# Southern Italy/Sicily in winter



## eddied (May 9, 2005)

Buon giorno a tutti,
this mornings weather has reminded me to mention the weather in winter, since noticed that over the past few weeks several members have been considering the South and Sicily as alternatives to Spain - a good choice.
You just need to bear in mind that if you look at a map of Europe, Southern Italy and Sicily are well to the East.
As such, in the winter months we can sometimes get cold blasts directly from Russia and the Balkans. When that happens, the temperature can drop dramatically, and although usually very dry, snow is not unknown, especially away from the coasts.
Today up here, although bright, sunny , and dry, the temperature is only 11C. and will struggle to get above 15. Having said that, in the past I've swum in the sea on November 11th., and sunbathed on the beach in Positano on Boxing Day. But one year we also had a white Christmas for about 4 hours! Also, the forecast for Friday gives Agrigento in Sicily a temperature of 26 C. so you see how variable it can be.
In general terms, the S.W. coast of Sicily tends to be sheltered from these blasts, the coast of Apulia very vulnerable to them. The W. coast of Calabria also tends to be sheltered from them too.
The BBC website is a good one for weather, as is www.eurometeo.com.
Don't let all this put you off though, you'll also get a lot of balmy sunny days.
saluti,
eddied


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## 98212 (Mar 19, 2006)

Thanks for this information eddied. My wife, pooch and I venture off full timing at the end of the month having sold Chez wiggum and associated clutter.

We have been to Italy many times (although not in the bus) so as this will be a fairly steep learning curve as regards living in it we thought as we can get by in Italian this may be a good plan.

I have seen some sites on here that look ok, we were thinking Calabria or maybe even Sicily. Do you have any recommendations or places to avoid?

Any help appreciated, thanks again


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