Driving holiday northern Italy

[tazzatime]

Finally gone and done it. Took delivery of an Mx5 2.0 Sport Tech today.
In two weeks time will be driving through France to spend the best part of two weeks motoring around Northern Italy.

Places I have looked at to visit so far, Mont Blanc, Genova, Pisa, San Gimignano, Florence, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Imola, Parma.

Are there any places and roads that I absolutely should not miss? Also only intend to book accommodation in advance at Mont Blanc, intended to find the rest on spec, is that possible / wise in Italy.

Thanks

Tazzatime

[F1GTRUeno]

Having been a passenger, Florence is ages away from Rome let alone the North.

If you were gonna go there I'd suggest booking accommodation somewhere in between at least.

If you're going to see Parma and the likes, I'm sure from memory Maranello isn't much further from that so you could see Ferrari, with the other major Italian supercar makers not much further from Maranello (relatively).

[Targarama]

Pop up to the Dolomites, drive from Bolzano to Cortina. North on the Autoroute for a few miles then East on the SS242 - the most amazing road I've ever driven on. Then over the top and down through Arabba (nice place to stay), and onto Cortina.

[stemll]

Don't forget the Stelvio Pass near Bormio and the San Boldo Pass over towards Venice.

San Boldo

http://www.youtube.com/v/XJkBd16F9D8&hl

Stelvio

Best way to Stelvio is the road from Davos through Susch and Reisa and then onto the Umbralipass which turns to gravel part way then joins Stelvio part way up where SS38 brushes the Swiss border. Would mean cutting out of France much earlier than Mont Blanc and going into Switzerland unless you want to cut pack up towards Chur from Mont Blanc.

Can highly recommend the Albergo Folgore hotel at the top of the Stelvio pass too. Great views, food was good and service great.

[andy665]

A circuit of Lake Garda is a very pleasant journey, especially through the tunnels, some lovely old towns, Verona is a lovely old town, Brescia has a great museum dedicated to Tazio Nuvolari.

Pisa is not really worth bothering with

[Turbo Harry]

stemll said:

Don't forget the Stelvio Pass near Bormio and the San Boldo Pass over towards Venice.

San Boldo

http://www.youtube.com/v/XJkBd16F9D8&hl

Stelvio

Best way to Stelvio is the road from Davos through Susch and Reisa and then onto the Umbralipass which turns to gravel part way then joins Stelvio part way up where SS38 brushes the Swiss border. Would mean cutting out of France much earlier than Mont Blanc and going into Switzerland unless you want to cut pack up towards Chur from Mont Blanc.

Can highly recommend the Albergo Folgore hotel at the top of the Stelvio pass too. Great views, food was good and service great.

Thanks for that tip. Just booked a room at the Albergo Folgore for when I swing back from the south of France to the Nurburgring. Never driven the Stelvio before and it looks quite the place to stop.

[iva cosworth]

Agree with above ,only one thing to see in Pisa,i walked around last year

looking for something else,nope.

Also F1GTRueno said Modena,Maranello,Bologna has many car and bike collections dotted about.

Some need pre booking though.

San Gimignano is nice.

Lucca is a nice place to go to too[where the TG clowns recently filmed in]

[anonymous-user]

Dip into Switzerland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_St_Bernard_Pass

[Stix182]

Just recently back from Tuscany and would recomend visiting the Chianti region. The roads aren't the best on the plant, but if you get a good free run they can be great fun. Apparently they make really nice red wine around there too!!

[Zod]

I've just driven down to Tuscany and back over the Grand St Bernard with three kids from 5 down to six months. The five year old loved it. The others were oblivious. I think it is very good for children to get a sense of distance rather than just fly everywhere.

If you plan to go as far as Florence, I'd suggest the Autostrada once you get down from the Alps. It's mostly very fast and the road is high quality, until the last bit approaching Florence, which is spectacular - a motorway twisting (through bends too tight for a motorway) its way down the steep hills towards Florence. If you don't take the Autostrada, it's a very long drive.

[tazzatime]

Thanks guys

Some great ideas there, I will look into them more.
Sounds like Pisa is not worth it then.

Anyone got any experience of how easy it is to pick up accommodation on spec.
I prefer not to plan too far ahead, some of the best holidays I have had have been driving in America and just choosing to stay where the mood took me. America was easy for that, accommodation plentiful and relatively cheap, can I get away with this approach in Italy?

[daveparry]

You really should do a circumnavigation of Lake Garda too!

[jonesey]

Just come back from a lads road trip. Como- stunning, Bormio, stelvio, Jaufenpass (sp) is about 2 hours east of the stelvio and is an utterly amazing pass- please do not miss this. Down to Lake Garda taking in other passes (I'll check on the map later)

That part of the world makes me want to sell everything go.

[stemll]

jonesey said:

That part of the world makes me want to sell everything go.

If I was up for leaving the UK then I agree, that's where I'd be headed too. Fantastic country and roads (except the generally appalling surfaces) and there is something about the Italian approach to life that really strikes a chord with me.