Italy Yacht Charters

Italy offers long coast-lines, quaint little villages and ports, friendly people, and food and wine to die for. The perfect destination for a yacht charter – there’s something for everybody here. History, Roman ruins, beautiful designs and architecture, Italy has it all.

Italy offers the yacht chartering enthusiast with an enormous variety of all the things we actually go for: exploring neat little villages, beautiful beaches, very friendly people and magnificent food.

Ah, yes, the food: whether it be at an elegant restaurant in Naples or Milan or even Rome, or whether it be in a a dockside trattoria in the Amalfi  or Sicily or perhaps Sardinia, it’s always the food and the wine that keep bringing us back.

Whether your preference is a nice large luxury motor yacht or a nice stable catamaran, American Yacht works with yacht owners and management companies all over Italy.

Let’s start off with a couple of facts:  the West side of Italy is where the action is. With the remarkable exception of Venice, the East or Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula is not appealing from a yachting standpoint. On the East side of the peninsula, however, here are some excellent starting points and the areas you can visit from each one.

Of course, if you’re on a nice large motor yacht that goes fast, you can cover a lot of ground and the sky’s pretty much the limit. If you have chosen a sailing vessel however, the range of your vessel will be restricted by the speed and the time you have available, because you’re going much slower and because you REALLY don’t want to spend ALL your time on  the boat.

Ideally, you should plan to travel in the mornings, arrive at your destination at lunch time or just after, and then settle into a nice little anchorage or village port, explore in the afternoon and have dinner on your yacht or ashore at one of the marvelous little trattorias and restaurants that abound in Italy.  Here are some starting points for your Italy yacht charter.

The Ligurian Coast – from San Remo to Genoa, Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo, down past the Cinque Terre to the port of La Spezia. This is an amazing part of Italy with completely different people and food from what you will find in Southern Italy. This is not your average tomato sauce Italian food..!!

The Island of Elba, best accessed from Piombino, and don’t forget the other little islands close by which are Capraia, Pianosa and Giglio (of Costa Concordia notoriety). From Capraia, it a short hop across to Corsica (which is, of course, French – but who cares?).

Civitavecchia, the old port of Rome is a good starting point and allows visitors to spend a few days exploring the actual city of Rome, the Vatican and environs, either at the beginning of your charter or at the end.

Naples and the Amalfi Coast. This is a most amazing part of Italy with stunning views and amazing scenery. Classic names like The Islands of Capri, and Ischia that stand like the guardians of the Bay of Naples. Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Salerno are all close by. Frankly I could spend a whole week in this area and not feel at all guilty.

The Island of Sicily, can be accessed from the Amalfi Coast although it will depend on the speed of your vessel. The usual route is to travel down the chain of  Aeolian Islands of Stromboli that is actually a live volcano, and then Lipari, and on to the Island of Sicily proper. The best parts of Sicily to cruise on a yacht are the Northwest which includes Palermo, Trapani and Marsala and also the West coast through the straits of Messina to Catania to see the Etna volcano.

The Island of Sardinia is a marvelous place to visit as well but is quite far from the Italian mainland.  Sardinia is usually best explored as a stand-alone destination and can be combined with a visit to Corsica.

Venice on the East coast of Italy on the Adriatic sea is of course one of the most incredible cities in the world and a great place to spend a few days in. You can start a charter from Venice, in fact, many of our clients start their CROATIAN charters in Venice, basically because there’s not much else to do on a charter yacht in that location or on the Eastern shores of Italy.

We can organize and book your special charter yacht and prepare a customized one-way charter experience for you and your family and guests. Just give us a shout and a specialist will contact you with some options.