We have decided to change our plans and drive from Milan to Triora via Torin instead of Genoa to Triora.

This makes the driving portion a lot longer, the journey will be around 5-6 hours instead of 1-2 hours, but we should see a lot more of Italy this way.

Our Italian tutor thinks we are mad to drive this route but hopefully we will survive it and have a good tale to tell afterwards.

Approximate Costs
52.02 EUR (Toll: 13.80 EUR, Petrol: 38.22 EUR)

Approximate Time
5 hours and 22 minutes of which 1 hour and 57 minutes are on motorways

Approximate Distance
338km of which 196km are on motorways and 13km on scenic roads

The cost of driving a vehicle in Italy

I have never been able to find out what sort of charges there are for toll roads in Italy. A lot of roads mainly the motorways, charge for parts of the journey, but today I found a site that can show you an approximate cost for them including driving instructions from point A to point B.

The site is called ViaMichelin and is available at http://www.viamichelin.com/

This site allows you to enter a starting point, and a destination and up to two stopovers along the way. You can also specify if you would like to calculate the route using five different methods:

• Recommended (mainly motorways)
• Quickest
• Shortest
• Sightseeing
• Economical (basically no motorways)

The site also calculates the cost in tolls, and likely price of petrol that you will use along with the number of KM of motorways and Scenic Roads.

You can also generate GPS files of the routes for TOMTOM, ViaMichelin, Garman, NavMan, Navigon and Mio

The TOMTOM format used is OV2 (which TOMTOM uses for Point Of Interest files) where as I would have thought it would have used an Itinerary file (*.ITN)

So I am not sure what I am suppose to to with an OV2, you can however use http://poieditor.com to convert from .OV2 to ITN, or a Google KML file

The site also generates a route plan and includes a lot of details including where you pickup a toll ticket, and where and how much it will cost when you need to pay. You can also print this route.

An example route:

Here are some examples of the differences the engine can make for the following route:

The maps while not as pretty as Google’s are very good and you have Map, Satellite, and Hybrid types.

You can also overlay weather, conditions, parking, hotels, restaurants and tourist points of interest on the maps.

http://www.viamichelin.com/

April 7, 2009

Our trip is going to begin on April 7, 2009 where will fly from Christchurch, New Zealand (10:50am) to Singapore - a flight of just a bit more than 10 hours. We get into Singapore about 5:40pm local time and have to get ourselves to our hotel (no transfers arranged - but Singapore is a good city to travel in).

We say the night in Singapore at the Parkroyal on Kitchener Road - the normal price is apparently $350 NZD per night but we were able to get it for $56 NZD because of booking through Flight Centre in New Zealand.

Peeking Duck is on the menu - we both love Peeking Duck.

Our flight to Milan does not leave Singapore until 11:45pm local time so a long day in Singapore before we leave but we have a late checkout until 4pm from the hotel which means that we can have a bit of a shop and a rest before going to the airport. Maybe this time we can see a movie at the airport, never done that before, they are free.

It is a direct flight from Singapore to Milan and will about 12 hours and 45 minutes, our arrival time is about 6:30am (local time) on Wednesday the 9th of April.

We will be spending two nights in Milan at the Hotel Monopole which is near the central rail way station.

April 10, 2009 (Easter Friday)

We have managed to book tickets to see the original "The Last Supper" by "Leonardo da Vinci" - We paid € 8 each for entry which we paid for online, for more details and to book tickets online see - http://www.cenacolovinciano.org/sito/home.html

We are leaving Milan on the morning of Saturday, April 11, 2009 by Train to Genova - see http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html for details on trains in Italy.

Once we get to Genova we will be picking up a Rental Car from

NATIONAL (MAGGIORE) CAR RENTAL

We booked this through an online car rental agency called http://www.economycarrentals.com/ and it cost us € 560 for 16 days.

Once we pick up the Rental Car we will work our way to Triora which is where we will base ourselves for 7 nights. It is only about 90 KM but we are going to give ourselves about 2 hours or so to get there.

In New Zealand we drive on the Left hand side of the road, Italy they drive on the right.

We are planning on driving into France some time during the 7 days we in Triora, maybe have some Oysters and visit Monaco.

We leave Troria on Saturday 18th of April 2009 after 7 nights and will travel back via Genova to Vernazza, we estimate it will take us about 4 hours.

In Vernazza we are going to stay in a little place called "Maria Capellini charming room" - see http://www.mariacapellini.com/charming%20room.htm for more details.

April 20, 2009 - April 21, 2009 ( UNKNOWN ) We do not have any thing booked for this night yet, we wanted to stay a third night in Vernazza but "Maria Capellini charming room" is full on that night.

April 21, 2009 - April 27, 2009 ( MODENA )

We are not actually staying in Modena but about 19KM from it in a B&B called "Cà Penelope Agriturismo B&B" - see http://www.capenelope.it/

The B&B is located on a working farm 3KM from Maranello, 4KM from Ferrari, and 19KM from Modena.

While here we will be visiting Parma, the home of Parmesan Cheese and Prosciutto.

You also can not forget that this is the home of Balsamic Vinegar, or to be precise the home of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena the only real Balsamic Vinegar which you can easily pay € 200 for 100ml.

I would really love to try some of the 25 year old Tradizionale or even older if I can.

We leave Cà Penelope and drop our rental car off in Bologna, and then travel via train to Venice about a 3 hour journey.

April 27, 2009 - April 30, 2009 ( VENICE )

We are staying in Venice for 3 nights at a hotel called "Residenza Ae Ostreghe" - see http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/residenza-ae-ostreghe.en.html

The hotel is (from what I can work out) about 150-200 meters from San Marco square.

Pam & I have been to Venice before, about 6 years ago in 2000 and it will be great to visit it again.

April 30, 2009 - May 1, 2009 ( UNKNOWN )

We do not have any thing booked for this night yet but we are thinking of staying in Verona.

May 1, 2009 - May 2, 2009 ( MILAN )

The last night in Milan, and also Italy has us staying at a hotel called "Milan Hotel San Carlo" - see http://www.sancarlohotelmilan.com/

May 2, 2009

We leave Italy on the 2nd of May 2009 - Pam is going to fly out to Greece to catch up with her daughter and grandchildren and I fly home to New Zealand.

I arrive back in New Zealand on May 4th, 2009, just in time to pick up the cats (Toot & Kahmen) and dogs (Otto & Ruby) and back to work on the 5th of May. Pam has a bit more time before returning to New Zealand and I will miss her.

100ml of the real Traditional Balsamic Vinegar 25 year old can easily cost 200 €, that means it could cost you 2000 € per litre, or in NZD $5000 per litre.

Lets put that in perspective:

• 25 Year old Single Malt Scotch – maybe 120 €  or approx $300 NZD per 700ml and up
• 25 Year old French Cognac – maybe 220 € or approx $550 NZD per 700ml and up

Is vinegar really better than Single Malt or Cognac – hopefully I will try some of the real produce while in Italy and can give an answer in a short time from now.

We are planning a day trip from Triora to Apricale which is only about 40km by road. The town is perched on the side of a hill about 300 meters above sea level.

We are staying in Singapore before we arrive in Italy

	Singapore Parkroyal on Kitchener Road (special deal through our travel agent) http://www.parkroyalhotels.com/hotels/singapore/kitchener_road/parkroyal/index.html
	Milan Hotel Monopole € 142 for 2 nights http://www.hotelmonopole.com/Ing/
	Triora Palace! Medieval Palazzo £ 399.00 for 7 nights http://www.italiandream.info/staying.html or http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/triora/55721
	Vernazza Maria Capellini charming room € 170 for 2 nights http://www.bedandbreakfastmaranello.com/
	Modena Cà Penelope (19km from Modena) € 400 for 6 nights http://www.capenelope.it/ingleseHome.html
	Venice Residenza Ae Ostreghe € 284 for 3 nights http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/residenza-ae-ostreghe.en.html
	Verona We are not yet sure if are staying here or not!
	Milan San Carlo Hotel Milan $ 250 NZD for 1 Night http://www.sancarlohotelmilan.com/

From New Zealand we are flying on Singapore Airlines (http://www.singaporeair.com)

• Christchurch to Singapore ( 10 hours + 50 minutes)
• We stay in Singapore for about 36 hours
• Singapore to Milan (12 hours + 45 minutes)

Once in Milan, Italy we will be using public transport and the Metro to get around.

To travel to Genova from Milan we are going to travel via train (http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html)

From Genova we will be getting a Rental Car and have this for 16 days.

With the Rental Car we will be travelling:

• Genova to Triora
• Triora to Vernazza
• Vernazza to Pisa
• Pisa to Modena

Update

We are now getting the rental car in Milan and driving to Triora

We will obviously be also using the car to visit other local locations….

We are going to drop off the car in Bologna, and then we will catch the train again, this time to Venice, and after 3 nights in Venice we will travel via train either directly to Milan or to Milan via Verona.

These forecasts are provided by : http://www.ilmeteo.it

For live weather temperatures around Italy see http://www.ilmeteo.it/portale/dati-tempo-reale 

For live weather temperatures plotted on a dynamic map see Weather Underground

For weather details where Pam and Chris live checkout Christchurch Live Weather