T'up North(Lancashire) To Rome via Stelvio

[mole_grylls]

Hi, as you can probably tell, by the number of posts I’m new to this forum. And I’m relatively new to the world of the GS. I’m a capable rider having road Off Road bikes since childhood and various trips around UK and Ireland on the GS
I’m after some advice please.
Since I’d like to go riding in Europe for our annual Holiday, and my girlfriend wants to visit Rome, we’ve decided to couple the two together.
So here I am planning a road trip to Rome.
My father has kindly agreed to lend me his 1200GS along with gear and Zumo 550 and Mapsource programme; we have planned to run this trip setting off on Fri 18th Sept till Sun 27th Sept.

My original idea was to shoot straight down France to Milan, drop down to Brescia to the start of the Mille Miglia and follow its route through the various towns and villages down to Rome.
After spending a couple of days in Rome continue along the rest of the race route back to Brescia, and then back home. All this relative unplanned and just arriving at various Hotels and B+B’s and trying our look.

Since finding your forum on the web and, reading the advice given to other members, along with the reports of past trips down by the dolomites and stelvio, it has opened our eyes a little; I’ve decided to give our run a little more thought.

Our new diary looks like this.


Fri 18th
Finish work, ride to Folkestone, stay at friends

Sat 19th
Catch early train to France.
Ride to Reimes; carry on the A4 towards Strasburg, past Mulhouse to a Hotel called stelvio, near the start of the Stelvio Pass

Sun 20th
Ride the Stelvio, then down to Brescia, picking up the Mille route down to San Marino.

Mon 21st
Carry on the Mille route down to Rome.

Tue 22nd, Rome

Wed 23rd Rome

Thur 24th Rome, set off in evening up towards siena, then on to Pisa staying somewhere on the way

Fri 25th siena/ pisa on to Italian Riviera (Massa/Vernazza) then up to Lake Como

Sat 26th/Sun 27th Home ward bound.

Now I’ve found a couple of reports, but on the whole is the lack of reports or mentions of road trips down to Rome on the forum due to the distance, are we daft thinking we can ride so far? Speaking to a friend he said on the first day we’ll make Mulhouse easily, now he’s nearly seventy, smokes like a chimney and rides like a snail. We don’t want to make it a race but I feel we could make a good pace through France if we had to. Are we asking too much, trying to reach Stelvio in the day?

Any advice would be great, the kind of questions I’m asking myself are,

How long to Stelvio, can we do it in a day from Calais?

On my Mapsource it sends me up one side of Stelvio to the top turns me around and back down the same route then towards Switzerland then drops me in to the north east of Italy down to Brisca, are my settings wrong I changed them to the shortest route and it still didn’t go over stelvio.
Or is it better if I carry over Stelvio and down towards Bormino onto the S300 and the S42 down to Brisca

Is my revised plan just to long for a 9 day trip? Are we planning to big? We don’t want to be in the seat all day every day, riding at an uncomfitable pace trying to get around, we want to be on the bike but a gentle sight seeing road at an average pace.

If we scrap the Stelvio idea. There is the option of riding straight down to Rome maybe stopping for quick look at Ferrari factory etc at mondena and around that area. Or there is an over night Auto-train that runs from Düsseldorf to Allesandria on Fri 18th do we take that?

Finally has anyone any Accommodation recommendations, if it’s nice we’ll pay the price but we prefer to travel on the poor mans budget.

Big Thank you in Advance.

 

[KMD]

My thoughts, having recently returned from the Dolomites and having rode the Stelvio, are just to be realistic about what mileage you can comfortably cover at a time.

The reason I say this is some of the roads, the Stelvio being a good example, are extremely tight and twisty and take more out of you than you tend to be aware of at the time. The result can be you end up very tired, as in your pan can be well flogged out. If you get that tired with considerable distance left to do and it's all on the same sort of roads, it can be a chore.

A mate of mine has this annoying habit of looking at the map, deciding he wants to be 'there' and off we go, he takes no notice of the kind of riding that's involved in getting 'there' he just thinks it doesn't look far and that's that. We've fallen foul of this a few times.

Your lass will love Rimini, it's a non stop procession of flash cars and trendy lookers, very Italian.

 

[Gundog]

When we go to Rome we stay here www.hotelcityroma.it

Its cheap(ish) clean, small and friendly. Descent breakfast.
Perfectly situated right in the centre of the main attractions but right near some fantastic little hideaway resturants where the Italians eat..
Excellent food and reasonable prices, the reception will give you details if you ask.

Have a great time.

 

[Bryn]

Did a similar thing last year.. It sounds like a bit of a long day to get down to the Stelvio in one hit... I personally wouldn't do it Two days to the Stelvio would be more kind to your behind.......

Our route was

Day 1 Calais to Nancy
Day 2 Nancy to Como via the Gotthard tunnel ( a long day in drizzle )
Day 3 Como to Pisa ( another long ride)
Day 4 Pisa to Rome
2 nights in Rome

Day 7 Rome to Rimini
Day 8 Rimini to Venice
Day 9 Venice to Grainau near Garmisch using the Stelvio ( another long day)
Day 10 Grainau to Mainz
Day 11 Mainz to Calais ( 360 boring miles)

About 3000 miles all in .....

 

[Deleted Account 180923001]

Yep,as Bryn sez......Stelvio in a day from Calais is dooable but your girlfriend will want to kill you. I'd recommend some quality time on the pass, rather than
blast it...spend some time at the top....couple of eateries and there's some excellent photo opportunities....especially looking over the north side. There's a ton of pictures on the site of that view.

The towns either side of the Stelvio are worth a look too.....
Prato del Stelvio on the northern side....small with loads of back streets and Bormio on the southern side....a larger, bustling town.

If you're having problems with Mapsource taking you over the Stelvio...suggest you
use the waypoint tool and 'pick and click' your wayover......but 'yes', over to Bormio is
the way to go.

have a good trip

gordo'

 

[Dave-Churchill]

Hi Mole,

Me and 3 pals returned from a French/Italian trip a few weeks ago. 3 GS's and one pour chap on a Craponord.....
We went down thru France, Via 'Route Napoleon', across into Italy following coastal road to Genova then upto Milan and LAke Como, heading for 'Bormio' which is at the base of the 'Stelvio' pass.
As has been mentioned before, be realistic about distances and the type of roads you're gonna be riding on.
Our grp were camping so bikes were laden but we didn't hang around....
Once over the Stelvio into Switzerland we headed for Davos, Zurich and then Basle before making to our destination town of 'Belfort'. (This was on the return leg of the trip, by the way.....)

If you can do Calais to Stelvio in a day, then I congratulate you inadvance, but with a pillion and all........
Just enjoy the holiday and the ride. If you don't make a certain place that you had intended to reach, don't worry, otherwise the stress will ruin your ride.
We had a rough idea /plan of where we wanted to go, we had 8 days and we camped. Managed it all, but I have to say, it was very tiring and some days after spending 8 hrs in the saddle on a really hot day, it knackers you out... so be realistic.
The Stelvio is awesome by the way. Just dont buy any cold drinks from the vendors at the top..... 4 cans of coke = 10 euros