Italian road trip ideas?

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
As others have said make the whole trip the holiday, don't try to replace a plane journey with a car journey.

Day 1 Ferry to St Malo drive to Bordeaux, Chateau de Sanse is lovely
Day 2 & 3 Carcassonne for a couple of nights, bit "Disney" but has to be done once, Hotel Du Chateau has an amazing view and superb service
Day 4 & 5 Orange for a couple of nights always pleasant weather, day trip up Mont Ventoux and the Roman theatre.
Day 6 Somewhere around Nice/MC
Day 7, 8, 9 & 10 Into Italy and I'd head up towards Como but depends what you want to do in Italy.
Day 11 & 12 Over into Switzerland staying in Grindlewald/Interlaken dinner in Piz Gloria from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, food is nothing special but view is fab
Day 13 Colmar in France for a night
Day 14 & 15 Couple of days in Ghent, Belgium
Ferry from Dunkirk
 

itiejim

New Member
Messages
6
We drive to Rome a couple of times the year with three kids in the car. I love the drive, which we do basically non-stop from the Midlands. Door to door usually works out at 24 hours. If you or your partner don't like driving though, take the plane!
 

Wanderer

Member
Messages
5,791
Me and mine drove all over Germany and Switzerland in a VW something, would easily do 200km/hr but gets boring after a while, especially when a lot of the Autobahnen are two lanes and lots of lorries.

200km/hr is only 140 mph, not stupendously fast and driving at the times we did, wasn't possible to rag it to top speed.

Driving is only fun on decent twisty roads in 2 to 3 hour bouts max not on endless motorways IMHO...

Let the Plane take the Strain....
 

MrMickS

Member
Messages
3,951
We did a three week trip to Italy last year. Two long days, the first and last driving days, to get down through France then no more than 2 hours, and frequently less, driving on most of the other days. Also had three stops where we spent more than one night somewhere to make a break.

That gave us plenty of time to find places to stop off on the drives, or just randomly stop somewhere we spotted.

The only exception to the 2 hours rule was for the mountain passes on the way back through Switzerland, but that was an end in itself. Just had to make sure there was time to stop and take in the views.

Here are a couple of playlists of the videos I took of the trip for inspiration:

Driving in the Alps 2017

Italian Lakes 2017
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,102
If I was to do it again, I'd go via Luxembourg purely for the cheap fuel (less tax) but you can easily get to a nice bit of Germany, Saar region for example (Nurburgring) take in the Porsche and Mercedes museums, nip over to Munich for the BMW museum. Then cross the Alps via Austria or Switzerland, stay in an Alpine village. Descend into the warmth of Italy. Go to Modena and do ALL the manufacturers museums/factories in order of importance, Pannini Museum (free and full of Maseratis and parmigiano cheese), Ferrari, Lambo, Maserati, Ducati (Bologna). Take in the Umbrian Mountains, Perugia. The way back should take in the Schlumpf gallery (interesting back story of fraudulent obsession) . You can do non-descript hotels but agriturismo's are the equivalent of our cottage B&B's but can be a lottery.
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,221
Last month, on returning from Mulhouse in convoy with BennyD we came up the east side through Luxembourg and on through Belgium, only going back into France at Lille, no tolls and no LePlod hiding in trees, seemed a perfectly reasonable route, I'd do that again over the French toll roads. Onlt slight difference is Belgium motorway max is 120kph over French 130.
 

FF1078

Member
Messages
1,123
Me and mine drove all over Germany and Switzerland in a VW something, would easily do 200km/hr but gets boring after a while, especially when a lot of the Autobahnen are two lanes and lots of lorries.

200km/hr is only 140 mph, not stupendously fast and driving at the times we did, wasn't possible to rag it to top speed.

Driving is only fun on decent twisty roads in 2 to 3 hour bouts max not on endless motorways IMHO...

Let the Plane take the Strain....
200KPH is 124MPH
 

fcz360

Sparky
Messages
826
Here you go, our plan for next year, 60 days in total, but can get it down to 20 ish missing a few towns and only 1 day in Venice, Rome etc. Does the lot! Stick it in google maps. JFDI

Wurzberg
Nordlingen
Fussen
Bolzano
Verona
Florence
Perugia
l'aquila
Naples
Pompeii
Sorrento
Positano
Mattera
Lecce
Otranto
Rome
Lucca
Riomaggiore
Genoa
Turin
Sanremo
Nice
St Tropez
Marseille
Annecy
Borg en bresse
Colmar
Epernay
Paris
 

D Walker

Member
Messages
9,827
I was wondering, what “spares” would you seasoned European road trip experts carry..
Belts etc etc
 

D Walker

Member
Messages
9,827
Or just don’t fit Pirelli’s or Vredsteins on a GranSport. They are truely woeful at splitting.
Too late, I’m not swapping the Pirelli’s , brand new, less than 3k, even though I preferred Goodyear’s on 4200..