Topic

Hi All
Well as I'm at a bit of a loose end due to suffering from the winter sickness and diarrhoea bug , I thought I'd pester you lot! As the title states I'm planning a road trip next year to Italy . Lake Garda to be precise. This trip was being planned for 2020 but good old Covid put paid to that and as I'm not getting any younger I thought its now or never. It is not my plan to drive into any of the listed Crit Air cities but you can never be too careful when driving in Europe post BREXIT. My previous experience with the French Rozzers wasn't too great as I got pulled over after driving away from a bar after a rather nice lunch. I think they got a bit annoyed that their National rugby team got whooped by England in the Stad de France and thought they would pull over an English registered car just because they could. I hadn't touched a drop so had a smug look when I blew a clear test My TF is an 05 plate which I believe makes it Euro 3 but I may be wrong.
I have all the rest of the legal stuff covered such as , red triangle , breath test kits , yellow reflective gillet and the like.
Okay, as always I would be grateful for any comments and suggestions. Now I think another trip to the toilet is on the way so..... I'm off !!
Regards John

PS If any of you have a good route that you can recommend from France to Italy , that would also be good too. Cheers.

My 04 TF passes for the London ULEZ so assume that makes it EURO 3?

When I last drove to Italy I went Zeebrugge (sadly no longer possible) then Germany/Austria, but we were heading for the North East. On the way back we did Turin to Zeebrugge via Dijon and Brussels. There were some great D Roads North from Dijon. At one point we clicked over the hour without seeing a single other car.

Hello sworkscooper, I hope you are at least o the way to recovery from the various winter bugs which are going around.
I am surprised that more people have not replied with suggested routes to Italy.
My suggestion would be to (at least partially) follow the route my wife and I took way back in 2008 when I retired early. We had earmarked Lake Garda as one of our destinations, but also went all the way down the West Coast, across to Sicily, across the bottom of the mainland to the Trulli houses in the "heel" of Italy, then up the E. Coast ending in Venice. That was an 11 week tour, so perhaps not quite what you have in-mind. Our initial route was:
Down to Chamonix, through the Mont Blanc Tunnel (E25?) Aosta (well worth a stop-off), down towards San Remo (again, the old part is V pretty), then the beautiful village of Dolce Aqua.

My memory of the route after that gets a bit hazy, but doubtless Satnav will sort-out the rest. I WOULD suggest that it is ALWAYS worth enquiring at local tourist offices for advice on the best local attractions, and upcoming festivals etc. Local knowledge is priceless, and it often rewarded us with unforgettable memories.

Hi John .
Cheers for your reply and apologises for not responding to your helpful suggestions . Happy New Year to you .

John

sworkscooper wrote:

Hi John .
Cheers for your reply and apologises for not responding to your helpful suggestions . Happy New Year to you .

John

No need for any apology, you probably have better things to do than constantly monitor this Forum.

Happy Hew Year to you too, and let's hope the weather improves soon.
Not sure how long you plan to stay in Italy, but If you want to PM me, I can make a few more suggestions. I totally fell in love with a little hilltop village called Opi:

Hi John, hope you are well. Last time I went down to Lake Garda it was via Munich into Austria and then through the Brenner Pass down to Lake Garda. Beautiful route whichever you take! My advice would to be mindful of European laws and specific country rules when you travel as some stipulate carrying equipment in specific areas like HiViz within reach of driver. If you go through Austria its best to buy a Vignette (its like a road tax for short trips)

On my many many trips through Europe I have only once been stopped by the police and that was in Genoa in northern Italy.
Unfortunately reduced holiday allowance and aging mother in law have reduced such trips to runs to the in laws in Bilbao.

If you go down through France you could take in Reims and visit the old F1 grand prix circuit.

And Lake Garda isn't too far from Monza, the Alfa Romeo museum at Arese or the Ferrari museum at Maranello.

Enjoy and keep us updated.

Thanks guys for your input . I will indeed keep you informed about the trip when / if it goes ahead. It's early days with the planning and I think the first thing I will be doing is sorting out the emissions stickers for France ( CRIT AIR) and seeing if Italy has a similar scheme as I know other countries are going to follow suit. You would have thought that there would have been a European wide sticker to cover all countries or am I being thick? Don't answer that !
Thanks again , John .

Spain has something and Switzerland has a motorway sticker.