The trip was June 09 and just for about 10 days.
Itinerary roughly as follows.
Day 1 Drive to Riquewihr a beautiful walled medieval Town in France near the Swiss border.
Day 2 Drive through Switzerland, via the Appenzell region to taste some cheese, briefly into Austria and via the Brenner Pass into Italy to stay at Castle Pergine just outside Trento
Day 4 Drive down along the east side of lake Garda and then into Verona
Lazisse, Sirmione are beautiful to visit from here and there are great drives into the hills north of Verona where they mine granite, won't get much back in a zed though
Day 8 Drive to Provence via Mantua
Day 10 Back to Calais and the ferry
Riquewihr is charming. You have to park outside the walls but the B+B we stayed in was just 50 or 60 yards from the car
not where we stayed but caught my eye.
Food is always enticing in France
Unfortunately the weather wasn't great in Switzerland, fog and rain for most of the drive through. We did have to pay for the autoroute as we wanted to get from west to east in a reasonable hurry. The Alberg tunnel was closed due to an accident so we had to go over the pass with snow and ice on the ground around us. The roads were clear but the fog slowed us more so we were late arriving in Italy. It was worth the trip though and the weather got much better. The Castle is a fab stop, Verena Neff a wonderful hostess and the food and wine superb.
The drive into the castle (folding mirrors ease your worries)
You can stay in one of the towers but best for a family or larger group
Breakfast is in the banqueting hall in the old castle.
Visited Trento whilst staying at Pergine
Torri Del Benaco on Lake Garda
Lake Garda
Torri again
Trying for a little atmosphere, photography isn't my strong point.
Verona is one of my favourite places and i certainly can't do it justice here
Albergo Aurora is right in the centre and a great and reasonably priced place to stay. You need a permit to bring a car within the city walls and the albergo will sort this for you.
The Killers were playing in the amphitheatre, we didn't get tickets but heard most of the concert from a table at a cafe outside
Soave is a pretty town not a lot to see, we paused there for coffee on the way to Vicenza.
Not a great journey from Verona as the drive is poor but Vicenza is interesting if you are a fan of architecture. It is the home of Palladio. For me it just proved that italians like coffee
From Verona we headed towards Mantua on the way to Provence. we drove through rice fields and lovely countryside. Mantua is wonderful also and I plan to go back.
Provence I'll post in another trip log.
