Alps crossing France Italy ? Italian Lakes must see ?

[sirsidneyrd]

Can anyone recommend a route France - Italy Alp crossing and the reverse - going to the Italian but want to avoid CH - dont want to do it on a motorway - went on Col de La Madalene before but that is further South ?

Also any must do on the Lakes - have booked into Colico which is a t the top of Lake Como  and looking at a few nights in Salo on Lake Garda

Thanks in anticipation - going to the Laverda 70th birthday party on my Triumph for my sins !   

[Will Morgan]

The Moto Guzzi factory & museum is in Mandello del Lario on the east side of Lake Como & only about 30 miles from Colico. I know museum opening times are "sporadic" (well they are Italians) so check which days its open, but its an absolute must for anyone into Italian bikes.

[sirsidneyrd]

Ha thanks - we will have come from the MV factory at Varese on the first part of the trip which is with my buddies the second part starting at a Colico will be with my wife -we are on our way to the Laverda Home to celebrate 70 years - going on the Triumph as I can’t get everything on a Jota and the wife !

[R.]

Hello sirsidneyrd ,


                                 we do regular trips around the Alpes  , I have garmin gdb or gpx routes and text files describing the routes ;
example (from our 2016 Great Lakes Tour) attached. If you are interested , I will upload them , feel free to adapt  / fiddle.


R.

[sirsidneyrd]

Than you will have a look - on Tom Tom 😀

[R.]

Maybe I should explain a little bit the file ;

All our trips are build up in google maps ( maps.google.com ) , shared in a short link ( the one in the file , problem is that they expire after a while ) and then converted to a day route with
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input into a gpx file , containing 100 way points. That gpx file is imported in a Basecamp and has a standerised naming  , so D01_005 means waypoint 5 of day 1 route.
D6_Det for example means that if the normal route is unavailable ( weather / whatever ) we use the Det(ours) routes. In the mountains  we often prepare for that since they have very unpredictable weather),
check this site ; https://alpenpaesse.de/ 

The rest are hotels details and the reservation details.

RondDenBlock or RNDB ( Very Flemish ) means that we stay in the same hotel and to a round trip in stead of point to point

I have routes all over western Europe ( preparing them is halve the fun ) and do not mind sharing them.

R.

[sirsidneyrd]

I was on my phone before - now with glasses - Thankyou for your routes - i use a Tom Tom and create my routes using the Tyre program and they get downloaded into the satnav - i am afraid i am not much of a techie but i opened your file and can understand your notes ! 

[NiK]

One of the most intersting pass is le col de Larche (in French): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maddalena_Pass

However, there might be restrictions regarding two wheeled vehicles. Worth checking before planning!

[sirsidneyrd]

Nik - Col de Larche is fine for two wheelers - my trusty Z650 took me over that one coming back from Rome in the late 70s in the summer tho !

[R.]

You can use a gpx file with TomTom using this procedure ;

http://download.tomtom.com/open/manuals/VIA_53/html/en-gb/ImportingatrackGPXfile-MyDrive-CONNECTEDandNOTCONNECTED.htm

The gpx file can be found here ;

https://robbyvc.stackstorage.com/s/s3FIPBLsiUeuEqv

People who want the gdb file let me know

R.