terryW Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 Any advise on routes and stops would be appreciated. We currently plan to cross to calais early May, travel down through Belgium and Luxemburge take 24hrs R&R near Mulhouse in France before crossing Switzerland for the area around lake Maggiorie. After a few days in this area we intend to travel down the West coast to Pompei and then return North a couple of weeks on a Tuscany beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 Can't help with your route because we didn't go that way, but at Pompei there are three sites across the road from the ruins. They are all pretty much of a muchness! They are typical Italian sites with very mixed pitches of differing sizes. All have little cabins on them for rental, a bit like chalets. They tend to be a bit scruffy compared to Britain and France but you will only be there for a few nights anyway so it can be OK. We stayed at Camping Zeus. The write ups for all three are in the Caravan Club Europe book 2. Don't take any notice of "wild dog" stories for the sites and ruins! There are dogs roaming around but they were all without exception just lazing in the sun in the car park and didn't even move when cars drove past. (I've tried to attach a photo of one we took but I don't know whether it's loaded!) The main thing I noticed about Italy is the drivers are all clinically insane! No one takes a blind bit of notice about the speed limits, especially on the motorways. They drive about 6 inches from the vehicle in front and you can never go fast enough. Don't take it personal, they do it to each other! Just drive in your own way and let them get on with it. Aires in Italy tend to be dearer than France. The ones around the Lakes are roughly 15-20 Euros a night and don't include electric. There was a sign for one in Pompei but when I went to investigate it was a site! The tolls on the motorways are reasonable, cheaper than France & Spain, so use them as much as you can. The road conditions are mixed. Some not too bad and some attrocious. The lanes on the motorways are a little bit narrower than ours but not so bad as to be scary. If you get the chance and seeing as you're down that way you must visit Venice! It is every bit a special as they say it is. There are lots of places to park your van either on the sites across the lagoon and get the ferry into the city, or stay at the aire on the Troncetto. It is 32 Euros a night but you get all the facilities and hook up, more importantly you are actually just a water bus ride from the main sites. Italian camp sites are quite good but the pitches vary in size and position, so go and have a mooch round before you pay up to spend the night there. They also have a crazy habit of planting trees right in the middle of them so check out the roof height before driving on to it. There is more but I'll have to have a think and get back to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenny Posted April 2, 2010 Share Posted April 2, 2010 Sounds ok to me nice aire at kyserbourg just before mulhouse, couple of nice sites next to lake maggiore switzerland side Locano also worth a visit. heading down the west coast you might aswell stop of at Pisa you can walk to the tower from the aire there then after that plenty of campsites and aires down the coast, If you are going in May you should use the Acsi card as the most you will pay is €15 and the sites are better than the aires and its €11 for camping sparticas opposite pompeii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted April 2, 2010 Share Posted April 2, 2010 Don't miss out Lake Garda, very nice. Camping butterfly I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 We travelled from the French Mediterranean border around the coast to Lucca/Pisa, then crossed over to Florence, Ravenna and up to Venice. From there across to Verona, Lake Garda, Milan, Turin and across the border into France in the low Alps. Never had need or desire to use toll roads. Aires were generally disappointingly expensive and for the same price we could stay at Camping Cheque/Camping Card sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenny Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 I must be missing something here where does Venice and lake Garda come into it when he is travelling down the west coast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 kenny - 2010-04-04 3:55 PM I must be missing something here where does Venice and lake Garda come into it when he is travelling down the west coast The thread is entitled 'Italy for the first time'. Surely some generic info/opinion is worthwhile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 My only comment is why via Switzerland? Reason is the expensive vignette if you van is under 3.5 tonnes MAM, or less expensive autobahn passes if over. You could skirt Switzerland via Austria avoiding the autobahn, and turn for Maggiore through the Stelvio park, via Sondrio, Lecco, Como and Varese. I know the road as far as Spondigna, where the SS40 meets the SS38, coming down from the Reschenpass, and it is good. I don't know what the SS38 down to Sondrio, and on, is like, but it looks viable, and is, for the most part, a valley road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryW Posted April 28, 2010 Author Share Posted April 28, 2010 Many thanks for all your contributions. If not this time they may well be used in the future. Certainly Pisa is on the list now, we normally give towns a wide berth but the proximity of the aire to the tower has persuaded us to at least stop for a visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Hi We went down for the first time last year and we intended to go next week but things have cropped up to snooker that so we will probably go again in september. Don't use the aires they are too expensive. get an ACSI book from Vicarious books and you get a card in the cover. This will give you access to loads of sites for E15 per night. Fabiolo on Lago Maggiore is really good. We went down to Pompie. Stayed at the campsite and if you are over 65 you get into the excavations free. Don't book anything just go with flow and use your satnav. Italy is superb, much better then spain or Portugal. If you have time go down the coast to Sorrento. There are a couple of ACSI campsites just outside and good bus service. You will definitely want to go again just to catch the ferry to Capri. ON the way back go to the CInque Terra. There is another good campsite at Devia Marina. They run a minibus to the station and you can walk back along the coastal footpath after getting off the train. Absolutely brilliant. You can then run back along the Med to Menton in France and then up the Route De Alpes but that might be a whole holiday in itself. We went down through Switzerland and the St gothard tunnel E30 for the vignette but it does last for a year. Stuff the Sanish and their grubby, dirty piles of building waste. Enjoy a beautiful country but beware the distances are longer than you think from the map. Keep em waxed........... Ned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 If you should think about staying at Camping Butterfly on Lake Garada then all you need to do is to walk out of the REAR gate of the site and onto the railway station and get the train right into the middle of venice, takes less than an hour and is quiet cheap. Have a nice time whatever you decide to do, weather good right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 That is the route we take and its fine, motorway all the way and only two small tolls near Strasbourg. municipal site at Obernai is a popular stop and municipal at Metz on river bank is not bad either. cheap fuel in Luxembourg, a tip, avoid the long ques on motorway for fuel and turn of at Bettembourgh, a few stations after roundabout and no delays........ I prefer route through Switzerland and think it good value as it includes tunnel. Camping Forenella, Lake garda is wonderful. we are returning for 4th year in a row and we never do that normally! Lake Maggiore is more developed near the top and quieter down right bank. but if high season it is best to book in advance on any lake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 terryW - 2010-04-28 6:00 PM Many thanks for all your contributions. If not this time they may well be used in the future. Certainly Pisa is on the list now, we normally give towns a wide berth but the proximity of the aire to the tower has persuaded us to at least stop for a visit. Last time we were at Pisa to get up the leaning tower you had to purchase a ticket the day before you wanted to go up, I was on my own but I bought two tickets just because I nodded my head when the Italian woman said something to me :$ :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 But, there is so much more to Pisa than just the tower, and I can't see any point in visiting Italy at all if not visiting the towns. Italy is all about its towns: it is where a great chunk of our European civilisation came from. Miss them, and you miss the essence of the country - and half the essence of the rest of Europe to boot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 Brian that is so true, I am not a betting man myself but the company that I was with in Pisa wished to have a bet on the horses so one night we slipped into a bookies just over the road from the main railway station. We were in a hotel close by. We were there for 90 mins and still never got a bet on a horse because no one spoke english but boy did we all enjoy ourselves, great night trying to bet on the high steppers from America when everyone was trying to help and each of us taking the micky and buying each other drinks. Local culture is really special and great fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 If transport history is your thing Mulhouse is home to both car and railway museums. See www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf From the horseless carriage to the Bugatti Veyron. Car nut heaven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryW Posted May 1, 2010 Author Share Posted May 1, 2010 Hi Brian, I'm sure you are right but having spent most of my working life staying in European hotels and had some excellent guided tours by my host, I am now prefer a stroll through a village and a meal in a small cafe with the locals. I have been shown around buildings closed to the public you would probably die to see but at heart I'm a country boy! Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted May 1, 2010 Share Posted May 1, 2010 Stuff the Sanish and their grubby, dirty piles of building waste. How sad to end a good post with such an ignorant comment!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted May 1, 2010 Share Posted May 1, 2010 derek500 - 2010-05-01 11:29 AM Stuff the Sanish and their grubby, dirty piles of building waste. How sad to end a good post with such an ignorant comment!! Was it that serious.........I wouldn't think so :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted May 1, 2010 Share Posted May 1, 2010 Hi terry, good luck with your trip, please let us know how it goes. we are looking to go to Pompeii / Herculaneum etc in september time, i think it will still be warm enough around then. Could any other reader, brian etc, please advise which route is at the lowest altitude - I'm not very good in mountains or up too high! Spain via Bordeaux was fine but I would not want to be much higher many thanks bojitoes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 derek500 - 2010-05-01 11:29 AM Stuff the Spanish and their grubby, dirty piles of building waste. How sad to end a good post with such an ignorant comment!! Ignorant? Surely ignorance is displayed when one ignores? Are you really saying there are no grubby, dirty, piles of building waste in Spain? If you are, we've been in two different countries both called Spain! Or are you merely pleading for others to be kept in ignorance of their presence? :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 If you want to avoid mountain passes, Bob, with deep valleys beside the road, you'll have to go down the Rhone valley, round via the Rivera into Italy at Menton, past Genoa and La Spezia, and then down the West coast. Don't try crossing over to the east coast though, because a branch of the alps turns south down the centre of Italy, called the Apennines! Probably the lowest altitude route across to the east coast would be the autostrada from La Spezia to Parma, where you get onto the Po valley, which is as flat as your hat, and can pick up the east coast routes south, or head north-east for Venice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bojitoes Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 Thanks Brian, very,very helpful- as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Hi It'sOK Brian I have been called much worse than ignorant, which I probably am if we talk about Spain. My view reflects my view and I am sorry to upset those who are happy to holiday in a semi desert, viewing large gouges scouped indiscriminately out of the landscape next to miles of polythene as well as high rise flats,loud bars and a people who only seem to exist to rudely fleece whoever they can, and that just the police!!!!!! I am sure that there are areas in Spain that don't fit into this picture and it is each to their own. However, Italy is a revelation and is beautiful. Yes, they don't always care for their environment, Going to the campsite at Pompeii is a bit disconcerting to say the least but generally the Italians certainly edge out our 'peninsular bretheren. Off again in september to get our fill of culture again in the new van. Keep em waxed........ Ned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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