I did the Malta rally a long time back and my advice would be to use the Jeppesen VFR charts, it keeps things standard across Europe and they are very user friendly, the only down side is the topographic information is a bit sparce in places but this is mitigated by the other useful stuff on the chart.
If I had the range I would not stop in southern Italy...... I can only describe the airports as being run by a corrupt bunch of crooks, from the top to the bottom they are all asking for payment of all sorts of things in cash.
Airports in the northern part of Italy don't seem to have this attitude but even so I would try to go from the very southern tip of Corsica to Malta direct and avoid the Italian's.
If you plan to stop in Italy try to get a local on your side to investigate the system before you show up, then you can spot the rip off ploys of the airport staff.
http://ww1.jeppesen.com/documents/av...rview-2011.pdf
Dispite the problems in Italy I had a great time and would recommend the trip to Malta.