Suggestions for Italy... the long way....

[beertastic]

Route

I'm going to stay at the misses (parents) place in Italy, and have decided to ride there.

I didn't know who else (or where else) to ask for advice on my route.
I'm planning 2-4 days each way, would like to camp a little (this is a test to break in my new bike (cheers Anton) and see if I can handle proper distance riding).

I know NOTHING about Europe, what to see, good rides etc.
I want to avoid motorways for the most part.. unless time is a factor or I'm in a boring region.
Oh and of anyone wants to come, that's cool too!
Take a look at the link and you'll see that you can drag and drop the way-points or create your own...
I invite you all to alter my route and re-post the URL once you're done...

Anyhoo, I'm sure I'm in the wrong forum, but thought I'd start with the dommy area, cause that's what I'll be riding...

Cheers all!
Tris... !!!

[beertastic]

sorry did't relaise this post had been moved... sorry for the dup!

[Robster]

Looks like a great basis for a fantastic route!

On your way back up from Monaco, I'd thoroughly recommend riding the N85 Route Napoleon. It's a stunning road which takes you from Nice all the way to Grenoble. Once you're in Grenoble you're perfectly set to take your pick from dozens of superb Cols (mountain passes that is) either in France or just over the border into Italy or Switzerland.

If it was me, I'd head from Grenoble over towards Briancon and into Bardonnechia (where lots of us have just come back from The Stella) and from there ride the Col du Mont Cenis, over the Col de l'Iseran down to Séez, and then up again over the Col du Petit St Bernard, through La Thuile. Then head for Aosta and take in the Col du Grande St Bernard and into Switzerland.

These are some of the "classic" mountain passes, nothing that'll scare you off, but be warned...you WILL return home longing for more!

I can point you to a few good campsites at various spots along your route too

[Dee Duble Yuh]

2,424 miles in 4 to 8 days? Yeah, right. What to see... hmmm... The inside of your eyelids as you fall asleep... You might want to take a little longer and actually enjoy the trip mate!

[beertastic]

Yeah, the time issue did worry me.
I do have on my plan, 5 days in Milan (well, near) in my girlfriends villa.
There's no plans, so I figured that I'd recover, and it'd only be 2 x 1000 ish mile trips... perhaps that's naive...?

I don't wanna kill myself due to being knackered on the way home though.
Am I being completly unreaslistic with times/distance, or just optimisitc?


Cheers for the advice thus far though...
All rather inspriing...

[anton88]

I'm certainly no expert at this - so anyone please correct me if im wrong - but i'd be happier doing 250 to 300 miles a day with lots of stops for photos etc and to take it all in - i think if you try to do more than that youd miss a lot of stuff - unless you just want to get from a to b REALLY quickly ????????????

[beertastic]

I think somewhere in between...
I want to be able to spend 3-5 days in Italy, relaxing...
And I'm leaving Thursday night and working the following Tues.. well, a week after...

Oh and this is all on my new dommy! ;-p

I'll plan for 3-400 a day.
I'm avoiding motorways mostly, and will stop every hour for 5-10 mins ish.
I figured 5-6 hours a day riding at an average of 60mph...?
Worst case, I skip work for a few days... ;-p

[Stormforce8]

I think somewhere in between...
I want to be able to spend 3-5 days in Italy, relaxing...
And I'm leaving Thursday night and working the following Tues.. well, a week after...

Oh and this is all on my new dommy! ;-p

I'll plan for 3-400 a day.
I'm avoiding motorways mostly, and will stop every hour for 5-10 mins ish.
I figured 5-6 hours a day riding at an average of 60mph...?
Worst case, I skip work for a few days... ;-p

If you're planning on doing some scenic routes / mountain passes etc, then you'll either have to double the hours riding per day, or half the mileage you plan on doing...........'cuz you are not going to average 60mph on these roads.........

[Robster]

Ooooh where's that?!

[Stormforce8]

Ooooh where's that?!

One side of Stelvio