Realmonte

To pick up our hire car we had to catch the train out to the airport in the morning. We still didn't know where we were going or how long we'd spend in Sicily. We rented the smallest car and planned to return it to Rome after 9 days. Our thinking was, that Rome would have more options for us to choose for our next destination with our Skyscanner.com decision-making strategy. Despite getting an “upgrade” on the size of our car, we still ended up with a tiny Fiat Panda. While perfect for the narrow Italian streets, it was barely big enough for our luggage. To try to keep our gear organised we agreed that Jessie would use the back seat and I got the boot.

As we were still unsure of the viability of camping options we set off with the priority to find a camp and then we’d explore the beaches and sights after. Some basic research had indicated that “free camping” is quite difficult (also illegal), and if caught brings with it a €500 fine. Along with this, we hadn’t been able to find much information about actual paid campsites. So we were kinda playing it all by ear and hoping it would work out. We set off towards the west coast and Trapani, a cool historic town that had been recommended. There were a few campgrounds listed on Google Maps nearby as well. However, somewhere along the freeway, we ended up swinging towards the south coast and by the time I could turn around we were already too far gone. I guess that’s one of the advantages of not planning further ahead than 1hr (some would say unorganised 🤷‍♂️). It was about now we realised that Sicily was much bigger and more expansive than we expected. And naively we’d assumed being an island full of beautiful beaches that the roads would follow the coast. More accurately, there is a main ring road with side roads that dart down to the various key points. The problem for us with this is that the driving time and distances would be much longer than we’d hoped.

Now being mid arvo, we were keen to find a campsite and actually check out some sights. Apart from a small grotto that we’d stopped at along the north coast, the scenery had been fairly average. On top of this, each of the small villages we’d passed through had looked deserted. Having been lucky to even find a single place open for lunch, we weren’t too confident in our chances of finding either dinner or a campsite. Google showed one campsite just down from the town of Menfi and it was on the coast so we headed for that. Luckily for us, it was actually open. And it was exactly as you would expect from a basic caravan park in Oz. A reception, a shower block and space to either park your van or set up a tent. With a sign saying €7/tent, we finally felt like the possibility of camping and offsetting the cost of the car hire would work out.

We set up the tent and made it to the beach for sunset. Almost like we’d planned the whole thing 😂. Fortunately for us, the campsite offered pizzas for dinner and with nothing else to do we set up the laptop in the car and watched "The Godfather". The movie aptly follows the story of a Sicilian mafia family.

The following day, our third day in Sicily, we hadn't been to the beach yet. We were eager to relax somewhere for a bit. A short drive away we came across the Stairs of the Turks. An incredible white rock headland that jutted out of the turquoise water. The perfect spot for a swim and hangout as we’d been wanting.

We were excited to explore Sicily's other highlight, Mt Etna. This prominent volcano is surrounded by wine regions. The wines produced here have a distinct flavour from the volcanic soil. Realising that the best parts of the island were probably more up along the NE coast we made our way back to the north coast that evening.Read more