Sicily to Venice

The drive is 15 hours of driving time, 850 miles one way, NOT including stops of any kind for fuel, rests, or sight-seeing. This is per viamichelin.com. Basically two days of driving if you did not deviate from the freeway to see anything. If you want to see any sights, realistically more like 3 days. And if you want to see, as you said, "some out of the way places"--well then, you will probably want to go to viamichelin.com and do some more detailed planning as to the time it realistically will take to see the out of the way places.

I'll be in Céfalu. Thank you for the information.

Thanks, this will help. I'm nervous about driving but may choose that since I'd love to see some out of the way places on my way up.

Pam

It's rather like 'how long is a piece of string', all dependent of the time you can allow, and what your interests are. The eastern side of italy is less travelled by tourists. The very south quite unique. If you love castles, meander through Puglia. Frederick left many beautiful examples. I avoid the autostrada and use the minor roads often. Slower of course, but you can stop for photographs on those roads,and see more of interest, but not the major roads. Enjoy the trip.

Thanks Pat...that's what I will be doing. Just knowing the distance though helps me think about how long I can spend in different places. I think I'll try renting a car and traveling the back roads. I've been scared off of drive, just from the stories I've heard, but think I'll operate on a no fear idea...

Just to give you an idea on times, when we drive from Rome to outside Milan that is considered 6 hours of driving. But that 6 hours can sometimes take as much as 10, and even if it only takes 6 we have no desire to do any more driving. When we drive down to Calabria we stay overnight in Rome to divide the trip in half because otherwise it is too much. My husband is Italian, completely used to driving in Italy, and he finds it tiring. Also, you didn't mention when you would be travelling. If it is August make sure you have reserved a space on the ferry or you could wait all day just trying to get across the Straight of Messina. Traffic will be intense in the South that time of year.

Thank you for that information. I will be there at the end of Sept. first of Oct. and then travel the rest of the month into Nov. So I have some time but have friends in Northern Italy that I want good time with so just wanting to make sure I get there with many days to enjoy them.

Pam