Italy

Interesting. As I said above, I have the same problem as Chris. I'm looking around for somewhere else to park after our Antibes lease runs out. What would be the annual mooring cost for a 20m boat in Marina D'Arechi? Are guardiennage and maintenance services easily available?

I for one would love to see some photos on here!
Mike, I will check with the Marina and let you know by PM. They do some funky deal aimed at not having to pay IVA or at least reduce it which is good but let me casually check. Basically what I do is have a guy who looks after the boat. He is fantastic and he brings in whoever is needed for any specific service. The boatyard is good and so the boatyard lifts the boat and does the bottom and polishes everything below the decking and then the topside is done when back on water. This saves a fortune not least in IVA. I have never had an issue with parts nor any other type of service. Example - i lost the starboard alternator (well it stopped working) in Lipari last summer. Within a day my guy who looks after the boat had an engineer come to the boat ie on the ferry, he made a temporary fix and three days later came back with a new alternator and installed it. I reckon if I had been cruising in Ibiza for example it would have been the end of the trip. Marco (my guy who looks after the boat) even in lockdown sneaked out to make sure all was ok. I reckon pretty much all servicing is massively cheaper and the quality top notch. I appreciate that this sort of goes against the stereotype Italians are often classified as - apologies MapisM - but I cannot speak more highly of my experience. I will sort some photos shortly
 
I moored my boat there for the best part of 2 seasons and it is a lovely place with a lovely local cruising area but the big problem is getting there. Once you land at Cagliari airport it is 1 - 1.5hr taxi/rental car drive to the ferry port at Portovesme, upto 1 hr wait for a ferry if you are unlucky, followed by a 0.5hr ferry ride. We used to reckon on a 10-11hr trip door to door trip from our home in Bucks to our boat in CF and thats assuming no flight delays. So IMHO Carloforte is not really a convenient place to leave a boat if your boating consists of long weekends and limited holidays. Of course if you can spend several weeks onboard your boat at a time, its much less of an issue

And you have to like tuna;)
Salerno is easy. Flights to Naples from Stanstead or LGW usually, getting through is easy (or used to be pre Brexit), 50 minute journey to the marina (30 mins if you drive like the locals) and then you have plenty of options for either a long weekend (Amalfi Coast, Sorrentino, Ischia) or a longer cruise. Approx 110 nm to the Aeolians if you go straight, so 10 hours pootling or 5 hours at diesel guzzling 20 knots!
 
We had a few weeks in Punta Ala. Smart marina with some lovely holiday apartments close by. Great for day trips to Elba. We wintered in Porto di Roma which was excellent for really doing Rome and very close to the airport (if you control the taxi driver). Amazing Roman village in Ostia bit like a small Pompeii.
 
Is it difficult getting a berth in any of these ports, if we get chance this year it might be an idea to get down there for a few days.
 
Is it difficult getting a berth in any of these ports, if we get chance this year it might be an idea to get down there for a few days.
For a few weeks not a problem for a 37ft boat, your boat looks quite big so may be different. We asked around for more permanent berths (to rent) and really didn’t find anywhere until we got around to Spain
 
Is it difficult getting a berth in any of these ports, if we get chance this year it might be an idea to get down there for a few days.
You would have no trouble i think getting a berth at Porto di Roma. You can rent by the day, week or month i believe and I don’t think it would be an issue. My main beef with Porto di Roma is that any bad weather and you can neither get out of the port nor into it due to how they configured the entrance and the fuel dock was put in an insane position that makes it not pleasant even if a small swell. If you want to be closer to Elba area you could also try Porto Ercole or Cala Galera. We stopped for a night at the latter on the way down and it looked like they had plenty of space for bigger boats. It’s about 40 nm to Elba from there.
 
Arh PortoRoma and Elba . :)
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Elba on the L Punta Alla round the headland on the R .
Then from Elba , Corsica is visible and yes I have been to Maccinaggio as well .Just a stop over place .N Corsica is a delight as is the W coast .
If I was Chris considering the emergence of the cheap flight industry ( jury still out on its speed of recovery) and Italys got a lot of coast I would creep down slowly.
Also he has a fast boat so it adds a different set of dynamics to cruse planning .
I wouldn’t cut off the “motor in a day by car bridge “ until absolutely sure of up U.K. N air connectivity.
Out of season N U.K. fights to most Italian places were none existent pre Covid , necessitating trips down to the London airports .
Nice is easy to get to from Leeds + Liverpool + Manchester, East Midlands .
Ryan air used to do East Midlands to Bergomo ( 3 hr to CdA ) less than 2 to Liguria.
Gatwick is the best for Naples and Roma , or was and that’s the point .
The landscape of flight connectivity may be important in the near future .
 
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We have the same conundrum as our berth lease in Antibes is up at the end of this year

We've cruised the Ligurian coast between San Remo and Genoa a couple of times. There are some nice marinas and interesting towns but the coastline is uninteresting. There are no sheltered anchorages like Villefranche or Iles Lerins so if you want to drop the hook for lunch or overnight you are very dependent on wind strength and direction. Beyond Genoa the coastline is more interesting with famous ports like Portofino and Portovenere (well worth a visit) and the Cinque Terre villages until you get to La Spezia (good marina and good place to leave a boat for a few weeks/months). Further south the coastline becomes flat and boring until you get to the island of Elba (again very well worth a visit). Beyond Elba I'm afraid I havent cruised so I can't tell you any more

Dont forget that another route south is via Corsica and Sardinia both of which are very interesting islands
Have you been given any indication of what they are likely to charge for 22 on season, when we first started looking at berths, Antibes was one of the cheaper ports.
 
Ball ache to get to .Fly to Nice change for a 1/2 hr trip to Bastia .Then a almost suicidal road of 1 hr 1/2 to 2 hrs to the marina .
Its in the arse end of nowhere .
Its really a stop over marina by boats passing by .
Port Toga in Bastia works for winter. On the whole, Corse is not well served by transport links. Calvi and St Flo aren't that well protected, especially Calvi.
 
I lived in Siracusa for 4 years although didn’t get out on the water much, unfortunately. Most of the local boats spent their sea time anchored in hordes off Lungomare Alfeo where they could pose in front of the bars and restaurants. Rarely much more than a light breeze in summer, my idea of boating heaven. Some VERY distinguished visiting super yachts (mainly BVI registered) including Flavio Briattore’s boat.

Porto Grande from Fonte Aretusa
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View from my living room Via Nizza

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Have you been given any indication of what they are likely to charge for 22 on season, when we first started looking at berths, Antibes was one of the cheaper ports.

I've not got any definitive rates but 2 things already put me off. First, I'm told that the beam restrictions will be tighter on the new leases so whilst at the moment we fit on a 20m berth, the new restriction means we'll have to go onto a 23m berth despite the boat being just under 20m long and that will mean we will have to rent a 23m berth at an even higher cost. Second, the prices being asked for berth leases are very high and at least initially those are going to drive rental rates

I hope I'm wrong but I think annual rental rates for 23m berths could be well north of €30-35k pa. 6 yrs ago I bought a prime 20m berth lease for the equivalent of €20k pa. I'm simply not going to pay nearly double that pa to park my boat in the same marina on a possibly less attractive berth

As I say maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised but I'm not holding my breath
 
And Santo Stefano was indeed a very pleasant port although quite far from an international airport if I recall
Correct.
The 30Nm or so S of Elba is mirrored along the road in terms of additional distance from Pisa airport - which isn't very close also to Elba, to start with.
Otoh, the whole Argentario peninsula (where you can chose between Porto S. STefano and Porto Ercole, also very nice) is closer to Rome.
In fact, I just checked on Gmaps out of idle curiosity: Pisa airport is 200km N of Argentario, vs. 140 of Fiumicino (main Rome airport).
 
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