Back home and time to clean the car, doing the laundry and summarize this years grand tour. We managed 6 066 km during 16 days. First the accounting, we spent in total 22 331 SEK on the hotels,7 674 SEK on ferries and bridges. Plus 8 035 SEK on fuel. Meals and drinks not included, nor entrance fees to castles and museums.
The car, this was the third year with our Mazda MX-5. It’s a MY23 ND2 Sport. So, it has the Recaro seats, Bilstein dampers, Eibach springs, limited slip differential plus front upper strut brace. For this year, we’ve added a new Alcantara steering wheel and a sportier rear silencer. We continue to use the tailored set of bags plus the Mazda suitcase for the luggage rack.
Ferries, we took the Gothenburg-Kiel ferry the way out and the Travemünde-Trelleborg ferry on the way back. Off-season, the tickets for Gothenburg-Kiel are very reasonable. Beware that the terminal in Travemünde is a bit tricky to navigate. TT Line have removed the personel from the check-in huts. Instead it’s self-service and you have to navigate your way around and between lorries. There are literally no signs at all to help you. So, quite clear that TT line doesn’t want passenger cars onboard. Stena Line, who operates the Gothenburg-Kiel ferry, is much better in that sense. You do have to navigate Hamburg traffic though when going south.
Accomodations, we stayed at the following hotels and Agriturismos: NOVINA Hotel, Nürnberg was a good hotel to stay over night. We used it both on the way to Italy and the way back. They have a garage next door. Breakfast was good but the dinner wasn’t very impressive. 852 SEK for a double room is good value. Il Santellone in Brescia is an old favourite of ours. It’s an old monastery turned into hotel some 10 minutes drive from the city center. Since a coupe of year back, the restaurant is open. It’s very good, but not open on Tuesdays. Parking is also excellent behind the monastery walls. 4,577 SEK for a double room and two nigits incl. breakfast and parking is well worth it. But we learned that they just changed owners. So no idea what the future holds. Oste del Castello in Verruchio was a pleasant surprise. We had interpreted it as being a sports hotel. But it turned out to be a good hotel in the village center with a decent parking just behind. 1,700 SEK for a double room is ok for this, in particular since the parking was free. Raffaello Hotel in Senigallia was ok. The garage was fully booked when we arrived so we had to park on the street. Not ideal with sports cars. But nothing happened to the cars. The breakfast was good for being Italy. The nearby restaurants were clearly overpriced. 1,464 SEK for a double room incl. breakfast is very good value.
Hotel Eurogarden in Rome should be avoided! It looked good on the booking sites but it turned out to be a mess. We arrived on a Saturday evening and then the bar was closed. On the Sunday, both the bar and restaurant were closed. We didn’tget any information about this in advance. The hotel is located in the suburbs, so there are not many options nearby. Also, they advertised that they had a shuttle bus into Rome. But for some reason it didn’t operate when we were there. Again, no information about this in advance. The breakfast wasn’t very good and the pool was falling apart. 4,468 SEK for two nights is a rip-off. We only stayed at one Agriturismo, but Agriturismo Poderi Arcangelo was excellent. We’d love to go back and stay there for more nights. The road could be a bit challenging in a sports car. But once there, the experience was excellent. Excellent service in the reception and the restaurant. Very good food and a spacious room. We paid 3,088 SEK for a junior suite incl. dinner.
Holiday Inn Express Reggio Emilia was another overnight stay based on location only. Similar to NOVINA Hotel in Nürnberg, it’s serves it’s purpose. 1,499 SEK for a double room incl. breakfast and parking is well worth it. Lastly, Hotel Flaminia in Sirmione was good. A bit chaotic in the restaurant though. The parking arrangement was very good. Once you found the parking that is. We paid 20 EUR for parking and shuttle transport to the hotel.
Things to do, the theme for this year was Mille Miglia. So a focus on driving experiences. But we did other things as well. See the daily blog entries for details and more photos. The first stop worth mentioning was the lunch stop near lake Bodensee. We stopped at Berghaus Pfänder. The road to get there isn’t for the faint hearted.
We spent one day in Brescia. There we visited the Saint Giulia museum. It’s a monastic complex turned into a museum.
We also drove to Modena to visit the Enzo Ferrari museum and Sant’ Agata for a visit at the Lamborghini museum. Neither of them are really worth the entrance fees. In particular the Lamborghini museum looked more like a car dealer showroom. Plus they didn’t have a visitor car park. The Ferrari Enzo museum contained a lot of modern cars that doesn’t have anything to do with the Enzo era.
San Marino is worth a visit, despite all the tourist shops. You can buy a combined ticket for several museums. The castle is well maintained and the views are stunning.
By far the best of the historic towns we visited was Spello. Very calm and authentic. Not a single tourist shop.
In comparison, San Gimignano was as touristic as San Marino or Sirmione. So, we won’t visit again.
Rome was as expected. We are not much for big cities. But since anyhow would drive by we decided to spend a day there. We ended up using public transport to get to and from the city center. For some reason, the hotel didn’t operate their shuttle bus that day. We went to Fontana di Trevi, had lunch next to Scalinata di Santissima Trinità dei Monti and visited the National Roman Museum.
On the way back to the subway, we passed by Colosseum.
Since the theme of the tour was Mille Miglia. We must mention the roads. Road surfaces varied a lot. From newly laid tarmac to broken up roads with huge pot holes. The SS65 towards Bologna was by far the best part.
We stopped by Labirinto della Masone and the arts and design museum. It’s worth a visit.
After finishing driving the Mille Miglia route, we stopped for a couple of night in Sirmione. The castle, Castello Scaligero di Sirmione, is worth a visit. But make sure to be there early in the morning. As expected, Sirmione is a popular place to go even in mid-September.
Conclusion, following the Mille Miglia route from 2019 took us to places we wouldn’t have come to otherwise. You can of course argument that driving more that 6,000 km in 16 day it a bit much. But we like the idea of going on vacation by our own cars. Using the Ferry from Gothenburg to Kiel is a good option to save some driving.
Brescia is a good base to explore northern Italy from. The older parts of the town and the castle are worth visiting. Staying at an Agriturismo was a great experience which we will do more on another tour. Visiting Italy in September is great. Less heat and less tourist.
For details about the tour, check the daily blog entries.
Europe by car 