shaped like Zeus, kept breaking off at the ankles.

Glad you are going to Sicily, I believe it to be one of Europe's best kept secrets.  Loved my year on that island.  Great people...i Siciliani.

Answer 3

Yes!

Answer 4

syarcuse is a ancient ruin to se, mount etna,  and the town of taromina on the mounainsside abopve the town of catana