We are going to be in Italy from September 19th to October 18th and plan to rent a car in Palermo, Sicily and tour around Sicily and then come over to the mainland and travel to Florence, where we have rented a villa for a week...Sept 29th to October 06th.
My question is, has anyone taken the ferry from Messina in Sicily to Reggio di Calabria and then driven north to Florence or close by? We were thinking of allowing 2 days for this part of the trip. I've been looking at the coastal road and thinking this would be a long, slow way to go. Might just keep to the autostrada...would this be an interesting drive and how long should we allow for this drive? Are there any interesting sites or town to see along the way? We could break the trip north by spending two nights in one town as we do not need to arrive at our villa until Sept.29th I would love to hear from anyone who has driven in this part of Italy. Regards Elizabeth
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16364 posts
Villa SG to Florence is a good 9-10 hour trip on a good day. Stopping just for gas and just staying on the freeway.
Between Sicily and Florence there is 3/4 of the Italian Peninsula. So lots of places. Take a look at the route on Google Maps and decide. Rome is along the way too.
Posted by
OP
Delta, B.C., Canada
4 posts
Thank you Roberto....think if we do the drive, should stick to the freeway Elizabeth
Posted by
San Diego
1540 posts
Elizabeth - I have not been by car.....but bus tour and I would highly recommend an overnight stop in Matera. It is an amazing town - many of the buildings in the old part are caves - carved into the soft Sassi stone. I stayed in a hotel that had some of the rooms as nice modernized caves. Hotel Sassi. You might want to look at some photos on google or some place to see how amazing Matera is (there are several other interesting towns in the
area), not sure how much time you want to take for your drive.