Trip To Rome Advice Wanted

ianran

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I am looking to take the Bike to Rome in June this year, SWMBO will be on the back and there will be two bikes.
I would like any suggestions on good roads and accommodation on the way. We are looking to take two or three days to get there once in France.
I am told the Route De Napoleon is a good ride, I am looking to avoid Motorways where possible.
 
Two to three days to get to Rome with her indoors on the back whilst 'looking to avoid motorways'

Won't be much of a holiday with those timings .... :nenau


*edit ... The holiday may be great IN Rome, but the journey there in two to three will just be a mad blat ...
 
I can understand why you might want to go to Rome (haven't been there before or meeting up with friends there) BUT most of the rest of Italy is a better holiday, certainly on a bike. And northern Italy is easier to reach than Rome.

Yes, I know, this doesn't answer your question! I'm sure somebody else will :D
 
Where in France are you landing? Calais / Dunkirk or somewhere else?

If Calais, it's 1,600 km to Rome, going direct. Call that 1000 miles. Avoiding motorways will add something, say 15% giving 1150. Add in 50 miles for buggering about down a detour or getting lost and you'd be looking at 1,200 (helped because I can divide that number by three) = a daily mileage of 400 miles to cover it all in three days, all down N and D roads. It's further from Caen, obviously. Not impossible, of course.

Now, beyond asking your question and before anyone plots you out over 1000 miles of non-motorway routes, halfway across Europe, have you and your friend:

(A) Looked at any planning yourself?

(B) Done anything similar before?

Where to stay in Rome? Easier to answer. There are some great rental apartments to be had. We rented one for the Italy Ireland rugby match. Very central and very good value. Where to stay en-route? A very good question. Work on your route and where you think you will be towards late afternoon / early evening on each of the two overnight stops and go from there.


PS Ride magazine has loads of pre-planned routes, all available to download. Here's the link to the Italian one. It will save you a load of time.

http://www.ride.co.uk/Italy/
 
We did Rome to Amsterdam in two days and it was solid 90mph motorways, and it was long days.
If you're avoiding motorways then you'll be slogging on to do it in three days.
 
I rode to Barcelona in Sept 15, no Motorways, about 1200 miles with a pillion and luggage, not as much fun as I hoped it would be.If I were going to Rome, I would seriously consider getting some cheap flights, a decent hotel at the end and Hire a bike of your choice locally, the cost will be about the same, but the stress on mind and body will be a lot less.
 
...and if you do use the motorways, you'll clock up a fair amount in tolls down to Rome.
As Fester said, fly-ride or allocate more time to get there.
 
Thanks for responses.
As Wapping asked, Ive done the south of France to the north in one day and two thousand mile iron butt's but not with the boss on the back. I'm aware they will be like days so may add another into it.
We are going Dover Calaise P&O as it's easy to change ferry times.
As to why, guy in the village was going to meet friends at a Deuville Rally, didn't fancy it on his own so we said we go along for the crack.
In Rome we will be staying in chalet. I was really interested in anywhere worth staying along the way. We are in or near Rome for 3 or 4 days and will take five or six days to get back.
 
Troyes or Dijon. Both easily doable in a day on N and D roads from Calais.

Chamonix / Aosta

Rome (three days, long day on the third)

Or Chamonix / Aosta to Bolgna and then Rome (four days)


A more interesting way to go would be to curve out, through the Ardennes, down via Mulhouse, on to Lucerne. Then Milan to Florence to Rome.

The choices are many and varied. After 1000 mile day iron butts, you'll work them out.
 
Uncle-Fester said:
I rode to Barcelona in Sept 15, no Motorways, about 1200 miles with a pillion and luggage, not as much fun as I hoped it would be.If I were going to Rome, I would seriously consider getting some cheap flights, a decent hotel at the end and Hire a bike of your choice locally, the cost will be about the same, but the stress on mind and body will be a lot less.
Click to expand...

I fddi Almeria to Bilbao overnight to catch a ferry, went past Madrid at abo 3 in the morning if I recall, loved it.
 
Wapping said:
Troyes or Dijon. Both easily doable in a day on N and D roads from Calais.

Chamonix / Aosta

Rome (three days, long day on the third)

Or Chamonix / Aosta to Bolgna and then Rome (four days)
Click to expand...

Cheers for that, we were thinking around those miles but we are not too legalistic to stop if we are knackered. We are not camping and are looking for good B&B or low cost reasonable hotels. We have three days around Rome. Was trying to get any recommendations for stops along the way that people had experienced.
 
A hotel that you don't eat dinner in, turns into a B&B instantly.

You'll be passing through some pretty big towns / small or quite large cities. They'll all have a hotel, anywhere from private to chain, one to five star. The golden rule (according to UKGSer Plc) is to never book anything. As you want to be flexible and as there is not that many of you, I'd just wing it and use Booking.com. You'll be fine.

PS I edited my post to suggest going down through the Ardennes etc.
 
If you jump on an open top tour bus in Rome...make sure you get the tourist one....we paid up, got on the top deck...and put on the headphones..to be greeted with 'welcome religious pilgrims ' :eek:

Anyway..got a good tour of all the churches :blast:blast
 
For Rome itself I can strongly recommend the 'Camping Village Roma'.
Cheap, clean chalets, swimming pool, decent bar, decent grub, 10 mins from the city centre.
 
Went to Rome last year, enroute to Salerno & Pompeii. Plymouth - Santander, three days bimbling around Spain, a night in Barcelona and then a ferry to Pontevecchia (?) which is the ferry port for Rome. The ring road at night was a feckin nightmare, and Rome has too many cobbled streets for my taste (or bike).
 
We drive down twice every year ,
First night we stop Troyes, head to Frejus tunnel but head over the pass through the mountains just before and stayed in Lanselbourg mont Cenis. Headed over around Torino cut down through the Alta Langhe and head on down via Savona,Genoa.
Loads of good places to stay and eat in Troyes, the centre is beautiful.Lanselbourg we have stayed in an hotel with good food and not too pricey but there is a biker place next door with apartments and have been recommended a better hotel over the road by a local friend.....I can find the name given time. Stop for coffee at the top by the lake, stunning.....onwards I have driven to Rome but only on the motorway so not much useful info.
Over the years we have overnighted at loads of towns but this way suits our driving hours.....usually a 6.5 hours drive turning into 8 hours Inc stops.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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