Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Sicily

We are planning an 18 day road trip in Sicily mid May 2023. Will take ferry from Genoa or Napoli. We are going for the history and scenery not for the beaches. We have been advised that the roads are not good, narrow with plenty of potholes, tight bends and locals with questionable driving habits. Theft from cars is a problem and minor damage is to be expected. Sounds terrible but nevertheless we are going. My quandary is do I take the +4 which narrower, shorter and a convertible (security) or the wife’s Mercedes SLC which wider, longer (narrow roads/hairpins), hard top and more comfortable. Has anybody driven a +4 there and had no problems regarding the negative advised concerns raised. Your constructive comments would be appreciated.

I took the M3W there a couple of years ago and apart from the cross-country route from Agrigento to Palermo the roads were fine.

Steven888 of this parish took his high mileage +8 there twice last summer, with Malta in between. Check out his posts on thread starting here.

M3W55. Thanks for the quick reply. It is the 'apart from' I am interested in as, with 18 days there, we will want to go inland. Is the 'apart from referring to cross country generally or one specific route. Also as it seems cars usually use carparks on the edge of historic towns I take it you had no problems re security (obviously nothing will be left inside)

My route was Messina-Catania-Syracuse-Noto-Modica-Ragusa-Agrigento-Palermo, but even that last leg was not too bad. Some of the smaller back roads may not be as good, but although satnav was set to 'scenic' I did not come across anything that would worry a Morgan.

I made a 13 days tour with a team of 9 Morgan in 2019.

Toulouse to Toulon by road, ferry from Toulon to Trapani.
Trapani, Palermo, Reggio di Calabria, Cosenza, Palinuro, Napoli, Rome, La Spezia, Toulouse.

No problem with the Morgan. I guess this is better to take the Morgan than the Mercedes in term of security (theft), but you have to find hotel with a private garage in Sicily particularly in Palermo and the great towns.
In some small towns like Cosenza, Palinuro we were on public parking in front of the hotel without problem.

In the South some roads are not good, better in the middle and the North, but you can manage.

For your trip you can take a ferry to Bilbao in Spain and after join (2 days) Toulon by road going along the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean sea.

You beat me to it Richard. I was there in 1977 having driven from the UK via France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia on a Honda 400 F4. The roads then were fine.

I have relatives in Reggio de Calabria opposite Messina & have visited many times. Messsina is fine.

I also drove my previous Roadster to Sorrento. You need to know that after Rome driving styles are more agressive / African . Having lived in Kenya it wasn't an issues but it is not a joke that traffic lights , speed limits etc are advisory.

Slightly off-thread, but when in Palermo I'd thoroughly recommend visiting the Palazzo Conte Federico (https://www.contefederico.com/newsite/). The Count and his son have a long racing history, including organising the Targa Florio and assorted works drives. In the forecourt there is a delightful Fiat Ballila that has been extensively raced, and has even travelled to Prescott after the Italian federation barred the Count from competing in Italy (apparently they have an 80 years age limit). The son of the Count was fascinated by pictures of our +8 competing at Barbon and Aintree, and he showed us his lovely Laverda SF750, too.

Dave

In september a group of 12 Morgan from the Morgan Club de France made a 12 days road trip in Sicilia, they started from Toulon. If you want to get in touch with Maurice who was in charge of the trip, send me a private message;

I have taken my 4/4 from the UK to Greece, with stops in Germany, Austria, Italy etc. This was done over a three week period. There were days where I drove. 8-10 hrs with others being only 3.

During the time I lived in Germany I would take whatever company car I had at the time on a road trip to Greece and loved it! Since getting the Morgan and moving to the UK, I wanted to do it again with the 4/4 and had it on my bucket list.

Am I happy I did it? Absolutely. Would I do it again, never, at least not that far.

The biggest draw back is that a classic Morgan, for me at least, is not a grand tourer. It is comfortable for shorter trips but covering the ground I did during a hot summer made it a bit of a pain after a while. The only saving grace was I had decent stops planned along the way. On smooth motorways it was pleasant and I did come away being pleasantly surprised that it felt more composed than I imagined.

The other negative was the worry of my luggage being stolen even though I had security wire mesh like bags etc locked to the chassis. As you are going with a group, hopefully someone has room for your bags so at least you do not have that to worry about that when stoping for a bio break, rest etc.

One thing I will say, the further into the EU I got the more astounded people were that this little car from the UK was there and were very complimentary of the Morgan.