VFRFlight forum, Aviazione Generale, VDS, Ultraleggeri

Hello!

My girlfriend and I are planning an exciting air tour of Europe this year in an aeroplane that we are building.
We will bring bicycles and a tent so that we can camp and cycle to explore places that we visit.
We expect to be in Italy for 2 months September and October and would like to visit as much of the county as possible, from the north to the south. We have looked at the excellent point to point and Guido Medici guides, and emailed some people that are listed as contacts on the avioportolino and campidavolo web sites.

Could any one suggest some good places that might allow us to camp on or near the airstrip?
We'd really like to meet some pilots on our trip - please let us know if you will be able to come for a fly with us!

You can see some details of our construction progress at the moment on our web site;
www.bankleft.com (http://www.bankleft.com)

Thanks!

Julian

Hi Julian,

our airfield is available for your landing plus camping purposes. See more details (charts and approach) on www.toscanavolo.it (http://www.toscanavolo.it). Pisa is 10 km far.

You are welcome

Salü Julian,

first of all, Italy is going to be great for you. September is superb for what you intend to do. October might get slightly cold (and maybe a little foggy) in the north, so you should plan to "do" the south in october.

Most airfields classified as "aviosuperficie" will probably allow you to camp on site as they tend to have very relaxed rules and very friendly owners. For the occasional shower/bed, use one of the well-known on-field resorts...for a detailed summay of these, albeit in german, please see the relative section of my website:
http://www.fliegen-in-italien.de/avioresorts.html (http://www.fliegen-in-italien.de/avioresorts.html)

Enjoy your trip!
Phil

Hi Julian.
plenty places where to camp in italy. be aware of the fact that airports with commercial traffic and even some of those without are not GA friendly at all.

there are 3 types of landing sites in italy:
airports: usually GA unfriendly, usually no fuel, microlights usually not allowed,  so you will not find a warm welcome but landing fees, bureaucracy, and chickenwire fences. with a few exceptions.
aviosuperfici: GA is allowed, ML are allowed. no landing fees and no bureaucracy.  very friendly places and with a lot of traffic and people. some have facilities like MOGAS, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, golf and so on.
ML airstrips: GA not allowed according to italian rules, otherwise same as aviosuperfici. however i think i have spotted a GA a/c or two in some of these airstrips, but i might have been mistaken..

make sure to let us know your movements so we can come and meet you :-)

If you come to Cogliate near Milano you will have all the facilities you need.

You will find everything here www.flybrianza.it (http://www.flybrianza.it)

Thanks for the suggestions!  We'll definitely come to Cogliate and Lupo.

We would really like to go to Venice Lido, can anyone tell me whether this will be accessible at the moment, as I'm not sure what the current situation with the Garda CTR is?  And is my estimate of 10€ for landing about right?

I'm currently trying to find the best option for visiting Sienna / San Gimagnino with our bikes.  At the moment our other intended destinations are: Terni, Ferrara, Marina di Modica, Capri Leoni, Valdera, Carzeto, San Marco Paludi (in Marche, not sure if I have the airstrip's name correctly), Val Trivers and a couple of strips in Sardinia.  Not of course in that order!  Can you suggest other good destinations we have missed?  We have mainly made our decision on who has made a friendly response to our email, which means that since we unfortunately do not speak Italian (yet), we may be missing some great places.

Phil: I am currently reading your guide (vielen Dank, das ist ja eine tolle Informationsquelle), which may yet answer all my questions!

Crono: we will definitely keep you (and the forum) posted with our movements as we'd really like to meet other aviators (and hopefully receive visits in Australia in the future!), am I correct in thinking that you are located in Switzerland (from previous forum posts)?

Thanks again,
Helen & Julian

You cannot forget to visit Langhe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langhe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langhe) http://www.turismoinlanga.it/ (http://www.turismoinlanga.it/)). You surely know that famous part of Italy, with the best italian wines and food.

In Cuneo and Asti provinces there are a lot of aviosuperfici and airfields, although none of them has an on-field resort, as far as I know, you can easily arrange for a ride with the field owner to the nearest restaurant/resort. It's definitely worth it, and September is the best time to visit Langhe: wonderful colours!!

Tell me if you plan to add this corner of Italy to your trip, and I'll be glad to help you out with airfields !

affirmative, i am italian, typing from switzerland but my airplane is based in north italy, courtesy of the silly swiss regulations about microlights :-)

Dear Helen and Julian,

should you decide to touch down and bike some in Umbria, my inlaws have a bed and breakfast right where they live, in Città di Castello, just north of Perugia.  They are just 2km away from a nice airstrip where I kept my microlight motorglider for the summer. Assisi is not too far, and neither are Perugia and Cortona, the latter being much more challenging as a bike ride due to the hills.

You can visit their website at:

http://www.caiporrihomeinumbria.com (http://www.caiporrihomeinumbria.com)

My mother in law is english, so language is not a problem. She is an artist, more info on Jean here:

http://www.jeantoriartwork.com (http://www.jeantoriartwork.com)

You would not be the first pilots to spend some time there, right Crono?  ;)

Great videos you have put online! What a great adventure together!

Ciao, Luca

Thanks Claudio, how could we have forgotten Langhe Nebbiolo?  Some tips for friendly aviosuperficie who wouldn't mind people camping for a couple of days would be fantastic (winery suggestions too).

Luca: your in-laws' sounds lovely, we'll have to see how our budget is going by the time we get to Italy; it is unfortunately the biggest constraint on a 6 month trip!  We are pretty low maintenance, so will be doing a lot of camping  ;D

Crono: we're hoping that being a permit LSA we'll be able to slip through the cracks and go to Switzerland, but that is research for another day! 

If you decide to visit Milan or Como, Cogliate is the right place. There is always someone on place, we have a fully equipped mechanic which is often on field if you have any problem, club house with kitchen at lunch (sometimes also for dinner), shower, bathroom and coffee machines. You can camp there or ask for hotel. If you advise me I can provide you also a rented car. We are based less then half an hour driving from Como city and half an hour driving from Milan city center. If we have free space, we can also provide a hangarplace for your aircraft if you need it.
Just let me know here.

im worried about the "fully equipped mechanic" :D

And if you want to visit Rome...ask me!  ;)

...I think you'll feel at home :) :)

with PtF and foreign regs, i doubt the swiss will have a problem :-)