Malta to Italy

This journey was planned for Spring 2020 but we know how the plandemic put an end to that.

By 6.30 am on a hot calm first Day of June we were already embarked on the fast ferry from Valletta, Malta to Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy for the 7.30 departure.

Once in Sicily we followed the E45 autostrada until the IKEA store on the edge of Catania. The 25 year old car has no aircon so were glad to be in the cool store, buy some items we needed and take refreshnents.

We continued north coming to a toll section. Avoiding the lane with closed barier we drove through an open one. Reaching our exit we stopped at the barrier. No one was in the booth. What to do? There was a man in the next booth. He asked if I had a ticket. After making a phone call he told me to put 60 cents into the machine and we continued on to Mokambo Camping.

We stayed here previously. This time Mount Etna volcano was more active issuing out smoke by Day and orange magma glowing at night from a fissure. 

Next day we drove the coast road passing beautiful Taormina and later taking one section of toll road to avoid a slow stretch. We had stopped at a supermarket at 13.00 to be told they had closed. It was, Saturday. 

We came to Messina, brought a ferry ticket for 35 euros and waited our turn to board the ferry across the Messina Straight to Calabria.