6 March 2024 – Ferry across the Messina Strait
Miles driven today = 64
Total Miles to date = 2,125
After 5 weeks on the road we’ve landed on Sicily which, in case you weren’t aware, trumps Sardinia, Cyprus, Corsica and Crete for the title of largest island in the Med.
We climbed away from last night’s coastal retreat at Tauriana and predominantly drove the last 40km to Villa San Giovanni underground as the A2 dived through a succession of lengthy tunnels, the longest of which was more than 2.5km. As we emerged from the last of these we were able to look down on the blue waters of the Strait of Messina with Sicily a mere 2 miles away on the other side.
We made our way down to the port and were immediately directed up the ramp of the 10am ferry. We were the last vehicle to board and within 2 minutes the ramp had been hoisted and we were underway for the 20 minutes crossing to Messina. We had a good chuckle at the number of passengers and crew who blatantly ignored the huge “No Smoking” signs.
We held no great desire to hang around in Messina so we made our way directly to the Palermo bound autostrada which whisked us through more tunnels to the North coast. Milazzo has an Acropolis and a Spanish Castle but also some very ugly oil refinery chimneys so we only loitered there long enough for a Lidl shop before continuing westwards. The central region of Sicily is very mountainous and inaccessible so we will mostly be sticking to the coastal regions. We’ve decided to proceed anti-clockwise around the island purely because I really quite fancy spending a night high on the slopes of Mount Etna and the later we do that the less likely it is to be snowing up there, so we have penciled that in towards the end of the 3 to 4 weeks we intend to be staying here.
After a further 25km on the Autostrada through an area of poly-tunnelled market gardening, we took the slip road to the seaside resort town of Oliveri. We made sure that we found our way to the only bridge under the coastal railway line that had sufficient headroom to allow us to squeeze beneath and headed to the Marinello di Greco Tourist Village. It’s a huge camping ground which is presumably heaving in the Summer months but for now it’s just us and half a dozen German vans taking advantage of their €15 a night (including hook up) winter offer. We haven’t actually worked out who we are supposed to pay yet. The note on the office window says it is open at 10am but no indication as to how long for. But we plan to stay here for another night so we’ll wander down there at the appropriate time in the morning and see what the deal is.
The site has a bar & restaurant which is firmly closed at the moment but you can access the beach from there. This is the view looking back east towards Milazzo with the town of Falcone on the hillside and the resorts of Tonnarella and Marchesana further along the coast.
We took ourselves off for a walk around a nature reserve concentrated on an area of sandbanks at the feet of the cliffs which rise away to the West of Oliveri.
The first area we wandered through is planted up with lots of different species of drought loving plants.
Lago Marinello is the first of three lagoons we walked around.
The Basilica of the Black Madonna sits high on a hilltop overlooking the bay.
The second lagoon, Lago Mergolo della Tonnara.
And the third, Lago Porto Vecchio.
Lisa of Arabia. Well not quite but we’re not a million miles away and Sicily is heavily influenced by Arabic culture.
To the north we could see the Aeolian Islands. The closest is rather obviously called “Volcano”
I found a tunnel through the rocks. I wanted to explore but my partner in crime was not so keen so we retraced our steps back to the campsite.
I'm feeling just a little bit smug and pleased with myself for picking this place out for our first night in Sicily. It's surprisingly quiet given both the railway line and the autostrada disappear into tunnels in the rockface very close by. The sun is due to get his hat on again tomorrow and we could see 20 degrees by the weekend, so I might just be brave enough to dip my toe in the water at some point.
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