Hi,

Found this site a couple of weeks back and have been reading a LOT of fantastic info!

Husband and I are landing at Malpensa at 10:30 on the last Sat of Sept and driving to Sestri Levante. Have read all about train options but we would both prefer to drive. Trying to find a couple of options where we could stop en route.

Bit of background - this is our first time in Italy (and my first time outside Britain apart from day trips to France). Flight from Gatwick is only 2 hours but we will have driven 5 hours the night before to get to the airport. I'd love to find somewhere not too far off the route where we could stop for an hour or two, grab someting for lunch and enjoy finally being in Itay.

We like churches, castles, people watching and the outdoors, not too keen on navigating and parking anywhere too crazy/built up so soon after we arrive.

Certosa di Pavia seemed ideal but is closed 11:30-2:30. Will that be the case with most places? What is Pavia itself like?

I've looked at the route on multimap and googled lots of place names but would really love a personal recommendation - thanks.

The fact that you suggest Pavia indicates that your route is likely to be the A8 towards Milan, Tangenziale Ovest, and then the A7 to Genoa. You may find this route pretty scary especially the first section to Milan and the Tangenziale as well as the final section of the A7 descending down to Genoa.

An alternative and much easier route (although a little longer) is to connect with the A26 - the section to Alessandria is one of the easiest and quietest sections of the Italian autostrade network and the descent to the coast far far easier even though you hit the coast a little further to the west.

Thank you, that's good to know. Had been thinking A8-A7 but will reconsider!

According to Googlemaps, the "slower" pleasanter A26 route mentioned is about 25 km (but only 7 minutes) longer.

This will give you an idea as to why the A7 Genoa/Serravalle is known as a crazy section of the autostrade network - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoid=26707307

See if you find any helpful info here:


http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-lake-como.cfm

The autostrada issue aside, Pavia is a great example of an untouristy provincial Italian town. I for one would gladly drive a not-so-comfortable route in order to be able to spend half a day there. It's such an unusual choice, a great idea IMO. They have an outstanding Renaissance cathedral (thinking of the interior - the exterior has never been finished).

Here is a scenic route you might consider:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124717452291819665.html

Another place that might really do you just for a refreshing stop is Vigevano. Google it up and see where it is on the map. And Google up pictures. Many consider it's central piazza to be one of the most beautiful in all of Italy.

If you end up taking nochblad's route, the town of Vercelli in rice country is considered to have important historic architecture and it is also the location of a legendary risotto restaurant that is said to be (by Fred Plotkin, highly regarded authority on Italian cuisine) to be one of the best in Italy. You can not only eat risotto there, you can tour the farms and mills.

http://tenutacastello.com/index.php?...emid=7&lang=en

Last but not least, you can always be a true adventurer and just head off to someplace nobody has recommended or knows about but just pops out at you as being on your route when you look at a map.

For instance, I just noticed that if you go to Sestri Levante via La Spezia (instead of Genova), you drive near Fidenza. Looks like a fascinating place to stop and stare and eat lunch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidenza

If it won't make you too sleepy, you could eat lunch in Pavia and see the Certosa when it opens:

PS: I meant to say that the rice restaurant in Vercelli is in a castle, and you can tour the castle before eating lunch.

And here's a picture of Vigevano's beautiful piazza

http://www.webalice.it/c.designer/fo...azza_duomo.jpg

I might add that after reading all the eulogies, I was underwhelmed somehow with Vigevano, but I'm not saying that zeppole's idea is a bad one. On the contrary! - another unusual and thus highly commendable suggestion. Just don't really believe it's Italy's most beautiful piazza - it's a beautiful one, no more and no less than that.

Now Franco. I specifically wrote many considered it to be "ONE of Italy's most beautiful" piazze.

San Marco in Venice is surely the most beautiful piazza, and there are no doubt several others neck and neck with Vigevano for the also-rans, from Venice down to Sicily.

But Vigevano may be the most beautiful piazza between between Malpensa and Sestri Levante!

Vigevano is rightly famed for its Piazza but also famed as the town which makes the best quality shoes in Italy if that is your passion!

And Vigevano recently reopened its shoe museum.

http://www.deliciousitaly.com/artigi...8&regione_id=9

Now I will type a sentence that is guaranteed to be about the craziest thing you will read on this forum today:

My name is Eks....One miserably rainy day, a long time ago, I hitchhiked to Vigevano from Milan to go shoe shopping.

Ah, but you have so much competition!

I'll only think you're crazy if you tell me you did the first leg of it barefoot.

So what did you buy?

I had the misguided idea that I would find outlets there. Someone must have told me and for all I know, the town is full of outlets. But I spent most of the day trying to get rides there on some sort of highway, or very busy road. The details are fuzzy but I know that I never did any shopping and never got to the center of town. I just remember having lunch at a kind of truck drivers cafe (good lunch) and getting very wet and then turning around and going back because we found a driver who would drop us back in central Milan..I was staying at a pensione near the train station.

I do have lots of competition, though, don't I? Even in one day! Did you know that the towns of the Amalfi Coast are "poor and scruffy?"

No, I hadn't heard that. But we don't get much news here on the Italian Riviera, since the roads in are so terrifying to drive, few survive the trip.

I'm glad that you were probably too young to realize you were taken for a lady of dubious reputation hitchhiking along the truck routes of Lombardia.

You'll have to come back and go in style, with a morning of shopping in Vigevano plus a coffee on the piazza, off to grand risotto lunch at Tenuta di Castello in Vercelli, an afternoon in Pavia gawking at the Certosa, then swoop down to Camogli for a sunset dinner at Rosa's!

http://www.risposteatutto.com/spacci...-vigevano.html

http://www.factoryoutletsitaly.com/O...o_Pollini.aspx

zeppole, I wasn't referring to YOUR eulogy - when I was in Vigevano, there wasn't even such a thing as a Fodor's forum, so I wasn't intending to blame your recommendation, not at all. I just thought the piazza wasn't quite up to its fame, whether THE or ONE OF the most beautiful piazze all over Italy; but then again, it's certainly not a bad one, and "the most beautiful between Malpensa and Sestri Levante", that sounds like a perfect description. I just wanted to prevent the OP from being as slightly disappointed as I was, obviously expecting too much.

Btw, the idea of voting for a "craziest statement of the day" is excellent; unfortunately, ek, I seriously doubt you'll be the lucky winner, but perhaps we should open a thread for that?

Thanks for the suggestions - will see what my husband thinks seeing as he's the one driving!