Planning Italian Holiday
Hi Folks,
I am planning a 3x week tour down to Northern Italy and wonder if anyone has any sites that they can recommend?
Looking to stay between 10-12 days in Italy perhaps accros 2x sites to make the most of the site-seeing etc
The rough plan is to go Calais - Metz - Basel - Italy - Innsbruck - Stuttgart - Luxembourg - Belgium - Home
Would appreciate peoples thoughts and advice!
Thanks!
Answers
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Might be useful to know whether you are a motorhome or a caravan? There is a good Municipal campsite in Metz and the town is just a stroll away. Not sure what you have in mind for Italy but Lake Garda is popular and probably a site around Peschiera del Garda, at the southern end of the Lake, would give you lots of options. We stayed at Bella Italia. Verona is not far away and Venice can be reached by train. Alternatively you could find a second site nearer Venice. Our favourite is Camping Miramare at Punta Sabbioni which is very handy for the ferries over to Venice. It is a long way round the Lagoon and some prefer Fusina where ferries also depart from. You could have a look at my website. Done several trips to Italy if it helps.
David
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Although we went to northern Italy about a dozen times I don’t think I can be much help.
For instance we went into both the two big National Parks - Gran Paradiso and Stelvio, but you may not have walking in the mountain foothills on your bucket list in the way we did.We spent more time in Umbria and Tuscany, but those regions may be too far south for your limited time scale. Down there we preferred Lucca to Pisa, and Siena rather than Florence, but a lot of places there which appealed to us were outside the main tourist trail - for instance Gubbio, Citta di Castello, Volterra and little known villages on hill tops..
But we didn’t put much effort into choosing campsites - for us they were just somewhere to sleep and eat breakfast after all. You may want more from a campsite than that.I think my best advice for you is to make a big effort to learn to speak a little of the language - especially if you are going outside the main tourist zone.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Hi MHG
You don’t say what time of the year you plan to go. August is extremely busy in Italy (particularly around the lakes) and sites will definitely need to be pre-booked. At all other times pre-booking is not normally necessary. If you’re planning to use trains to visit places the train services in August can be much reduced. If you haven't visited Venice before then that is a must. As David has said, the sites around Punta Sabbione are ideal. Under normal circumstances I’d recommend the route via the Fern Pass into Austria then the Brenner Pass into Italy but there will be long delays on the Brenner due to a bridge replacement for a few years now. Camping Gottardo just south of the Gottard Tunnel is good for an overnight stop-over. There are few decent sites north of Milan. You will need two Vignettes for the Swiss motorway system. Be careful where you purchase them, there are a number of internet sites that charge exorbitant prices for them. Toll Tickets are a reliable source. You will be spoilt for choice when it comes to site seeing, come back to us if you need further advice.
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Hi MHG,
We have visited Italy many times, with the caravan, the last being in 2022 and have used a similar route to the one you mention. The first thing I noticed was the length of trip-not sure of your overall time but Italy is a long way for a stay of 10-12 days especially as you mention staying on more than on site.
The route you mention will require two Swiss vignettes which is costly if only using them one way. From Calais I would be heading for lille, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, kempten and then via Landeck, Prutz and the Fern and Reisa passes to Bolzano.
In 2022 we decided to come home via the Brenner and I regretted it as the traffic was horrendous and at one point, due to overtaking not being allowed if you are towing, travelled behind trucks doing less than 30 MPH-I did eventually decide that I would tag on to the stream of other caravanners ignoring the rules!
David has mentioned Camping Bella Italia and we stayed there over many years but it does get very busy, which we enjoyed, but not for all tastes. If you are using ACSI there are others in the area such as San Francesco.
I would likely stay on one site and Peschiera is a lovely town and a great base for site seeing-you will find that the time passes rapidly!
Sadly, we should have been on the shuttle today enroute to a three week hotel and site accommodation trip but have had to cancel due to medical appointments so wish you an enjoyable trip!
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Thanks all for your feedback..
We'll being heading off 1st week in August (we have to go in August unfortunately) so are very used to busy holiday periods and the need to book the sites beforehand.
With an overall holiday budget of 3x weeks, was trying to balance out taking in some sites on way down, with a stay in italy itself of around 10-12 days. Initial thoughts are staying around 5-6 nights on one of the lakes, and then the other 5-6 nights around Venice behind heading home. I will check out Bella Italia as thats been mentioned a few times.
Can i ask how many day did you take to reach Italy?
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It depends on how many hours you’re prepared to drive each day. When I was younger we could reach the north Adriatic coast from Calais with one overnight stop but that was solo. We now do it with 3 overnight stops with our motorhome.
Using the French toll motorways you could reach camping Du Canal in Kembs (just north of the Swiss border) on day 1. You could be in Italy on day 2 subject to there being no significant delays in the Gottard Tunnel. We often overnight on an excellent motorhome Aire near Vicenza and that’s doable from Kembs in one day (they also take caravans). if you’re going this August you need to book your long stay sites ASAP.
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We have travelled across the water on all of the routes but, being in Cornwall, are most used to the Plymouth/Roscoff route.
We always take three days with two overnight stops, for a journey of 930 ish miles from Roscoff. The journey from Calais via Switzerland, at app 750, and going via Austria and the Fern pass at app 850, are still done to the same timeframe.
I see that you have to go in August so there's not much you can do, other than maybe traveling very early in the day-we aim to be out of the gate at 0800 at the latest.
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