Driving to Greece, via Venice

[Beetroot]

A few years ago we drove to Greece. Via, Capri, Brindisi.

This year we are going to go to Venice first, then Cephalonia and then up into the mountains.

Any ideas of places to visit on the way?

We will take a tent adn camp some of the time.

Return willbe via Slovenia and maybe Saltzburg. We did this last time and I really want to visit it again with the kids a bit older.

This sounds fab, Beetroot, where will you leave your car when you go to Venice?

They have big car parks on the outskirts and you get public transport in, IIRC. We did a very similar trip 30 years ago - we were gone for about 3 months (but had no kids obv! You wouldn't want to spend as long driving as we did - although cars and roads are better now of course.)

We drove initially through France via Avignon to the Camargue, then along the Med coast (Monaco) to Italy - down to Florence via Viareggio, across Italy via Siena to Rimini and up the Adriatic coast (San Marino) to Venice.

Down the Dalmation (sp?) coast - I don't remember visiting Sarajevo although I'm sure I have been there before - across the top of Albania and down into Greece. We went to Athens and Crete and then spent several weeks on Halkidiki.

Return trip was via Austria - we went to Salzburg and Graz - and the Black Forest and Stuttgart (I think!) It would probably be possible to go via Luxembourg and/or Leichtenstein and cover 4 of the 5 tiniest countries.

We did that when we emigrated Beetroot when i was baout 13. (via Brindisi route). 4 of us in a mini with suitcases on top and my Dad chain smoking in the front, me listening to Elvis the whole way on my walkman pining for my dogs i'd had to leave behind

Have fun

we will elave the cars at a camp site I guess? Think camping in Vence wil make it affordable.

Janh, wow. We have done a similar one before, this time, we want to try not to drive as much. Hence getting boat from Venice rather than form Brindisi.

We will be inParis as the choir are on tour there. Will go to Switzerland to my fathers chalet then down to italy through teh Grand St Bernard Pass. Venice, Cephfalonia, Greek Main Land, then probalby back to Venice, Slovienia, Austira etc etc.....

Unless anyone has any good suggestions????

JanH you're making me nostalgic for my younger days, driving through the whole of France and lots of Spain and getting lots of sun for weeks on end. It used to feel so much more like being abroad didn't it?!

We're going to do the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii thing in the Spring as dd is doing Romans and Vocanoes this term (and starts Latin next September).

Cam, that sounds like a wodnerul holiday.

ehmmm, well?? ideas???

Well Beety the holiday is compensation for reaching a great big horrid number of a birthday that week

Oh, Cam, that sounds like a fantastic trip, esp at that time of year. Will you go to Capri too? (or is that too far N? Can't remember)

Yep, am v nostalgic for the whole roaming-around-Europe-with-very-few-clothes-and-very-little-money thing. (Oh, and being-very-young, sigh.)

Beety, what about Geneva and Chamonix on your way SE to Switz (or do they take you away from St Bernard?) And the Italian Lakes - Limone (???) and places like that? You could also visit Turin and Milan.

jan, we will go to a little place called Lautier where my father has a chalet and my son wants to run a race! Then stragiht to Venice I think..although I am sure there are places on the way for us to visist..any ideas???dont know that side of italy.

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Yes we will go to Capri, Janh, its a short boat ride and our hotel has a lift down to the boat doc apparently..

Beety, my dh says Rimini as a traditional Italian seaside resort (although bear in mind he hasn't been there for 20 years!) and also San Marino which is a tiny republic all of its own, a tourist attraction which is on a hill, sort of like a Mont St Michel but landlocked..

Capri is potentially gorgeous Cam, but the day I went (the one day out of my entire life) there was thick fog which detracted somewhat! There is a funicular up to the top - small plaza surrounded by swish shops and cafes IIRC - the views from that should be fantastic. (You could walk of course...)

San Marino definitely recommended - nothing there to speak of (castle on top???) but it's nice to feel you've been. Rimini full of sand and loungers, I remember nothing else, and the Adriatic is even more boring than the Med.

I call it the Adriatic too Janh but dh says its all the Med.....he's a pedant.

Anyway Venice is so fab (make sure you go to the Scuola Grande di San Rocca, Beetroot) that anywhere else will seem almost superfluous..