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- 747_JK
- Member Since: 26 Jun 2018
- Location: England
- Posts: 371
[Road trip] Welcome aboard this Land Rover flight to Italy!
So this year we didn't fancy mucking about with airports and the risk of flight cancellations, or catching Covid from sitting in a long metal tube with 350 other people, so we decided to head to Italy for a family holiday, and to do it by Discovery!
It was originally supposed to be two weeks in Tuscany, booked late last year, but airbnb cancelled the villa four days before we were due to leave (apparently it had been damaged). With few options left, we found a villa with pool for seven nights, but in the heel of Italy (much further!), and then another for five nights on the East coast in the Marche region.
So what was already going to be a long drive was now becoming truly epic, but what the heck - let's do it we thought. So me, my wife, and kids 6 & 8 left home at 3.45am on a Friday morning just over a fortnight ago for a 6.20am Eurotunnel train, with plans to overnight stop in Chamonix, and then in Pescara, before arriving in Gagliano del Capo in Italy on the Sunday afternoon. About 1,300 miles one-way, or pretty much the same as my house to Kyiv in Ukraine, I realised!
We normally fly-drive in the USA, and drive to the Hebrides each year in our Disco, so big mileage's don't put us off - but this was the biggest we'd done with kids. My concern was the Disco's reliability, or being in an accident with a crazy Italian driver.
But neither happened and the car was faultless and AMAZING to drive. Truly, it was exceptional at getting us there in supreme comfort and safety.
Investing in a Bip 'n Go for the tolls was a great recommendation from a friend - saved us so much time and hassle.
Had an amazing week around the heal of Italy and didn't see a single British car after leaving Milan... And our motor got a lot of interesting looks!
About as far south as you can get in the 'heel':
Stunning to drive over, people jump from it too - to swim! We just swam, no jumping!
What a location to do it... wonder if she said yes?
Our first villa:
Then it was up to villa 2, in the hills, 20 mins from Grottammare. Absolutely stunning up there!
Although interesting finding it coming 'home' in the dark:
And fun just getting off the steep drive:
And then home, via Switzerland - far more interesting coming back over the mountains. Had to learn about the vignette needed pretty quickly, but was preferable to the Mont Blanc tunnel which I thought was a bit pricey!!!
Anyway, holiday of a lifetime, we all avoided airports, planes, queues & Covid. Travelled safe in the bubble of our Disco, which was just sublime. The car's clocked up just over 40k miles now, and is approaching four years old. A new one's on order, possibly for late Q4 / early Q1.
We used a Flexi ticket on the return with Eurotunnel allowing us to rock up when we liked, and board the next train, after free refreshments. It was seamless and well worth the extra, and meant we weren't chasing to meet a fixed timetable.
Having left Bern in Switzerland on Saturday morning after breakfast, we were home by 7pm!
And a decent holiday mileage, in 16 days!
But I truly, truly, felt for all those poor hauliers and families queueing the other side in Folkstone. No one deserves to go through that. I genuinely don't think I'd have stomached it, and would probably have turned around and gone home in a sulk! Let's hope they sort things out for them very, very soon![/img][/img]
MY23.5 D5 3.0 MHEV Metropolitan Edition – Santorini Black – Ebony Windsor Leather – 21” Style 5025 gloss black wheels – 21” full size spare tyre – Black roof rails – Black side mouldings - Williams Ceramic Coat. [Gone: D5 HSE @ 50,795miles: (now LH68 BYW)] -
- Wolfpack
- Member Since: 25 May 2019
- Location: England
- Posts: 325
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Your trip brought back mixed memories for me.
We took our caravan down to Pompeii in 2014 being towed by a Volvo.
Staying at a campsite (Camping Spartacus) right opposite the entrance to the Roman site enabled walking around there before the coaches arrived!
On our way home we stayed at Lake Bolsena (South of Sienna) and on a drive around the lake had a head on crash from an Italian crossover. The car stayed in Italy with 23000 euros of damage (according to the insurers) and after being released from hospital, the caravan club sent us a replacement tow car to bring us and the caravan home at ‘our own pace’. They sent a delivery mileage Discovery 4.
The journey home was so relaxing, especially for the wife (who bore the brunt of the impact and still suffers from angst in tense traffic situations) that she insisted I buy a Discovery 4…and then a Discovery 5. So it’s her fault I am writing on this forum.
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- 747_JK
- Member Since: 26 Jun 2018
- Location: England
- Posts: 371
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- Wolfpack
- Member Since: 25 May 2019
- Location: England
- Posts: 325
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The term ‘poisoned chalice’ springs to mind.
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