from Kent to Le Marche

07/22/2009 - 08:02

In October we are driving down to southern Le Marche. Have a satnav, but it wont have the experience some of you possess - so assuming via rail/Folkestone where should I aim - France/Germany/Switzerland? Will stop en route - a bit more than half way and will look for somewhere friendly and happy to accommodate a dog.Your thoughts appreciated and I will post the results of my expedition once completed. Michael

Topic

Travel

Location

Marche

Comment

Welcome MJJ.Why does everyone on this site either live in, or are on their way to, Le Marche? Am I missing something? Perhaps I need to go and look for myself.

Gerbillo; you're more than welcome! You may well be surprised, now the Tuscanyshire / Chiantishire is more or less full. You'll also find a vast variety of interesting things to eat....

Ciao GerbilloI don't! I'm driving down to Piemonte in a couple of weeks. No Le Marche. Does that make you feel better? I also used to have gerbils. A pair in fact, called Derek and Dennis!MichaelI have no idea of route down for you but tend to overnight on the way back around Rimes or nearer to Calais. This way you don't end up at ferry terminal (presumably same with rail) 3 hours early and with them robbing you blind for another £100 just to get on an earlier sailing!For accomodation we always check on tripadviser to avoid the dirty flea bitten hotels which are often the same price.Ciao for now Rob

Am biased because we live here, but it has the sea the mountains, the high rolling hills, is well served by airports, road networks, good hospitals, friendly law abiding citizens, and is unspoilt still. Has not been ruined by mass tourism....I could go on. Come and look for yourself Gerbillo?. have friends that come via Germany, Michael, hopefully they will post their route.A

Angie - Don't tell too many people about our secret! Don't want to have to queue to get up the Gola di Infernaccio do we now! Welcome MJJ - sure you will love it - we certainly do and have been coming / living here 8 years now. Enjoy your trip and let us know what you think about our little part of Italy.

I do not know the area at all but reading all your posts has made me want to visit asapYou seem like a fun bunch.! Any one know of a nice place to stay ? I usually fly in to Bologna (thereby avoiding Ryanair)Unfortunately I cannot upsticks to re-locate but am seriously thinking of long -term rental in two years time.Any one any tips? Le Marche certainly seems less touristy,A friend's sister +young family live there and love it vciao for now

sorry to interupt the amrche apreciation group...people will all have their own preferences ... france is quickest most probably... you have to add in tolls... come down through the mont blanc... stop... i would say anywhere before the tunnel if you can... in the Jura...pull off motorway and turn up at a village hotel.. almost all that type of hotel allow dogs... lots of people do the belgium strasbourg swiss route...... cannot really see the sense if you can handle the french tolls... certainly no quicker... was up at mont blanc from nothern abruzzo the other day... 7 hours... came back from salzburg via brenner/innsbruck about the same...... if you aim to average your journet at 110 km per hour... not speed travel time... then that will give you a good idea of where to break... you will know your ferry times etc... i never pre book anything... cause it meaNS A GOOD TRIP CAN SEE YOU PAST THE BOOKING PLACE..(RARELY)... A SLOW TRIP MEANS YOU HAVE TO KEEP PUSHING TO ARRIVE... ... sorry pressed the caps lock...and too hot to bother re typing...besides am useless at that whatever have an excellent trip down and tell us all about it

From Calais take the A26 to Reims/Troyes, then A5 to Dijon, A6 towards Lyon, A46 around Lyon, then A43 to Chambery/Turino, A32 through Tunnel de Frejus, A21 towards Piacenza, A1 Bologno, A14 Rimini/Ancono. Any ETAP in France will take dogs - there is one near Lyon, if you manage a bit further then the Hotel Frejus in Collegno, on outskirts of Turino also takes dogs. Have fun.

We drive down from Cheshire to S Marche at least a couple of times a year and do it leaving Cheshire eary one morning and arrive next day late. Leave home at 7am, Dover Calais ferry around 1pm (can't do tunnel due to gpl regulations), drive via Reims and Strasbourg. Stay overnight a Neuemberg am Rheine at the Krone hotel which is reasonably priced, clean, spacious family room (and free wifi) etc and has a nice restaurant (the family also have a butchers so the meat is particularly good) then through Switzerland into Italy. There was a bypass suggested on the old forums to avoid the main crossing at Basle (http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/travel-holiday-advice/9840-driving-down...) which is well worth doing Traffic is usually pretty good until you get to Milan. This route works out much cheaper than France (a year's ticket for Swiss motorways at around £25 is significantly cheaper than one way through Mont Blanc).My husband is there at the moment - he drove on his own (sleeping in the car) - this time he went via Belgium / Luxembourg becuase he felt he would save a lot on not having to stop and get out of the car to do the tolls in N france. Much cheaper due to no tolls and VERY cheap fuel in Luxembourg - we have lpg/gpl which in UK is 48p/litre and in lux was about 42c/litre amd petrol is also cheap. He reckoned 24 hours from Calais to Comunanza including stopping, hours for sleep etc.Won't add to the Le Marche love-in except to say we visited on a whim Easter 2007 (when Ryanair did v cheap flight form Liverpool) and fell in love with it, went back three months later and bought a house to rennovate. As people have said the area is geographically like Umbria but with fewer tourists - rolling hills, fantastic mountains, lovely hill towns and great food - plus the people are genuine - what more could you ask for? Chris

That suggestion to bypass Basel sounds like a great idea. We too have queued for hours to get into Switzerland. I know it sounds a silly question, but has anyone got the signs that we would need to follow to go the other way, i.e. out of Switzerland?

Haven't had problems going out of Switzerland so haven't done it but if you look at google maps and get the directions going into Switzerland you can then reverse the route. Chris

"suggestion to bypass Basel sounds like a great idea. We too have queued for hours to get into Switzerland. I know it sounds a silly question, but has anyone got the signs that we would need to follow to go the other way, i.e. out of Switzerland?" Coming up from Lucerne on the motorway on the A2 - E35, a few miles before Basel,m you reach a junction where you either go to left [A2] to Basel or right [A3 E60] to Zurich. Take the Zurich turn and stay in the inside lane for the turn to Germany [signed 'Rheinfelden'], and you are at the border. [I did it on Sunday - went through without stopping - quickest ever border crossing!] This link should show the map - [I hope] http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/search/Cartes/7.783878030372938*47.587722310053[just reduce the magnification to get a decent view of the map]

Thank you alan h you are a treasure! You have made my OH's day!

Just to add to the le March love in, we flew to Ancona when Bryanair did the cheap flights and have a fab few days in Portonovo, then drove off to Umbria and were very impressed by the mountains and forests etc en route (this must have been 2007), I think they were just building an autostrada through the mountains.... came back from north Umbria and stayed in Urbino which is a completely magical place, then drove down the coast through the seaside resorts (stopped at Senigallia - twinned with Chester) and back to Ancona. Really wish we still had those cheap flights, would beback to Portonovo for a weekend again like a shot...Daughter and son out law are heading to south le March in September, I look forward to hearing how they get on, and friends are off to the Tolentino area some time around then too.Sadly on our trip in 2007 we were not in the position to buy anything!