Hi all,

We are going to Sicily for 10 days over the Easter break. We will be taking a ferry out of Genoa at 10pm on the Thursday just before Good Friday. We've already travelled to Italy by car a few times and have taken the Grand St. Bernard pass or tunnel, but we've never done it at such a peak travel time.

The trip from Lausanne to Genoa should take 4-5 hours under normal conditions. Should we expect delays? How much extra time should we give ourselves? Is there a better route that we should take other than the Grand St. Bernard? Is there are site that predicts traffic on the major routes in and out of Switzerland?

Many thanks in advance for any advice anyone should have, we don't want to end up missing our ferry!!

Thursday shoudn't be too bad- but still I'd allow an extra 2, even 3, hrs to be on safe side.

Would love to hear about the ferry journey when you get back. We've flown to Sicily 3 times in last 2 years, then rented a car.

Which part of Sicily are you going to? Flowers should be wonderful that time of year.

I always play it safe and spend the night in Genova before taking the ferry.

Tom

With a 10pm departure, that would be a bit crazy.

Thursday will definitely already have quite some massive jam, but if you've the whole day off, I'd say depart late in the morning (as in 10, 11am) and you shouldn't really have much to worry about.

I don't like to be stressed, and that way one can get in a good lunch before the trip.

Tom

Thanks all! I guess it's hard to know how much traffic there will be so we will probably leave by noon as someone suggested, which gives us double the travel time. With luck we'll be able to have supper in Genoa.

I will let you know how it goes. We have three small children so renting a car also means renting (or flying with) car seats. It seemed easier to take the ferry and have our car with us. I wasn't sure it would be worth it for 10 days but we have family who took it in the fall and assured me it was.

We'll be spending half the trip on the west side of the island, near Scopello, and half on the other side, near Noto. Any suggestions or recommendations?

Not if you have a ferry at 10PM, unless it's at some touristy place that opens early.

Tom

See if your route takes you around Milano. If so then even in the out-circles of Milan the autostrade can have some pretty intense traffic jams durng the day! - I've been burned twice passing around Milano. One was direction Genoa the other was direction Florence, all around lunch time when i expected there would be less traffic.






On the Genoa trip I found alot of traffic getting into Genoa itself so do plan on that - both of my travel times was around Peak spring Holiday time in CH.




So I recommend leaving plenty of time and plan on arriving earlier with a quite a few hours to spear, if you boat is at 10:00 PM, at least plan to have dinner before Hand. Avoid passing though Milan area if possilbe.

Oooh I could write a book - will think about it. With young children, your priorities may well be different to ours- history, architecture, flowers. Noto is bang in the middle of our favourite part, Baroque Montalbano country (have you ever seen the tv series) - so Ragusa, Modica, Scicli are a must. We loved walking around the ruins of Noto Antica, and the wild flowers were stunning up there. Scopello is wonderful too- take the boat around the Zingara nature reserve- then there is so much choice, medieval Erice on the hill, amazing Montreale and its cathedral, and a bit further, stunning Norman Cefalù - you've certainly piccked 2 beautiful places- enjoy.

I spent weeks poring over travel guides in order to pick the two best spots to stay, so I'm very happy to hear you say that! I've never had so much trouble planning an "itinerary" (to the point that you can actually plan an itinerary when you have three children 5 and under). There's just so much to see in Sicily! We will definitely have to be less ambitious than the average traveller, so we're mostly just hoping to relax and soak up the atmosphere. Thanks for the tips!

Thanks for the heads up. We're coming from Lausanne, so if we take the Grand St. Bernard we won't be going near Milan. But we will prepare for traffic getting into Genoa.

We have had 3 holidays in Sicily over last 2 years- for that very reason. Next, Palermo and the Aolians- enjoy.