Southern Italy trip

[Juan]

I decided to brave the weather out and will be going on a trip to the Sila mountain ranges in southern Italy next week. It will be me on my S10 and my son on his Kawazaki Z1000SX. Just spent €500+ (around $600) on a waterproof jacket and pants for the purpose and these plus the overall wets should see me through rain and cold comfortably (I hope).

We will leave Malta for Pozzallo (south Sicily) by fast ferry, the crossing taking around 90 minutes. We will ride from Pozzallo to Messina (north Sicily) and then cross by ferry from Messina to south Italy, the crossing taking around 30 minutes. Then up to the Sila mountain ranges. Total trip will last 4 full days, covering around 1,600 km.

Before every long trip I don't ride the bike in the previous week, for fear of something happening. Well, yesterday I inspected the tyres and there it was - a nail. I will be fixing it the proper way, removing the tyre and fixing a patch with mushroom plug from the inside. This is the method recommended by tyre manufacturers. Let's hope it goes well.

 

[bob dirt]

Sweet...in the next couple of years I have some overseas rides I want to do. I want to make sure I spent all of my kids inheritance before I die.

 

[VRODE]

Good luck Juan! I spent some time in southern Italy and Malta in 2014 (not on a motorcycle) and envy you. Enjoy your trip!!

 

[Squibb]

Sounds good, particularly from here in a rather cold UK.

The whole Sila Massif area sounds great, pretty much untouched by tourism (the land of other times) & then there is the Ascione Pass to enjoy from Catanzaro to Cosenza. Ragusa looks a must do en route too, if you have the time. Catania town best avoided in my experience - scary levels of criminality, unless it has been cleaned up recently.

I'm OK with the Messina bit, but please can you tell us what the Ferry costs are like for the return Valletta - Pozzallo element. Thanks. We did a fly/ride to Malta & Gozo a while back. It was early October & warm but wet. We were suprised - the hire bike was a rather ancient Suzuki which needed a bit of spanner work before it was safe. Many of the roads felt like an ice-rink when wet. The amazing old buses were just being phased out by EU legislation. We have always fancied a return trip overland.

Some years back we were looking at doing an island hop, down to Tunisia - then the Arab Spring intervened sadly. A buddy of ours managed to get there the year before, with BMW Tours - loved the experience, but not the Tunisian Trots that afflicted him for the second week. He reckoned it was the icecream & insisted it was in no way alcohol induced.

Enjoy the trip ................ KEN

 

[Juan]

Ken, you must have visited Malta quite some time ago and much changed since then. Whenever you decide to come again, ensure you contact me.

The Malta/Pozzallo fast ferry for bike + rider is €129 (return trip) in November. This would more than double in August, though up to June it would be reasonably priced. You can visit the Virtu Ferries website for exact prices. The ferry does 1 to 2 trips per day.

Riding in Malta is very limited (very small island) so I cross over to Sicily a number of times per year. Sometimes I cross over to Italy as well and I also did a few trips to northern Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Germany, etc). It's quite a ride, but enjoyable.

 

[Squibb]

Thanks Juan - yes, sad to say it probably was quite a while back.

Cheers ..................... KEN ::003::