2008 - The Solo Run to Rome
After the Stelvio run in 2007, I promised my eldest son that he could passenger with me on the Stelvio run this year Unfortunately the run was planned for the second week in September and this would have clashed with his school term. So I decided to organise a solo run with him in August instead, taking a leave of absence from the main Stelvio tour. Although I missed the group experience, the run I had with James was very special for us both and I have always considered it to be one of my favourite tours.
Day 01: Friday - Farnham to Reims.
We left home around three in the afternoon and arrived at the Channel Tunnel for a 5pm crossing. After the 20 minute crossing we headed onto Reims seeing us arrive at around 9pm, just in time for a mandatory Entrecote et Frits in a restaurant overlooking the central square…perfect. The only hitch was nearly running out of fuel….what a great start that would have been!! Normally on the Stelvio trips we refill the tanks immediately after the Channel Crossing to get us on the same cycle. This time I decided to push on and fill up further on down towards Reims. Typical story… decided that I will fill up at the next service station and then, when I got there, thought I could push onto the next one and so on until there was a hell of a jump to the next one and only part of a bar of fuel left on the dial and I was unfortunately committed to it. What proceeded was 20 minutes of sweating at a steady 50mph on the clock…… I must have just made it on fumes. I didn’t catch the mileage at the service station but Google maps indicates it must have been around 273 miles on one tank. As I was just pulling into the service station a S2 in Titanium shot past waving and, to my annoyance, I was unable to reciprocate as I had others things on my mind!! We over-nighted in a very reasonable hotel with a roof top restaurant overlooking Rheims Cathedral for breakfast. Hotel
Day 02: Saturday - Reims to Villard de Lans
Started the day with a visit to the old Reims GP circuit. I have been there a number of times before but this was the first as a solitary Lotus. Someone has been busy with a paint brush but I still think it is an eerie place full of memories of a bygone age but well worth a visit. Then a quick 40 mile blat through the Champaign district, a great favourite of mine, before returning to the motorway for the long haul down to Bourg-en-Bresse on the autoroute. Just south of Bourge-en-Bresse, we left the autoroute for 150 miles of unadulterated twisties through to Villard de Lans via the Col du Granier, the Chartreuse and Grenoble. Very little traffic, open roads, stunning scenery and great weather... the ideal combination. Overnighted in Villard de Lans and the hotel was full of blue rinses so we decided to dine out in the town. The town was packed with people due to it being the market day so the atmosphere was great. Hotel
Day 03: Sunday - Villard du Lans to Pilzone on Lake Iseo
Early start and head east to the Alps d’Huez. Alps d’Huez is a favourite cycling venue so we opted to approach it via Sardonne and Villard Reculas. It turned out to be a truly stunning ascent absolutely bike and car free. At the top we stopped for coffee, at the same Café we have stopped at on other Stelvio trips. The lone Exige created a lot of interest, with loads of folk taking photos of the car which including the owners of the Café who threatened to have their photos of the car put up behind the bar….. fame at last!! From there past the Lac de Grand Maison, over the Col de la Madeleine, a real twisty one (a lot of it clad in thick forests), through to Bourg St Maurice on the main road and onto the Col de Petite St Bernard for lunch. From there we had an afternoon of autostrada work, past Milan and onto Lake Iseo to a fabulous hotel on the lake just North of the town Iseo. Our room overlooked the lake and the local marina. The hotel had a superb infinity pool which had the optical illusion of merging with the lake. The autostradas around Milan have always had massive traffic jams on other trips but not this time, perhaps because it was the summer holidays and all the Italians where at the coast. Hotel
Day 04: Monday - Pilzone to Impruneta, south of Florence
Decided to use the A roads across the flat northern plains through to Modena and Bologna…… a decision I was to regret. Firstly the country side is very flat and uninteresting, secondly we made very slow progress due to the high volume of slow moving traffic which crawled through the towns and thirdly, it was hot, especially as we rarely got over 40 or 50mph. If I was to do the trip again I would opt for the autostrda every-time, above 80mph, even in those temperatures, passage is quite bearable with the lid off. After reaching Bologna we started to head up into the central hills of Italy and the temperature dropped to a very comfortable 25 degrees. The next two and half days, from a road standpoint, turned out to be the best find of the trip… twisty quality surfaced roads, shaded by trees, through countryside which made me want to immigrate to Italy and all, virtually empty of traffic. The only exception was on the drop into Florence and Rome, nothing we could do about the traffic but for us they were late afternoon visits which made the heat bearable. We overnighted in a Hotel in Impruneta with a great roof top restaurant overlooking the village square….the Zucchini pasta and the Chocolate Cake are well worth just making the journey from the UK to experience. Hotel
Day 05: Tuesday - Impruneta to Rome
Another day of dramatic roads in the Tuscan countryside, Greve in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Sena and Largo Bolsena, reaching Rome by mid afternoon, ready for a swim in the hotel pool and into the city centre for a meal in the evening. We had hoped to walk up from the Coliseum through Ancient Rome but, as they lock up Ancient Rome at night, we had to make do with walking up the Via dei Fori Imperali in to Town for our meal. For some reason that night there were hoards of Italian women aged 19 to 25 promenading… I am not sure what was going on, there were just loads of them. The whole experience was just overwhelming and that was for both of us. Hotel
Day 06: Wednesday - Rome to San Marino
A very early start from the hotel… I think we got away by 7.15. I had planned a TomTom route through Rome picking up St Peters, The Vatican, Spanish Steps, Patheon, Trevi Fountain etc. To my amazement it worked, TomTom took us through very narrow cobbled streets for about 45 minutes and the only major attraction we missed was the Patheon. When we pulled up by the Trevi Fountain, suddenly the British Lotus was the centre of attraction, with tourist diverting their cameras to the car, until some very upset Italian Traffic Warden sent us on our way with an unintelligible flea in our ear!! 30 miles after leaving Central Rome we arrived at Tivoli our gateway to the mountains, to find cooler temperatures and cracking roads. We also started to head home for the first time as the route took us North East up to San Marino via Rieti, Cascia, Fabriano and Urbino. I have to say this was my favorite day, the roads were perfect with stunning scenery. We even got stopped by the Italian Police, whom I am certain were going to hand out a big fine. They just examined our documents, smiled and waved us on our way. San Marino afforded us a roof top restaurant overlooking the eastern vista to the sea, a very modern hotel in white, black and gold where there was a switch for everything and toilets that were square …. A truly surreal experience!! Hotel
Day 07: Thursday- San Marino to Gravedona, Lake Como
A bit of a rest day, in so much as we headed straight for the beach at Rimini, which funnily enough was were all the Italians were. Mile after mile of them under beach umbrellas, 10 deep and one every 5 meters. We managed to negotiate a three hour rate and chilled out before starting the speed run on the autostrada to Gravedona at the top of Lake Como. Once again hot temperatures across the Northern Italian plains but with the car over 80mph for most of the time, the heat was bearable. Just be aware in such temperatures you need to consume fast quantities of liquid. At lunch times, I was drinking nearly 2 litres of water and they hardly touched the sides! Gravedona is a quaint little place and swimming in the lake was nothing but refreshing. For anyone who does visit, the only really good restaurant in town doesn't take credit cards.Hotel
Day 08: Friday, our Stelvio day - Gravedona to Obergurgl
Well the signature day for my son and, for myself, just revisiting much loved friends. Left the Hotel and started heading North to St Moritz and got stopped at the border. I seem to get stopped at this border point every time I cross it and for some reason I don't get stopped anywhere else. Perhaps the Italians are very concerned that their precious Euros are being taken out to Switzerland. This time they had the bags out of the boot and were asking if I had any cash in them. Perhaps I just look the smuggling type, who knows… Just before St Moritz we turned West and headed for the Julier Pass and then eventually East into the Albula Pass, which is very much the narrower and rougher of the two. Here we stopped and said hello to a German S2 on the way down who was clearly pleased to see a UK Exige at full chatter. After the Albula, Max’s tunnel love, Livingo and the great Stelvio. At the top of Stelvio it was very cold with quite a strong wind blowing which didn'y help matters. I tried to time my ascent to see how I compared to the two S1 Hondas on the previous year. When we reached the top I discovered I hadn’t started the stop watch properly…. Well that’s my story and I am going to stick to it!! No Stelvio sign at the top to abuse with Stickers but perhaps they had it away to be cleaned for the main group in September! From there the horrible run along the infamous “Tractor” road to Merano, no tractors this time, just loads of slow moving traffic and then to the mighty Rombo and thee the heavens opened. Our first rain of the trip and my god did it make up for it. The roof was on in a nano second….. the rain drops were the size of squash balls. The ascent up the Rombo was like driving up a river bed after a flash flood and the last third in thick, thick fog…. James didn’t know about the big drop offs but I did!! For what it is worth the 48’s behaved impeccably bearing in mind I wasn't driving like an old women, just swiftly but sensibly. We were happy to arrive at the Hotel in Obergurgl with all it’s amenities that it affords…. They have updated the dining area, which makes it feel a lot less gloomy.
Hotel
Day 09: Saturday - Obergurgl to Lake Constance
Much the same route as Stelvio last year; Imst, Hahnennjoch, Warth, Stuben and the last major pass of our trip the Silvretta. In this direction you have to go down it although it looks a lot more fun if you were going up. From there I thought it was game over as the roads looked fairly boring alll the way to Lake Constance. However I planned a slight change to the route opting to go south of Lake Constance rather than North of it as we did last year. The downside is that you’re into Switzerland but I am really glad I did, as the road was fabulous, the scenery and villages were picture card perfect in a way that only the Swiss know how. The route took us to Koblach Saint Gallen to Konstanz and on to Immengarten for the night rather than via Radolfzell. A really lovely surprise for the day which I thought would end up on a dull note. The Hotel that was also a good find…. Hotel
Day 10: Sunday - Immengarten to Farnham
The long slog home, all motorway except for about 40 miles which is a pleasant relief. We left the hotel at 8:15 and arrived at the tunnel in Calais at 16:00 ready to catch the 16:50 train and home for 7 UK Time.
A great trip…. The Exige didn’t miss a beat, mileage was either 3210.1 or 4210.1…. my trip only goes up to 1000 miles. I lost all the left hand front lights (side, dip and main) for the majority of the trip, they flicked on and off occasionally as a set but stayed off more than they were on. The 48’s have still got thread left and IMHO are the best tire in the world….clearly I wasn’t trying hard enough though!! Max velocity was reached at 145mph on the German autobahns… chasing a Audi R4. We were in 5th, on the cam but we were taking good chucks out of the distance between the two cars. The R4 eventually gave us the lead before we slowed wondering were the next fuel stop was. Hotel