Three Islands trip
 

Hi,
I'm planning a 3 islands trip for early summer 2015 (early summer to avoid the peak holiday season). From the Yorkshire Dales I'll be riding down to the south coast, across to Normandy, then to the Med to catch the ferry to Corsica, then Sardinia, then Sicily, and back via the Livorno ferry and Sudtirol and Bavaria.

I've ridden in W. Europe many times before, but my only long ride was Istanbul and back last summer. If anyone would like any questions answered on that trip please fire away.

I'm retired, there's no time pressure (lucky me), so no motorways or toll roads. I'll be camping, so what I'm really after is recommendations for good sites near places worth visiting as I've not visited these islands before.

I'll be going on the trusty GPz500, so only the lightest of off tarmac diversions would be entertained.......

Hi
I was in Italy last year and found it a bit of a nightmare - have you been there before?
Brian

If you're fairly laid back about it and don't get that stressed I've usually enjoyed Italy. I've always found it ok on a bike - even the super busy bits round Ravenna / Rimini, but if you're going earlier than the August peak you'll (hopefully) miss the worst of it. It can get really hot down in the south though.

Italy
 

Yes, a couple of times. Once into the north, as far south as Lake Garda a few years ago, and then on the way back from Istanbul last year in mid June. Took the Igoumenitsa - Bari ferry, arriving Sunday am right into the middle of a religious festival. The traffic in Bari was mental, and it was v hot too, the bike (not the GPz, another one) boiled over due to some sloppy work by the Triumph dealer in the UK who forgot to connect the fan back up. This was remedied for free by a superbly friendly Triumph dealer ( Bartollini in Terni).

The only example of bad driving we encountered on the Istanbul trip (nearly 5k miles there and back, we took the scenic route) was in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Some macho man didn't like being overtaken by three bikes on a set of hairpins and tried to force one of us out of the way, crushing my mate's foot between the car and the frame of the bike......

I nearly got to Pompeii but eventually gave up (for more details see my blog at the time: Moto-Euro Jaunt 2013: Intro and maybe I was just unlucky but the best thing about Italy is the coffee ... certainly I should never have ventured onto the motorways, but when you're trying to make real progress .....
Your Italian Alpine incident sounds awful and could have turned out much worse...
However, I may try Italy again, as I'm planning a trip to Crete through the Balkans and maybe up the eastern side of Italy for the return trip ... glutton for punishment!
Brian