Planning road trip to Italy- current road surface?

[Turbofun]

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a driving tour around Italy and would be interested to hear from anyone who been recently.

I’d really appreciate advice on:

Road surfaces & conditions

• What are the road surfaces generally like around Italy?
• Are the smaller mountain and countryside roads generally well maintained?
• How bad are potholes, broken surfaces and patched sections?
• Are there particular regions where the roads are noticeably better or worse?

Roads to avoid

• Are there any famous roads that look great on paper but are actually disappointing to drive?
• Which roads tend to be too busy with traffic, cyclists, coaches or tourists?
• Are there any roads where the surface is so poor that you wouldn't recommend them?

Thanks in advance!

[chalda]

Hello,

my experience from this spring in northern Italy (Ferrara - Bologna - Rimini - Modena).

Turbofun said:

Road surfaces & conditions

• What are the road surfaces generally like around Italy?
• Are the smaller mountain and countryside roads generally well maintained?
• How bad are potholes, broken surfaces and patched sections?
• Are there particular regions where the roads are noticeably better or worse?

Road surfaces: Motorways are OK. Everything else is horrible. Toll-free superstrade are especially horrible.

Smaller roads generally well maintained: No. In the region mentioned, they resorted to putting 50 km/h limits everywhere, because they realised that they simply cannot repair their roads with any success. Even with my rental Fiat Panda, I wince in pain a lot while driving the poor thing.

Potholes/patches sections: Simply expect serious road damage at any time.

Sorry, that is the way it is.

Christian

[mr pg]

Stelvio (certainly the east side) looks way better than it is to drive. Narrow in places, very sharp corners which are not good if meeting traffic in opposite direction, and very popular so can be very busy.

[6pi]

Which part of Italy are we talking about exactly, the North I guess ?

I did a roadtrip to the Dolomites in August (gratuitous picture below). Road surface was very good generally speaking in this part of the country, but in my experience that's not so true for the rest. I have recent experience of the South between Naples and Bari, and some small roads are barely roads anymore (in many places asphalt starts to disappear).

My experience in the North below Tyrol (Tuscany, Liguria, Emilia Romagna etc.) is going back ten years or more, at the time were OK but it may have changed since.



PS : I agree that Stelvio is not the best driving road, but is still nice and on the other hand the Dolomites have great roads that should be very enjoyable outside of the peak season.

[AlexIT]

Living here in Italy, I can't but confirm Chalda statements.

Generally the only notable exceptions are the road in Trentino and South Tyrol, which are usually well-maintained.