Category: Italy

Today we visited San Marino before driving to the next hotel in Senigallia. The road is quite fun to drive, sometimes very steep and some hairpins as well. You need to keep an eye open for potholes.

San Marino is for sure a turist trap. But we got there early enough to secure parking spots and look at the castle without too much people. But when we were done, there were a huge crowd gathering despite being off-season.

There are plenty of parking areas. All very well marked out. Some are below the castle hill. But there is a cable car that takes you up the hill in that case.

San Marino is full of tourist gift shops. One worse than the other (our opinion of course). But the castle itself is worth a visit. There are also several museums in the castle area. Plus, the views are stunning to say the least.

After lunch, we drove to Senigallia. The GPS, Apple maps, took us to the wrong location despite selecting the hotel by name as destination. This caused a bit of confusion before another app suggested driving a bit further. And voila, there was the hotel. The garage was full and should have been booked in advance. But either we missed that information or it simply wasn’t available when booking via hotels.com.

We tried out the rooftop pool before dressing up for dinner. Tonight we opted for pizza at a restaurant near the sea.

Tomorrow we continue our Mille Miglia drive towards Rome.

First part of our Mille Miglia tour. We’ve decided to follow the route from 2019 since the original routes are no longer possible to drive according to what we’ve read. But since the team behind the modern Mille Miglia are kind enough to post the routes online. It’s easy to download and follow. Link: https://1000miglia.it/en/events/1000-miglia/1000-miglia-2019/the-route-2019/

The first leg took us from Brescia to Cervia Milano Maritima. We’ve skipped some roads since we don’t have the luxury of police escort and closed roads. But all in all we try to stay with their routes.

We also add some extra days in between driving. Bear in mind that Sir Stirling Moss drove the full 1,000 miles in 10 hours and 7 minutes back in 1955!

The first leg took us via Sirmione to the farmlands of the Po river. It’s frankly a quite boring landscape. We look forward to leg two that will take us across the Apennines on the way to Rome.

We stopped for lunch just outside Ferrara which we reached at lunch time. The control tower of the airport also hosts a restaurant called ”Trattoria Le Gusto del Volo”. It was a bit tricky to find the way, along a gravel road across a field. But well worth it, even if the car got a bit dusty.

There were a lot of traffic and some road works all the way to Cervia. We continued up to our hotel for the night in Verruchio. Verruchio is a pretty little village on a hill top near San Marino. The views are stunning and most of the city has been part of the castle (or castles?) in the past.

We had dinner at a restaurant called La Rocca. Great food and great service, well recommended.

Tomorrow we’ll take a break from driving and visit San Marino before going back to the coast and the next hotel.

Back on the road again. Today we set our sights on Modena and Sant’Agata. We drove on the Autostrada to Modena. The first stop was at the Museo Enzo Ferrari. We’ve previously visited Museo Ferrari in Maranello. In our view, the Enzo museum was better. It’s not that big but you get a good overview of the history. There is also a good film presented that tells the story of Enzo. The ticket price is a bit steep though. 27 EUR per ticket for adults.

After visiting the museum we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant. It was surprisingly good despite being close to the museum.

We then continued to Sant’Agata and the Lamborghini museum. There is no visitor parking next to the museum. So, you have to park further away in the industrial area. This is a very small museum and looks more like a showroom at a car dealership. Albeit an exclusive one. But it was nice to see some of the old and new cars up close.

On the way back to Brescia we decided to drive on some smaller roads. However, some of the roads were in a really poor state.

Last night in Brescia, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel once more.

Tomorrow, we start to drive the Mille Miglia route from 2019. Day 1 will take us from Brescia to San Marino.

After three days of driving, we took it a bit easier today. We spent the morning at the Santa Giulia museum in Brescia.

After that we went for a walk in the city center followed by lunch.

Then the plan was to visit the Mille Miglia Museum outlet in Franciacorta. But it turned out that they no longer operated that store. So we went back to the hotel and an Aperol Spritz in the garden.

Tomorrow we are off to Modena for some different museums.

The last transit drive today, from Nürnberg to Brescia. Always a lovely sight when the Alps begin to appear in the horizon. In order to avoid getting stuck around Munich, we decided to go a bit westward. Quite a long drive today, but rather be on the move than stuck in urban traffic.

We left a grey Nürnberg with a slight drizzle in the morning and headed south. First stop was Pfänder next to Bodensee where we had lunch. The road leading up to Berghaus Pfänder isn’t for the faint hearted. We might post a separate video of that, it’s an 11 minute drive. So, will take a bit of editing.

We planned to avoid Milan on the way to Brescia. Part of the route took us over Passo dello Spluga at 2,117 m. Apart from some mobile homes blocking the way, it was a great drive (and they did eventually pulled over to let us pass).

Once we got down from the pass, the GPS played a trick with us. So, instead of avoiding Milan, it took us there. For those not familiar with the area. Once you are in the tunnels, it’s a long way before you get out and can turn around again. So, instead we opted to go via Milan and the Autostrada.

This is the third time we stay at Il Santellone in Brescia. It has become a favorite of ours. Perfectly located to explore northern Italy.

8 hours, 32 minutes drive and 701 km