North West Italy suggestions...

[NDA]

I would appreciate a few pointers... not a clue, never been.

I have holidayed in France every year pretty much all my life - I speak French (just about) and lived in France in my early 20's. Love the country and always drive down in an amusing car. 2 or 3 weeks normally.

Next year I thought I might try Italy. Driving down....

I really don't want to drive a distance into Italy as it will have been a fair drive to get to the border, so I thought the north western corner - Liguria.

I don't speak a word of Italian - problemo?

Advice from those who have done similar would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

We stayed in Verona and used the excellent cheap bulletstyle trains to go to Milan, Lake Garda, Venice etc.

Some good cheap apartments to rent in any of those.

[loskie]

Levanto and the Cinque Terra. Is that a bit far? Easy to do by train.

[AndrewCrown]

NDA

Very interesting corner of Italy.. Have driven some of the coast roads to Genoa from Nice quite impossible looking concrete work on some of the road supports… you may remember the 2018 Ponte Morandi incident… Crazy driving on that road.

Took Mrs C to Rapallo using the Excelsior there as a base…fascinating few days in Portofino, Chiavari and Santa Margherita Ligure. Flew into Genoa and hired a car.

Amazing restaurants, stunning coastal vistas all round great trip.

[bompey]

Have a loot at this thread for some ideas. I want to do something similar next year.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[The Leaper]

AndrewCrown said:

NDA

Very interesting corner of Italy.. Have driven some of the coast roads to Genoa from Nice quite impossible looking concrete work on some of the road supports… you may remember the 2018 Ponte Morandi incident… Crazy driving on that road.

Took Mrs C to Rapallo using the Excelsior there as a base…fascinating few days in Portofino, Chiavari and Santa Margherita Ligure. Flew into Genoa and hired a car.

Amazing restaurants, stunning coastal vistas all round great trip.

Can also recommend the Cinque Terre and Rapallo. Flew into Genoa and got a pre-booked train to Rapallo. Stayed in Hotel Astoria, very good. They have a small car park so if using with a car, pre-booking is essential.

Rapallo has nice beach and like Italy you pay for access and the facilities etc. Good selection of local restaurants too

Rapallo and surroundings are excellent. You can get around by local train to all the small towns or by ferry etc. Portofino by boat for lunch there is good, but so are the other Cinque Terre towns.

Can get the train to Pisa or Genoa, for example, for days out. Car will be a PITA re parking anywhere.

R.

[loskie]

Flights to and train from Pisa to Cinque Terra too

[NDA]

Cheers all, very useful.

[Griffith4ever]

You are so close to Tuscany.,..,,,

Florence, Lucca, San Gimingnano, Siena....

And your french will turn into itialian quite well. Just make French words sound "italian", and more often than not, you will be understood :-)

i.e. possible becomes possibilmente, etc :-) (especially if you wave your hands about too).

When I crossed the border from France to Italy, after decades of French driving and camping holidays, I was astonished at the difference (attitude, friendliness, willingness to accomodate outsiders), and have not since been back to France, and, I moved to Italy :-)

Edited by Griffith4ever on Saturday 3rd September 18:13