Which Way to Northern Italy

[paulhaines]

Given that you now have to pack anything faintly expensive into your suitcase and subject it to teh lottery that is airport luggage belt...

We were flying to Italy in Sept and spending two weeks in the Lake Garda area.... we are now driving (yipeee!).

We have booked a ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuden and then plan to drive over two day's down to Lake Garda...

I am lookign for advice on the route - as I see it we have two options one is via Swizerland and then Como and Milano and the other is via Stuttgart, Innsbruck and then into Italy....

Any thoughts - suggestions?

Oh and yes the R has gone for the second time

Paul

[scooby_simon]

Just lobbed it into my mapping software and it suggests (routing rules are biased towards main / motorways) Germany:

Route detail :

[ QUOTE ]

1. Ijmuiden-H 0 ft

2. Get on Halkade and drive east 24 ft 24 ft 0:00:00 173° true

3. Turn left onto Ericssonstraat 0.2 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:37 115° true

4. Turn left onto Stationsweg 2.2 mi 2.0 mi 0:05:41 96° true

5. Take the A22 ramp to the right towards Amsterdam/Den Haag 3.3 mi 1.1 mi 0:03:44 90° true

6. Keep right onto A2/E35 towards Utrecht 21.6 mi 18.3 mi 0:18:54 104° true

7. Keep left onto A2/E25 towards Breda/Maastricht/S'Hertogenbosch 38.4 mi 16.8 mi 0:15:56 149° true

8. Keep left onto A2 41.2 mi 2.8 mi 0:03:21 184° true

9. Keep left onto A2/E25 towards 's-Hertogenbosch/Maastricht 45.0 mi 3.9 mi 0:04:40 145° true

10. Keep left onto A2/E25 towards 's-Hertogenbosch/Maastricht 54.7 mi 9.7 mi 0:09:08 149° true

11. Keep left onto A2/E25 towards Eindhoven/Maastricht/Ring 's-Hertogenbosch/Tilburg 67.9 mi 13.2 mi 0:11:14 143° true

12. Keep left onto A65/E25 towards Eindhoven/Maastricht/Vught 70.9 mi 3.0 mi 0:03:34 212° true

13. Keep right onto A2/A58/E25/Randweg Eindhoven towards Maastricht/Tilburg/Venlo 84.9 mi 14.0 mi 0:12:05 144° true

14. Take the A2/E25/Randweg Eindhoven ramp to the right towards Maastricht/Venlo 86.4 mi 1.5 mi 0:01:14 256° true

15. Keep left onto Randweg Eindhoven 88.1 mi 1.7 mi 0:01:52 171° true

16. Keep right onto A2/E25/Randweg Eindhoven towards Maastricht/Veldhoven/Venlo 89.2 mi 1.0 mi 0:01:13 144° true

17. Continue on A2/E25/Randweg Eindhoven towards Maastricht/Venlo 92.4 mi 3.2 mi 0:03:52 172° true

18. Take the A2/E25 ramp to the right towards Maastricht/Tongelre/Weert 95.5 mi 3.1 mi 0:03:44 91° true

19. Take the A2/E25 ramp to the right towards Maastricht/Weert 95.8 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:23 94° true

20. Take the A76/E314 ramp to the right towards Aken/Antwerpen/Heerlen 136 mi 40.3 mi 0:31:59 200° true

21. Keep left onto A76 ramp 136 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:14 164° true

22. Take the A76/E314 ramp to the right towards Aachen/Heerlen 137 mi 0.5 mi 0:00:23 180° true

23. Take the A76/E314 ramp to the left towards Aachen/Heerlen 137 mi 0.4 mi 0:00:19 97° true

24. Continue on A4/A44 towards Düsseldorf/Krefeld/Köln/Lüttich (Liège) 159 mi 21.6 mi 0:17:14 99° true

25. Take exit 9 to the right onto A61 towards Kerpen/Koblenz/Venlo 183 mi 24.4 mi 0:22:21 91° true

26. Take the A61 ramp to the left towards Koblenz/Venlo 183 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:16 76° true

27. Take the A61 ramp to the right towards Koblenz 184 mi 0.3 mi 0:00:25 63° true

28. Take exit 38 to the left onto A81 towards Stuttgart/Weinsberg 380 mi 196 mi 2:40:06 118° true

29. Take exit 19 to the left onto A8/A81 towards Flughafen/Leonberg/München/Singen/Stuttgart 411 mi 31.3 mi 0:26:02 217° true

30. Take exit 51 onto A8 towards Flughafen Stuttgart/München/S-Möhringen/Degerloch/Ulm 416 mi 4.8 mi 0:05:24 123° true

31. Take exit 65 to the right onto A7 towards Kempten/Lindau/Nürnberg/Würzburg 474 mi 58.5 mi 0:48:22 84° true

32. Take the A7 ramp to the right towards Kempten/Lindau 474 mi 501 ft 0:00:05 95° true

33. Take right ramp onto Oal1 543 mi 68.5 mi 0:54:38 90° true

34. Turn right onto Oal1 543 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:38 261° true

35. Keep right onto Guggemoosen 544 mi 1.2 mi 0:02:12 46° true

36. Turn left onto Staatsstrasse ramp 547 mi 2.6 mi 0:04:00 38° true

37. Turn right onto Staatsstrasse 547 mi 353 ft 0:00:20 47° true

38. Turn left onto B310 555 mi 7.7 mi 0:15:00 174° true

39. Take right ramp 555 mi 432 ft 0:00:57 80° true

40. Enter roundabout Roundabout 595 mi 40.0 mi 0:57:52 45° true

41. Take the 1st right onto Krebsbach 595 mi 98 ft 0:00:05 100° true

42. Take ramp to the right towards Innsbruck 598 mi 3.1 mi 0:04:24 153° true

43. Keep left onto Inntal Autobahn 619 mi 21.2 mi 0:17:37 88° true

44. Keep right onto A13/E45/E533 towards Brenner/Innsbruck Süd 620 mi 0.9 mi 0:01:05 88° true

45. Take ramp to the right towards Affi/Lago Di Garda Sud 769 mi 149 mi 2:00:33 212° true

46. Enter roundabout Roundabout 769 mi 0.3 mi 0:01:17 306° true

47. Take the 2nd right onto Road 769 mi 329 ft 0:00:06 294° true

48. Enter roundabout Roundabout 770 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:13 279° true

49. Turn right towards A4/Milano 770 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:19 229° true

50. Take ramp to the right towards Sp31/Cavaion Veronese/Piovezzano 771 mi 1.3 mi 0:01:31 191° true

51. Turn left onto Sp29 771 mi 0.2 mi 0:00:45 59° true

52. Enter roundabout Roundabout 772 mi 0.3 mi 0:00:30 352° true

53. Take the 3rd right onto Via Ca' Nove 772 mi 178 ft 0:00:13 215° true

54. Enter roundabout Roundabout 772 mi 0.5 mi 0:01:58 247° true

55. Take the 2nd right onto Via Del Trenin 772 mi 173 ft 0:00:12 263° true

56. Enter roundabout Roundabout 775 mi 3.1 mi 0:04:37 288° true

57. Take the 1st right onto Via Guglielmo Marconi 775 mi 64 ft 0:00:06 314° true

58. Garda 777 mi 2.0 mi 0:04:19 275° true

[/ QUOTE ]

I would however suggest you try and avoid major towns around rush hour !

[fjfr]

Garda is gorgeous. You will have a great time!!

I would seriously reccomend going to venice for the day as well - you can get a train from one of the towns on Garda to Venizia and it takes about 2 hours. Venice is not to be missed!

Garda

Venizia

[fjfr]

Two more:

Garda

Venizia

[paulhaines]

Thanks Guys,

The route is ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuden...

Then very much the route that Simon posted, except that it would be rude not to go round the Nurburg ring on the way and we will stay in Heildelburg on the way and a nice Rhine Castle on the way back.

Once again thanks for the help.

Paul

[skifly]

if you look at the blue pontoon on opposite bank beside rialto near the front of the gondola... thats where i was busted by some local audi_smittens while building US relations... I have her photo on my moby - might upload so you see what venice has to offer...

Anyways - sorry to drag off topic.

I would see if you can go through some twisties for a little fun and maybe visit a couple of cities for lunch stops etc enroute.

[paulhaines]

Nurburgring closed on the way past (there and back)