We travelled down to Lake Como and then on to Venice from Dunkerque this summer. We travelled overnight arriving at Dunkerque at 06.00. After stopping for a couple of hours sleep at a Aire near Lisle we then drove on down through Belgium and Luxembourg. At Luxembourg we turned south onto the E23 and drove as far as an Aire near Nancy before stopping for the night - an excellent day's drive we felt. The motorway ended just south of Nancy but we continued south past Epinal and then turned west onto the N66. This single carriageway road is a good one which goes through the heart of the Ballons des Vosges mountain range. The views are lovely and there although there are some gradients these are relatively easily laid out in long hairpins.
At the eastern side of the Vosges we spent a few days staying at the Municipal site at Cernay. This is an interesting site right next to a stork reserve and with a VERY HELPFUL warden. There is only a small shop on the site but there are several supermarhe and a good range of other shops in this pleasant riverside town. The municipal swimming pool and sports centre are right next door. We were delayed here after I found a split in one of the 'van tyre walls as we were preparing to leave. I was not happy towing over the Alps without a spare and so we were delayed whilst a replacement was obtained.
From Cernay we continued down the A35 to Basle where we crossed into Switzerland. At the border we had to pay for the overpriced annual Swiss motorway vignettes for the car and caravan. When stopped at the Border point a man comes to sell them to you - 2 are needed one for the car and one for the 'van. We wish to pay by credit card so we had to park up and pay at the office. There are loos there too. Basle was a bit challenging as there were a lot of road works in the city centre, sometimes with different diversions for different size vehicles so it was hard to know which to choose.
NB ANOTHER TIME I will follow advice that I have subsequently been given to cross the Rhine and enter Switzerland, near Basle, on the German side. It seems this avoids Basle city centre.
We followed the E35 through Switzerland a fantastically picturesque route. We crossed into Italy via the St Gotthard Pass. The queues for the tunnel were very long so we decided to try the pass. It was quite doable even with our large outfit with a climb up long hairpins a long relatively flat part on the top and another hairpin descent. On the way down I used the engine for braking to save on the brakes and by the time I reached the far side the bonnet was nearly cold- very unusual for our 3.2 V6. We tried to spend the night at the services at Airolo immediately after the pass but although services were clean and pleasant they were very busy and we gave up at about 02.00 and pushed on and stayed at a services lower down for a few hours sleep in the van.
We then continued southwards finally leaving the E35 at Chiasso. We then drove through Como and Lecco and up the eastern side of the Lake on the "36" to Camping La Riva at the northern end of the Lake. this road was an excellent one and after Lecco was dual carriageway albeit it with a LOT of tunnels. We spent spent 2 very pleasant weeks at La Riva. We had booked our pitch and got a lovely, large one right on the river side. We had to move later during our stay as we arrived and left later than planned due to problems with another 'van tyre and a minor car breakdown. Be warned that the Italian Lake district Como and Garda areas are subject to sudden gales and storms. We had our awning damaged when it suddenly blew up onto the roof - we were taking down because of the approaching storm - too late.
We then travelled on south westwards and picked up the autostrada near Bergamo. We then drove around the southern end of Lake Garda on the E66, E70 to near Venice. The roads were not brilliant until we reached the toll autostrada which were excellent. We drove from La Riva to Camping Cavallino in one day. Camping Cavallino had large pitches and accommodated us easily even though we had not booked just phoned ahead on the day before to see if they had room.
Regarding the size of van, etc according to the 2006 Caravan Europe Guide, from the Caravan Club, I would highly recommend both volumes - cheaper from Amazon than the CC's "bargain" mmeber's price, there are no restrictions on size of caravans. There are some size limits for Italy but they are waved for foreign tourists if their outfit is legal in the UK.
Our route home was the same apart from the fact that we used the Gotthard tunnel on the way home. I hate tunnels but by that time had got a bit more used to them. For the 11 miles of the Gotthard I set the milometer at 0 at the beginning so that I could count off the mileage put my favourite new Johny Cash CD "My Mother's Hymnbook" on, whispered a prayer and went for it.
We loved Northern Italy and are planning to go back next year. We had hope to go as far as Rome but didn't because of our delays and because we liked Como and Venice so much. The Campsites got more expensive the further south we went. Cavallino was worst nearly
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