My European Road Trip

[mason storm]

Hey thanks for the recomendation of Gorges Du Verdon, I never even knew this existed, sounds like it's worth a look.

I'll probably then link back to Castellar and the following day take the rest of Route Napoleon back to Grenoble/Annecy.

[mason storm]

Ok I'm still playing around with route options from Florence to Monaco, i have two main choices as I see it:

1) jump on the motorways and get there in 5 Hours boring but gets me there quick
2) use the SP roads and stop off at somewhere like Portofino overnight and travel the next day to Monaco, this would include stopping off at some interesting villiages on the coast including the Cinque Terre villiages.

Has anyone else done this journey and taken either route, I'm only really interested in the second option if it's a nice drive with nice scenery otherwise I'll just go by motorway.

[roofless]

5 hours from Florence to Monaco is pushing it if memory serves me right and as i mentioned earlier think about San Gimignano, Bologna or Parma. I would break the journey at one of the latter at least but use the autostrada to get from a-b. If you do decide to do it in one hit the road from Genoa to the border will more than make up for the boredom beforehand, just better not to be too tired by the time you reach it. That's my 2 penneth anyway

[MalcZ4]

I notice that you intend to stop overnight in St Paul de Vence.
We rent a house every summer in Vence - which is just up the hill a few miles from St Paul, but is much less pretentious than St Paul.
Accommodation is much cheaper in Vence!

St Paul is lovely in the evening - once all the tourists have gone. You must eat at La Colombe d'Or, it's Michael Winner's favourite restaurant in France. This is the place where people like Picasso, Gaugin, Matisse etc. left examples of their work as payment for food and drink - the artwork is still there on the walls. Dinner can be expensive, but they do a reasonable lunch menu of simple, local dishes.

[roofless]

I notice that you intend to stop overnight in St Paul de Vence.
We rent a house every summer in Vence - which is just up the hill a few miles from St Paul, but is much less pretentious than St Paul.
Accommodation is much cheaper in Vence!

St Paul is lovely in the evening - once all the tourists have gone. You must eat at La Colombe d'Or, it's Michael Winner's favourite restaurant in France. This is the place where people like Picasso, Gaugin, Matisse etc. left examples of their work as payment for food and drink - the artwork is still there on the walls. Dinner can be expensive, but they do a reasonable lunch menu of simple, local dishes.

Good to know May be passing through there later in the year myself.

[agentbiscuit]

There's a town called Bormio at the foot of Stelvio. It's a really good overnight stay and plenty of pubs to keep you amused.

I'm off to Europe in August so will be keeping an eye on your planning and hopefully steal some of your ideas.

Similar to Taz X, the only thing set in stone is that im getting on a train in Englandshire, driving round Europe, getting on a train in Frenchville, and battering back up to Scotland.

[mason storm]

Just 4 days untill my trip getting really excited now as it feels like it's been a long time coming

[mason storm]

Just got back from my road trip, it was awesome

Will post some pics when i get time, I was soo lucky with the weather

[Taz]

glad you had a good trip, i am counting down, less than 4 weeks to go now, i'm already in holiday mode

[mason storm]

glad you had a good trip, i am counting down, less than 4 weeks to go now, i'm already in holiday mode

I bet you can't wait. Here's some pics to wet your apetite

1st pic is travelling the toll roads to interlaken, passing an Aston and a Z4M Coupe in front, cool.

[mason storm]

After staying over in Interlaken, I did the Grimsel and Furka (as seen in Goldfinger) passes.

here's a pic in the morning as you can see the Z picked up a few bugs on the way, by the end of the two weeks the car was covered in them, yuck.



Here's a Pic on the Furka Pass, we were so lucky with the weather as until the day i arrived they had had the same rain we experianced in the UK back in June.



I also did the San Bernadino Pass which was great as it was possible to go a bit faster on this as it wasn't quite so busy.

Next up a pick of the Lovely hotel we stayed at up in Davos, we actually had to get in a cable car to get it it as it was up in the mountains so the views were amazing

[mason storm]

The next Day I tried to drive the road they did in top gear out of Davos to Stelvio via Bormio. It started off as a fantastic road (the best so far) but it didn't go on as long as I expected and in fact i think i may have taken slightly the wrong route as i ended up driving through alot of villages half way through on the way to Bormio, having said that i set the satnav up with waypoints as per various websites that show the route?



The in the afternoon it was time for the Stelvio. This really so so crazy and dangerous if you are mad enough to drive fast as it's so busy with bikers and people like us, but it was still great fun and good to tick off as a road I have now driven.

Here's a pic of me at the top



A zoomed in shot of the northern section I am about to drive on the way down.



And a 458 also at the summit



After driving down the other side (which was much better than the southern side in my opinion) I then drove onto Lake Garda which I stayed at for Three nights using it as a base camp. Me and my mate hired a speed boat out In lake Garda which i highly recomend if anyone decides to go there and the following day took a train to Venice which was beautifull but a little busy.

[mason storm]

Then it was time for the Mecca of Supercars Modena, starting at Ferrari in Maranello



Then onto the Lamborghini Family Museum which I highly recomend as opposed to the Factory museum. You have to make an appointment and Fabio Lamborghini the Nephew of Feroccio Lamborghini gave us a guided tour following which I bunged him a few quid for him to give me a spin in his classic Lambo which was so cool, all the people in the village know him as he is a local.



I must say i was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Modena as we had a great meal and decided to take a walk round that evening and stumbled across a street Jazz Singer and her band, she had an amazing voice and the guys were great also it really felt like I was in the real itally now compared to the more touristy Lake Garda.

Here's a dodgy image from my phone



The next day

[mason storm]

Next up I travelled down to Florence which luckily included part of the Mille Miglia route through the Futta and Ritocossa passes, this was a great drive through the Apenine Mountains and was better than the previous roads as there was far less traffic.



We stopped of here at the top at this Bikers Cafe



The next day and a half was spent in the lovely Florence this place is soo cool probably the stand out venue of the trip

[mason storm]

Next I drove the Monte Carlo stopping off for lunch in the beautifull Portofino



Here's a shot of me outside the Casino in Monte Carlo



Also a pic of a testarossa like the one in Miami vice which was parked in the hotel car park, it was so wide it only just fitted in the space



Following on from Monaco I popped over to Nice the next day which i really liked (and it was alot cheaper than Monaco)

Then up to our next hotel in Vence

the next day i drove round the Gorge Du Verdon which was really impressive with lots of stopping off points for photos