Calabria in winter
 

We're planning a month in southern Italy next January. We'll spend most of our time in Sicily, but we'd like to make a pilgrimage to the Calabrian villages where my husband's family come from.

We're thinking of this:
- arrive in Rome and spend a few days (it will be our fifth time there)
- train to Naples and spend two days
- train to one of the larger Calabrian towns and pick up a car. We'll definitely need one to get to the small, spread-out villages we'll be visiting
- get to Sicily somehow and spend around three weeks there.

We'd like advice about:
- staying in Naples
- driving in Calabria and what might be seen there in winter
- the best way of getting to Sicily from Calabria (we're unsure about taking a rental car on the ferry).

Hi!
We've been to Naples twice (September and May) and spent a week in Calabria in May. Even in May it was fairly cold as there are areas of higher elevation, including the highway. There are mountains!

We love Naples and stayed at the Santa Chiara Boutique Hotel both times. Not fancy, but nice and a great location. Breakfast is just around the corner, which we loved doing. My favorite site in Naples is the Capodimonte museum - it has a remarkable collection. January would be an ideal time to visit Pompeii - no worries about heat.

Calabria was fun to visit as we saw no other tourists. We spent a couple of nights in Altomonte. All of the hill towns were interesting to see and some of the landscapes were quite beautiful.

We were in Sicily over Christmas, 2017 and the weather was fine with a light coat. We enjoyed it!

Thanks so much for the reassurance and the suggestions, rosetravels! The Naples hotel looks perfect and we'll certainly follow up your other recommendations as well.

Can I seek a bit more advice about getting from Calabria to Sicily? We'll be coming from Lamezia Terme, quite deep in Calabria and not close to the coast. By the time we train to Reggio Calabria, I doubt we'll have time to make the ferry crossing AND train to Catania (our first stop in Sicily). Should we stay overnight in Reggio?