Through September, October and November of 2023 we spend our time wandering across northern Italy.
Here’s a summary of the trip, including the route and costs with some of our observations too. We hope you find it interesting.
Italy is fabulous and it turns out that even in the autumnal months, is still really busy. The famous sites are packed with thousands of people but it was a bit of a surprise to us both to see so many tourists in the places we thought would be quieter.
Italian roads and driving required a little time to get your head around but the food and drink was amazing. As was the scenery, architecture and history that we saw along the way.
Where we went
We’ve attached a link to our route below which includes all the sites that we visited. The details of all of these are in the blogs from this chapter.
Like our French tour last year, northern Italy had many locations we wanted to visit. We began with amazing weather in the Dolomites and enjoyed some fantastic scenery. There were some amazing thunderstorms at night but they didn’t impact what we wanted to do during the daytime. After a minor hiccup on Tre Cime, we headed south to the wonders of tourist filled Venice. Next a short stop at Verona was great before falling in love with Lake Garda. It felt like we were on holiday here with the sunshine, the beach and incredible sunsets plus being able to kayak on the lake and have Aperol spritz sundowners. The closure of the campsite and the possibility of meeting friends in Bologna eventually forced us onwards to the wonders of food in Emilia Romana .
After such a great experience with French Passions we decided to try the Italian version (Agricamper). Unfortunately the app wasn’t as easy to use and doesn’t allow the sites to use other marketing such as Search for Sites. This meant we bought an annual membership at £28.77 and didn’t use it at all.
We then had some time in Tuscany – exploring the Tuscan hills and experiencing the great wine and food before heading back to the UK amid stormy weather.
Summary and costs
In total we spent 76 days for our Italian tour through September, October and into November and covered 2881 miles.
Our key costs breakdown as follows:
| Category | Cost (£) |
|---|---|
| Overnight Stays | £1421.48 |
| Supermarket | £1291.57 |
| Diesel and Petrol | £1084.21 |
| Eating Out | £648.74 |
| Tolls | £356.47 |
| Eurotunnel | £381.00 |
| Data SIM and phone | £349.00 |
| Tours and Attractions | £222.94 |
| LPG | £67.55 |
| Public Transport | £87.55 |
| Laundry | £62.55 |
| Merlin vet costs | £36.54 |
| Agricamper* | £28.77 |
| Parking | £4.73 |
| TOTAL COSTS | £6043.09 |
Firstly, we acknowledge the trip could be done a lot cheaper, however we stayed at some fabulous, resort style campsites near some of the worlds most famous locations and we loved it.
At €50 per night, the campsite in Florence was probably the most extravagant but many of the places we stayed were well over our nightly budget. To be fair, wild camping wasn’t as easy as we expected in northern Italy with the police seeming to be unexpectedly vigilant in the Dolomites for example.
I’m happy to report that every penny we spent on eating out was well worth it, as were the tours and attractions we enjoyed.
We spent quite a lot on Tolls through the trip. The roads in Italy were fine but it was more expensive transiting through France and Austria. Our rationale was that we wanted to spend as much time as possible in Italy so getting there quickly was worth it.
The data bill was more than expected too. We’re still using Popit Mobile when abroad which definitely helps but the Rugby World Cup and Strictly Come Dancing were mainly to blame here.
Our supermarket bill included restocking Beatrix’s wine cellar on the way back to the UK.
Toby best bit: Our first night in the Dolomites. Pulling over at a small park-up, we initially didn’t know if we could stay there or not. We ended up spending three nights there, hiking and were treated to an incredible sunset each day. Oh, seeing Michelangelo’s David was amazing…… Oh, and catching the ferry to Venice….
Sally best bit: I really enjoyed the summer holiday feel of Lake Garda, it reminded me of the sun seeking holidays we had pre Merlin and our pitch location was fab as we were on the lake and could enjoy the sun rise and sets. I also loved the food and drink aspects of Italy – staying in Montepulciano was brilliant and the Florentine steak well I still drool when I think about it.
Thinking back on our trips always gives us chance to reflect and to learn things we might do differently next time. Compared to our France tour in 2022, where we were away for a similar period of time, this trip was much more expensive. Sure we travelled further and visited some world famous, spectacular sites but with our mind with the cost of living increases this year, we’re keen to look at where we can make savings for the next one.
If you have any ideas or thoughts from our post please get in touch!
We loved having you along with us on our Grand Tour and if you have any comments or questions, please do let us know as we’d love to hear from you.
All the best,
Toby, Sally and Merlin x
A final word on:
Driving in Italy
Driving in Italy can be a little intimidating.
During our time here, we established the following rules of the road that may, perhaps, be helpful for future visits.
- There’s no need to use indicators. No one does. They don’t appear to serve any particular purpose here
- Any gap between you and the car in front, even if it’s only a meter, is an open invitation to pull out. Anything more than a meter and people will definitely pull out
- Speed limits are really more for guidance than actual limits
Most of the time, everything works pretty well and it helps driving a big vehicle, taking as much of the road as you need.
We’d love to say it works all of the time but I saw more accidents in Italy than I’ve ever seen. Genuinely, one a week I’d say on average.
Roads
The roads in Italy are also interesting.
The autostrada toll road are super easy to use and are both good quality and reasonably priced. You do have to watch your speed at the exits though which are narrow and frequently have tight, off-camber turns. They’re also not consistent so you never really know what you’re going to get.
The intersections are uniquely Italian. If you’ve seen one, you’ll know.
Once off the autostrada, it’s a mixed bag.
You can see and experience much more of the countryside on the smaller roads which is much more exciting. Mostly, the road quality is similar to the UK (which is to say terrible) but some of the roads are truly shocking.
Crossing the border to France from Italy, just like from the UK, feels like we’re driving on the clouds.
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