The weather is getting warmer as we approach Sicily, we spend our last night on the mainland on the beach at Scina, we have a fantastic back drop to take in a beautiful sunset over Sicily. Having seen our destination we start early next morning and arrive to board the ferry for the mammoth 20 minute trip across the Stretto Di Messina.Arriving in Sicily we set the Gps to take us to the village of Saponara.Let me tell you something for nothing, if you set your gps and tell it you’re a truck or bus in Italy it means nothing, we veered through the outskirts of Messina through the outer suburbs and into the outer village along laneways barely big enough for a 4 wheel drive let alone a motor home and just as you leave the low hanging balconies with the washing hanging in the windscreen, begins the climb up the mountain, now I won’t say it went straight up as I want to save that description for a road we endured a bit further along. Yet this road was very demanding on the Fiat and our decision to avoid motorways to obtain the best scenery pays off quite often I feel we could have avoided this Hour long 20 kilometer trip and used the motorway which actually has some great scenery on Sicily at a very low cost. We finally arrive at Saponara just in time for Siesta so we break for lunch. Saponara is where Debbies Grandfather or as we call him in Italia Nono a word which came in handy trying to find documents relating to his existence from some very helpful locals at the Municipo who spoke no English.With a few words like Nono matrimone, a lot of hand gestures and a few dates they were able to come to the conclusion that there documents did not date back far enough after they painstakingly went through some old ledgers page by page that went back to 1900.We trawled the cemetery for remnants of Debbies ancestory finding only the 1 De Luca.We crawled further down the coast and arrive at campsite Marinello and lo and behold all of a sudden we encounter other campers, mainly German a few Austrians and some Dutch. We meet a wonderful German family traveling for the winter. Daniel was very pleased as he was given a hand made windmill made out of old recycled plastic bottles.We shared some wine and travel stories and are now expecting Frank and Renate to visit Hotel Walkeden when they travel to Australia in 2009. Water has become a problem and we have had to revert to the antiquated system of carrying water to the van as the water pump has burnt out. We will have to slum it for a while until we reach a town big enough to supply me with parts. After 3 nights at Marinello we decide to travel along the coast towards Palermo, this is where we come across a detour on the already narrow road and with more hand gestures and limited Italian we discover the real meaning of term straight up. We turn left and in first gear we struggle up a hill winding around blind bends with Debbie stating that we should have just turned back and gone on the motorway, well what is the point of a family adventure if we can’t tackle one little cliff climb, fortunately it was only the Thursday before Easter so we only encountered a few cars and 1 truck coming down at us so we just pulled close to the edge while they scraped past us hoping that the old Fiat had enough power to get going again.Sicily, contrary to our beliefs is not full of mafia, donkeys and run down old buildings. It has fantastic natural beauty and an incredible history. The Valley of the Temples, ruins near Agrigento is an incredible example of the history and shows remnants of Greek occupation here 2600 years ago. The architecture of Sicily has influence from Roman Greek, Muslim and Indians all blending in together. We spend our last nights on Sicily at Camping La Timpa at Acireale. The setting here would have to rate as one of the best I have encountered. The campsite is terraced and overlooks The Stretto Di Messina.As we sit on the Terrace sipping our Rusticanello Vino (purchased in a 5 litre bottle at 3.99 euro) we watch as the fishermen row back to the marina (yes row) with their catch and the ferries and cargo ships sail out into The Mediterranean Sea.