Northern Italy travel advice required. Hi I have

The Mont Blanc route is probably a little quicker than your usual route, but it is a fair bit more expensive - Via Michelin indicates about €100+ each way overall. ( More if you already have a Swiss Carnet). Although its marginally quicker, I've done the route a couple of times and it's a bit of a (tiring) blast on the motorways.

If it's just your usual route you want to avoid, may I suggest the following:-

Calais to Pontarlier (near Besancon), mainly motorway, then into Switzerland and onto the motorway that skirts Lake Geneva and leads onto the Simplon Pass into Italy, near Domadossola. Then on, via lake Orta to Varallo. The Swiss part of the trip is very scenic, and less hectic than others. (Its the route we use when we take the dog for its Summer holiday near Orta)

Depending on how many stops you want to make, I can recommend a couple of hotels on the route.

ONE OTHER THING - I don't now if the Mont Blanc route has been affected by the recent storms/flooding in France and West Piedmonte

Good luck

hello Clueless ,

Have you ever thought of embarking at Poole, disembarking at Cherbourg,

go down to Caen, and from there take the A88 motorway, then the

A28, and a few km south of Tours, take the AB5, up to

Bourges, from there, the A71 to Clermond Ferrand, then the AB9 to

in Lyon, then with the A7, go down to Marseille, then with the A8,

get to Ventimiglia - if I understand your ultimate destination

it is southern Italy, From ventimiglia, take the E80 which is like a highway

and you arrive in Viareggio, you take the A11 that takes you to Florence,

and you are on the Autostrada del Sole - A1 - no Switzerland, no Mont Blanc-

Approximately 1350 miles -

only 120 miles more - than the way to Calays, Strasbourg, Switzerland, Milan, Florence