I am going to be in Italy's dolomite mountains for a few days of hiking in mid-september 2010. I was thinking of renting a car and driving through the high road via Meran and Bormio, staying in Glurns, as rick suggests in his Italy guidebook.
has anyone done this drive? How long does it take? How exciting(dangerous) are the roads etc.?
thanks,
Leslie
Glurns must be Glorenza.Magnificent place!Merano is awesome.I'm trying to get to Bolzano myself.There are a lot of smart people writing that will help you.The roads are great but I do not know of Bormio.
If you go to www.maps.google.com you can enter your itinerary in the Get Directions section. There is an Add Destination tab so enter Bolzano to Meran to etc and it will give you a map with times and distances calculate.
Use www.viamichelin.com for your routing and est times in Europe then add some for it always takes longer than estimates.
Mapquest is notorious for misinformation.
Be aware driving in Italy espec. can be tiring. I never plan more than 4 hrs on the road and even at that I am very tired afterwards whether highway or smaller roads.. Also travel with good italian maps from your car rental or michelin. AAA european maps do not have all the roads on them.
A number of travelers have posted here, in recent years, that they've found having a GPS especially helpful for driving in Italy, and worth the cost and trouble of obtaining one with European maps pre-loaded.
Thanks to everyone for the great advice!
Italian maps and GPS sound like a great idea.
Wish me luck !
Leslie, did you go? Thinking of driving in same area..any advice? DEbby
Hi Debby, While we haven't driven the exact route via Bormio, we have been to the Val Venosta/Vinschgau and the Meran/Merano area. The roads are very good. The area around Glurns/Glorenza (Vinschgau/Val Venosta) is beautiful. We stayed in Mals/Malles and were just minutes from and had a view from our balcony of the old walled town of Glurns/Glorenza. There are so many worthwhile places to visit in the area, including one of our favorite castles anywhere... Castel Coira/Castle Churburg. If you'd like more info on this area, feel free to ask. We loved our stay. Paul
debby, Bormio is beautiful. Roads are not bad, and the final sectors are particularly beautiful. Going from Merano to Bormio via Passo dello Stelvio is a stunning drive, possible only from late May - June (depending on how much snow fell) to mid-October/early-November at the latest. The valley sector is cool, and the mountain pass itself it totally breathtaking. The summit is more than 2700m high. The approach from Prato is more steep than the descent to Bromio on the other side of the pass. The road has around 60 sharp hairpins. It is not particularly dangerous, but requires caution you'd take with you driving in SW Colorado, for instance. Avoid driving by night.
