Safe to drive to other places around Italy after Maranello?

[WhiskyDisco]

You could catch the ferry to Split, Croatia via Ancona. We did it last year. Be warned though, we were delayed for a few hours going our, and almost 8 hours coming back. We were 4 hours late leaving Split on the 22:00 departure!

The standout attraction in Croatia was the Krka national park.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krka_National_Park#/...

[mattnovak]

Not in a Ferrari, but recently spent some time in Italy in Mrs N's 718 - route was thus:

Calais > Champagne (1 night)
Champagne > Geneva (1 night)
Geneva > Bellagio Como (4 nights)
Como > Viareggio (4 nights)
Viareggio > Maggiori (2 nights)
Maggiori > Dijon (1 night)

Considered taking the Maserati but as soon as we got to Como I was glad we didn't! Roads generally fine, just tight. And yes, people pass quite close!

[Pericoloso]

Same as above ,the road down the west side of Lake Garda is pretty tight.
I drove the whole length of it in May ,I wanted to follow the route in the opening piece of Quantum of Solace.
Lots of lookalike tunnels,poorly lit and not very wide with 30 limits.

[kazino]

Thanks chaps, looks like just have to take extra special care when driving and be careful in the tight sections.

Just wondering about the ferry's do you think they will have sufficient ground clearance?

[_Leg_]

kazino said:

Thanks chaps, looks like just have to take extra special care when driving and be careful in the tight sections.

Just wondering about the ferry's do you think they will have sufficient ground clearance?

Yup, no problems there. They'll put a couple of planks down for you if needs be (My F12 and 458 Spider are fine but my Exige is on track suspension and has nearly no clearance but was fine the one time I took it to Europe after they put the planks down).

[hornbaek]

I commuted between Austria and Venice all last year and I didn’t have a single issue in Italy. I have also driven across from Veneto to Sardinia and done various classic car rallies. In general there is no problem. The Italians are passionate about cars so at every petrolstation you get into a conversation and they want to take pictures etc. Roads in Northern Italy are far better than in southern England. If would have no hesitation taking a sports car to Italy and i would certainly see it as a missed opportunity to leave you car at home and take a rental car.

Here are some tips:
Get a „Telepass“ for the motorways (Apply on-line). It saves you a lot of time.
Always use the service stations on the motorways. They have 100 octane and are not tampered with.
Sardinia in September is fabulous - Ferry (Moby Dick from Livorno) no problem.
Italians don‘t go faster than 100mph for a reason
In general you don’t see a lot of sports/supercars around, so be prepared to get some positive attention.
And „yes“ Italians like to fill the gaps in traffic, are faily impatient but they drive well.

[kazino]

If the exige can make it I'm sure anything can

_Leg_ said:

kazino said:

Thanks chaps, looks like just have to take extra special care when driving and be careful in the tight sections.

Just wondering about the ferry's do you think they will have sufficient ground clearance?

Yup, no problems there. They'll put a couple of planks down for you if needs be (My F12 and 458 Spider are fine but my Exige is on track suspension and has nearly no clearance but was fine the one time I took it to Europe after they put the planks down).

[kazino]

That's great to hear.
In terms of parking overnight, is it necessary to stay in a secure parking or would road parking be fine?

hornbaek said:

I commuted between Austria and Venice all last year and I didn’t have a single issue in Italy. I have also driven across from Veneto to Sardinia and done various classic car rallies. In general there is no problem. The Italians are passionate about cars so at every petrolstation you get into a conversation and they want to take pictures etc. Roads in Northern Italy are far better than in southern England. If would have no hesitation taking a sports car to Italy and i would certainly see it as a missed opportunity to leave you car at home and take a rental car.

Here are some tips:
Get a „Telepass“ for the motorways (Apply on-line). It saves you a lot of time.
Always use the service stations on the motorways. They have 100 octane and are not tampered with.
Sardinia in September is fabulous - Ferry (Moby Dick from Livorno) no problem.
Italians don‘t go faster than 100mph for a reason
In general you don’t see a lot of sports/supercars around, so be prepared to get some positive attention.
And „yes“ Italians like to fill the gaps in traffic, are faily impatient but they drive well.

[hornbaek]

I would always find a hotel with parking. In the bigger towns there are well equipped parking garages with service personnel (Milan) or larger parking installations. If you have a Telepass that will also work in some of the multi-storey car parks. The further south you get the more attention is required so park where there are a lot of other people / cars would be my advice.

[willy wombat]

Re earlier mention of Lake Como. I have driven up and down the West side of Lake Como in a Ferrari California. It is tight in places but do-able with care. If you want to see what it's like, google the Top Gear episode where Richard Hammond races an Alfa 4C down the side of Lake Como versus JC on a quadbike that turns into a jet ski. The road RH is on is the one we're talking about. It's easy to find the programme but I don't know how to post a link (maybe some kind soul would post it). In general terms I have never had a problem with any Ferrari in Italy. The Italians adore them and are extremely proud of the brand. In a city I'd want secure parking overnight (as I would in any UK city) but if I was out in the countryside I wouldn't worry too much as long as the hotel or guest house had off road parking.

[tomtom]

I left my 355 on the street and in public car parks in Bologna, Modena etc. When I checked into the hotel in Maranello I'd managed to park right outside, in the main square, which is technically a permit zone. When I asked if I was alright to park there, the receptionist said, "do you think anyone will give you a ticket?".

Driving around Como et al was fine too although the house I rented there had its own garage, which was nice.

General reception was positive everywhere. Even when I pulled over to the side of the road in a traffic jam, to give the engine a bit of a break from idling in 35C temperatures, people would honk and give thumbs up; made a change from the "aaah, broken down you wker!" you'd get doing that in the UK.

[Targarama]

Never had any problems, just be careful not to park somewhere it will get 'pushed parked' into. Italians respect decent cars, but not in the city centres. I always find a good underground carpark in places such as Florence and Milan. Had some interesting parking places at hotels near the lakes though, had to get the car up here, scraped under the front even with lift up!

[martisracing]

I have taken my 458 Spider on both the ferry to Corsica (returning last week from this years trip) and the 24hr ferry to Sicily without any issues. They always have someone on the ramps guiding you on and stopping the other cars as with a low car there is a special technique to get on which is best described as a zig zag path to get on not going up the ramp square on. I have also taken my Speciale to Corsica once and in the past taken an LP560 to both Corsica and Sardinia without issues getting on and off the ferries. As I said before let them guide you on and do not just try charging up the ramp. As someone said it is cheaper in the summer to go via Corsica and catch the short (45 minute) crossing fro Corsica to Sardinia than directly to Sardinia. When I last looked it was a couple of hundred pounds different.
I always go for hotels with off road parking and ideally not in the city centre. For example if visiting Florence and/or Pisa I stay at the Best Western in Lucca which has brilliant parking (Lucca is a nice place to base your self anyway ) and catch the train into Pisa and Florence. A real pain free way (and really cheap way) of getting directly into the centres and not worry about parking.
When I went to Sicily all the parking was off road and I spoke to the hotels before hand to see what they could provide. All provided a reserved slot, some even coned off an area to park in and the one in Palermo let me park in a secure area behind the hotel behind massive gates not even in their normal car park. Most Italians love Ferraris and will really be helpful.
Street parking is too risky in my opinion. Remember it is not just car fanatic Italians driving around there all nationalities are present including tourists in hire cars who may not be remotely interested in nice cars and are not used to driving LHD cars.
Driving in Palermo is pretty scary, Even in a UK registered Ferrari they give you literally just enough space and you have to be a bit aggressive, I survived unscathed but it was a bit traumatic. Like most places in Europe it does help being in a UK registered car as they assume you know nothing and give you that little bit of extra space.

[kazino]

Thankyou for your detailed answer and putting to bed the potential issues I thought might arise. Also a Lovely stable of cars you have

[CitySlicker]

Nevermind Italy it's the UK you have to watch out for!

After an amazing week touring the alps in my Ferrari without incident last year I was being clocked by gangsters coming into London. Luckily I noticed them and took precautionary aggressive measures to evade them. Never had I wanted to get home so fast!!

[Overhaul]

Just got back from a nice little road trip to Italy, the main reason being a Ferrari Factory Tour.

I can honestly say driving my F430 around Italy was no problem, although some of the roads can be a bit of challenge with regards to pot holes and broken surfaces.

Once in France our route was:

Reims
Lyon
Gap
Route Napoleon
Bais des Anges
St Tropez
Monaco
Pisa
Florence
Milan
Monza
Lake Como
Lake Garda
Modena
Maranello
Susten Pass
Lucerne
Champagne


I'll do a proper right up when I get the time, but for now I'll just leave the "money shot" here...........




And few other stops along the way.

Reims




Route Napoleon




Monaco




Pre tour lunch at Ristorante Montana




Sustem Pass

[kazino]

Beautiful 430, lovely photos and glad to hear you had no issues on your journey

[Overhaul]

kazino said:

Beautiful 430, lovely photos and glad to hear you had no issues on your journey

Thank you
The only occasional blip was the TomTom doing the literal shortest route thing,

If you are using the Chunnel, book "Car 1.85m + " on the height.
That way you get the wide carriage and no chance of damaging your wheels.

[kazino]

Duly noted.
Did you encounter many police speed checks or speed cameras

[Overhaul]

kazino said:

Duly noted.
Did you encounter many police speed checks or speed cameras

We did around 2600 miles on our trip, and the only encounter with Police was on the N85 north of Gap in France.
They must have heard me coming as when I rounded the bend the officer held up his hand and indicated fr me to pull in.

The pair of them were couldn't have been much older than their early 20's, and were more interested in the car than my paperwork.
After a brief check to see it was all in order the one said beautiful car Monsieur, wished me lovely day and sent me on my way.

Other than that I didn't see any other Police at all, France Italy or Switzerland.
Maybe I was just lucky !