Driving From Umbria to Switzerland

[artnbarb]

It looks like about a 9+ hour drive, and there are so many places to stop along the way, so I think we'll break the drive into 2 days. Now the hard part: decided where to stop? South of Milan? North of Milan? The drive will be in August, so weather and road conditions won't be as problematic as in the winter.

My one concern is traffic around the 15th of August. Will it be considerable heavier? The 'bridge' holiday is unclear to me with the 15th being on a Tuesday this year. I'm not sure if the mass exodus will start the weekend before, and just how much it might affect us on the A1 heading north.

(I can't figure out how to imbed the map!) Here's a map:

 

[artnbarb]

And looking at this map, doesn't it make sense to skirt the Alps as long as possible, just to enjoy the views?

 

[Andrew]

There will be some departures on vacation that weekend, but I think more of it will be prior to that, and most of it will be southbound.

 

[jonathan]

We've driven quite a few routes from Switzerland to Italy on our Ostuni road trips, and we've probably done all your various alternatives. Firstly, the easy one to answer (if, by 'skirt the alps' you mean taking that northern route, Verona-Bergamo, rather than the more direct Parma-Piacenza). Don't bother! You're way too far from the 'proper' alps to get any particularly good views from the A4.

Now the harder questions. You've got two big options: the western route via the Val d'Aosta, and the eastern route, via Como & Lugano. And then, for each of these, you have to decide between tunnel or pass.

West The tunnel (Great St Bernard) is quite short (6km) but expensive (€28, not including the Swiss motorway vignette). But since you're travelling in August and like mountain views, why not take the pass (2469m at the top)?

East The tunnel (Gotthard) is 17km long, but the toll in included in the Swiss motorway vignette. Once again, there's a road pass climbing above the tunnel (2106m): for this route, I'd definitely take the pass in August, because the tunnel approach roads can involve queuing (sometimes more than an hour in near-stationary traffic), and 17km underground, when the scenery above you is so spectacular, just seems like a real waste.

If you do take the eastern route, and want to maximise your alpine driving, then there's the option, after driving the Gotthard Pass to Hospental, of turning left to cut off a corner, and driving the Furka Pass (past the Rhone Glacier: gorgeous!), and then the Grimsel Pass, taking you via some very lovely, and not too busy roads to Brienzwiller, at the eastern end of the Brienzersee: this is where you rejoin the eastern autobahn route.

These are all good, modern roads: plenty of hairpin bends, but also plenty of safety barriers. I think I'm particularly pre-disposed to like them, though: I first met them on family holidays in the 1960s (with my father enthusiastically driving our Jaguar up and down what were, then, slightly more hairy roads). And he'd first grown to love them in the 1930s, driving his MG open-top sports car!

 

[artnbarb]

We've driven quite a few routes from Switzerland to Italy on our Ostuni road trips, and we've probably done all your various alternatives. Firstly, the easy one to answer (if, by 'skirt the alps' you mean taking that northern route, Verona-Bergamo, rather than the more direct Parma-Piacenza). Don't bother! You're way too far from the 'proper' alps to get any particularly good views from the A4.

Perfect! Thank you so much Jonathan, this is exactly the sort of information we were looking for!

East The tunnel (Gotthard) is 17km long, but the toll in included in the Swiss motorway vignette. Once again, there's a road pass climbing above the tunnel (2106m): for this route, I'd definitely take the pass in August, because the tunnel approach roads can involve queuing (sometimes more than an hour in near-stationary traffic), and 17km underground, when the scenery above you is so spectacular, just seems like a real waste.

If you do take the eastern route, and want to maximise your alpine driving, then there's the option, after driving the Gotthard Pass to Hospental, of turning left to cut off a corner, and driving the Furka Pass (past the Rhone Glacier: gorgeous!), and then the Grimsel Pass, taking you via some very lovely, and not too busy roads to Brienzwiller, at the eastern end of the Brienzersee: this is where you rejoin the eastern autobahn route.

Again, thank you! Right now I'm thinking that we will stop for one night both coming and going, somewhere around Como. The drive you describe, maximizing the views, sounds perfect for us, but I'll have to see how the times compare and adjust accordingly.

If for some reason we do not visit our friends in Oberdorf we may stay in Lenk (where we'll be meeting Steve and Pauline) for an extra day or two OR we could book additional nights around Como during our drive back to Umbria. I'll post the question of where to stay on the Switzerland board. Thanks again!

 

[artnbarb]

@jonathan , I've tried using Google maps to recreate the scenic route you described and Google maps does not show a road going from Gotthard Pass to Hospental, to Furka Pass, etc. !! Hopefully the roads are well-signed, but there can't be that many of them! And perhaps our GPS will be more up-to-date. I was kind of wanting to play with this route on Google Earth!

 

[jonathan]

Are you zoomed in enough? The road shows up ok on my screen (both on the iPad's Google maps, and on the desktop's browser version). But you need to be on map view: satellite view doesn't show the roads clearly enough when the ground is as full of relief as it is here in the mountains.

Look for Airolo on the map. Then find the wiggly yellow (not the straight brown: this is the tunnel) road that winds north, past the Sasso San Gottardo, and up to Hospental. The brown road is still in the tunnel, many metres underneath Hospental, which is why it doesn't connect!

Then at Hospental, take the yellow road to Zumdorf: this leads to the Furka Pass. Once you've located the roads on map view, you can switch to satellite view to get an idea of the scenery - or play around with Street View, which seems to work up there.

 

[artnbarb]

OK, I'll try again. I asked for directions from Como to Lenk and Google came up with nothing - not even a road - I'm not sure why. I tried again this morning and had better luck - I made sure I was zoomed in more. Here's the MAP , but Google won't let me take the road marked 19 making us drive further south - any idea why? Additionally Google says that this route includes car transport, which I presume means train?

P.S. Are all those tiny, squiggly red and blue lines on the map the ski runs, or lifts?

 

[jonathan]

I think the problems partly stem from the fact that, since it's winter, Google Maps knows that the passes are all closed at the moment, so it won't include those routes in any route planning. And that's why it was wanting to put you onto a train (the Furka rail tunnel), which runs to the south of the pass road.

Yes, it's ski info: the dotted straight lines are lifts, and the other lines show the runs.

Anyway, the St Gotthard pass is the yellow road with the blue 2 on it, from Airolo up to Hospental. Then the Furka Pass takes you left (blue no. 19, closed at the moment) to Gletsch, where you pick up the no.6 road, the Grimsel Pass, snaking northward up to Meiringen. The really high passes (Furka) don't open until sometime in June, so you might have to be patient about getting an actual route from Google Maps. But, as you say, there aren't many alternative routes when you're that high, so it's hard to get lost

 

[artnbarb]

That makes perfect sense!

 

[artnbarb]

Progress is being made!!! We have finalized our plans with our friends in Oberdorf and will be driving to Oberdorf directly from San Venanzo. According to Google Maps it will take us just over 7 hours, plus time for lunch and gas. I think we can do this easily in one day, so we won't overnight on this leg.

For our return trip from Lenk back to San Venanzo the drive is over 9 hours so we will want to stop. This is the leg where we'll be able to drive the alternate, scenic route that @jonathan recommended. (Thanks again!) It's about a 4 hour drive from Lenk to Cernobbio (the stopping point we discussed on another thread), leaving us with a 5 hour drive home. Does that sound reasonable, or does anyone have suggestions for another place to stop for the night?

 

[Pauline]

We took the Gotthard tunnel going north and after the exit took the Furka Pass road to Meiringen. It was a beautiful drive. We did not drive the Gotthard pass.

 

[Pauline]

Looks like an easy 2 hour drive from Oberdorf to Lenk. You could stop in Thun for lunch. It is a pretty town on the end of the lake, before you turn into the mountains.

Driving from Spiez to Zwiesimmen (where you turn off for Lenk) is a beautiful drive. There are a few towns on that route that have lovely historic houses - Boltigen might be a good place to stop for a bit of a walk around.

Leaving Lenk to go back to Italy, it does look like a good route to go via Meiringen and Furla Pass.

An alternative would be to drive to St Bernard Pass or Tunnel and come out near Aosta. We spent a week near Aosta last September - lovely area and Aosta is very nice.

Switzerland Tourist Offices are very good at mailing tourist brochures to you.

 

[artnbarb]

thanks Pauline. More options to consider, but planning and researching is the part I love!