La vita del lusso

RandE
Sep 9, 2019
3 min read

Robert and Erik and camping aren’t words you’d normally find in the same sentence. Sure, in 2007 we went on an amazing “Priscilla” 4-wheel drive desert adventure from Broome to Darwin with five friends; and a few years back we spent a memorable, rainy Christmas eve on the NSW /Victoria border in a campervan huddled around a TV watching “Liza with a Z”; and we made it up to the heights of Machu Piccu this year – but nomadic adventure boys we are NOT by a long shot.

The decision to rent a campervan and travel around Sicily was probably more economic than anything and sounded like a way to “spice things up” after months of Airbnb, friends’ and family’s hospitality and an occasional inn or hotel. I think we were as surprised as anyone else how much we loved the experience and how much we think we will revisit the camping life often in our future. Who knows – there may have been two grey-nomads created in the hot sun and beach side camp sites of Sicilia.

It was probably on the second night we recognised how luxurious this experience was going to be. No, we weren’t glamping, and we don’t mean luxury in the traditional sense. What we were experiencing was the luxury of time, the luxury of nature, the luxury of just the two of us – no real schedule – wandering. La nostra vita di lusso – our life of luxury.

Our campervan was a rough-and-tumble, brightly branded unit from Indie Campers. “Don’t worry, go Indie” is the marketing slogan and a reminder to let all that anxiety slip away as you slip behind the wheel. Easy for them to say. They were used to the Italian roads, mad drivers and probably had loads of experience with oversized vehicles in tight spaces. Needless to say, it was all new to us. With Robert as driver and Erik as navigator, we swayed, sputtered, bumped along and squeezed through some really narrow streets in Baroque villages. There were a few anxious moments, but we were road warriors – backpackers in middle age.

In our fantasy camping, we thought we would simply pull up to a beach, turn off the engine and stay for the night, waking up to sunrises and changing tides. Our more practical side knew we wanted electricity to run the mini-fridge and keep that bottle of rose’ and the milk for morning coffee cool. Online sites Pitchup.com and Park4Night gave us enough options to plan our loop around the island. We tried different itineraries on paper but played a lot of it by ear and didn’t complete our final booking until we were already into the drive.

That drive took us along autostradas, strada statali, and strada provenciales starting from Catania. The most scenic was jaw dropping - through the Parco della Madonie. This was one of those travel days where you listen to tunes from your past (Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Indigo Girls…), sing along at the top of your lungs, reminisce about people and places, and constantly ooh-and-ahh about the next most beautiful thing around the next most harrowing hairpin turn. It was an emotional drive with laugh out loud moments, white-knuckle tension and a few tears in between.

Camping may not be for everyone, but with a self-contained van and the culture of beach camping in Italy it was one of our most memorable mini holidays on this extended adventure. The advantage of a van is you can stay in one campsite, go for a swim in the evening, unplug in the morning to explore and then pull right back in for that view of the sunset from your bed. Now THAT is luxury.