Route help appreciated

I’m a little worried about the Italian roads

What is the concern? I found the roads in Italy to be at least as good as their US counterparts.

EDIT-- My bad for 'assuming' OP is from US; not sure of why so many seem to have a paranoia of giving some indication of their location in their ID.

You don't say so, but I assume you are travelling from the U.K. if your first overnight stop will be St Quentin. Comparisons with U.S. roads therefore may not be helpful, and a better comparison may be with French roads, with which you are familiar.

We drove from the U.K. to Siena a couple of years ago. There are various different routes you can take, depending on places you want to see, if you prefer the major routes - mostly toll roads - or not, but whichever way you go you have to cross the Alps. That will limit your choices. You will also have to decide if you want to go through an Alpine tunnels, or over the mountain pass.

Much of eastern France is agricultural, and the autoroutes are not very busy. The roads through the Alpine tunnels are good, but can be busy. My experience of Italian autostrada is that they tend to have narrower lanes than the Fench autoroutes, there are more bends, and more traffic. Depending on the route, there may also be tunnels. All of that may take some getting used to. I don't think the Italian ordinary roads and minor routes are really much different from French ones. The surfaces and signage are usually good. You may need to watch out for "white roads" which are gravel, and will leave your car covered with dust.

I would go for it, but give yourself plenty of time. Also, remember that place names on the signes will be in Italian, not in English. So Firenze, not Florence.

Are you going to try to stay in France most of the way, or go through Switzerland? A few years ago, we did both. Going through Switzerland, we took the stunning Grimsel glacier pass and deliberately avoided the Gotthard tunnel due to summer backups. On the way back to Geneva, we went through the Mont Blanc tunnel, which did not have any slowdowns but was eternally long. If you’re okay with heights, the pass was gorgeous and the road was well maintained. It has twists, turns and long drop offs, but was not hard to drive (I was the driver.)

The route you take may lead you to which lake to select. I have been to and love Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore. Travel dream projection here - Lake Iseo is next up on my must-see list. Stunning and less busy. Have a look.

I always drive in Italy and find it easy. Just obey the speed limits, as there are cameras everywhere including the small country roads.

Thank you all for some interesting and reassuring information. We live in the U.K. and have driven in France many times. We intend to visit the Alsace region for a couple of nights then on to one of the Italian lakes before meeting other wedding guests in Pisa. Have taken notes about the route, personally I’m not fond of heights so we may stick to going via one of the tunnels. I did read somewhere that Italian drivers are a bit manic, but that may be a myth.

Read this about driving in Italy and restrictions involved [ZTLs]; avoid leaving anything of value in a car when parked:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com/

Italian drivers were manic prior to the advent of automated speed cameras. In my experience, and from what I’ve read, they have in general/on average calmed down because the speed fines are quite punitive. You may still experience some tailgating but not as bad as before. Also, I am talking about having driven on autostrade and smaller roads. I have never driven anywhere near Rome, Naples or the Amalfi Coast, and I’m careful about ZTL zones.

Thank you all for your input. On our previous journeys through France I have always planned the route and my husband dI’d the driving, we were never lost. The first time we used a sat nav we got hopelessly lost. This was several years ago now so perhaps they have improved ? we have a fairly new Range Rover so I imagine the sat nav would be up to standard, or is still better to stick to my map, or use both ?
We are now hoping to avoid the tunnel and take the mountain route, I shall have to close my eyes occasionally I imagine😂

Jo32f
Not sure what the op is, if it stands for old person, it’s quite correct. I have now updated my profile.

The "OP" can refer to "Original Post" or "Original Poster", depending on the context in which it is used.

In this case you are the OP. ( not 'old person'--- that would violate Rule 2-"Be polite")