Left Devon at 7pm last Thursday (4th April), 12.20 chunnel, overnight at Hotel Eden Ardenne, southern Belgium - very new, pretty good, attractive spot, good food, bit pricey; Friday night at Grotto Pergola, Giornico, Italian-speaking Switzerland - OK only, hosts very attentive and friendly, food decent but not great, trains very close, cost reasonable for Switzerland - ie costly but not extortionate.

Usual plethora of speed cameras going south through France after leaving Luxembourg - bad news - really tedious with grim traffic bunching, average speed reduced from 70 to 65 so 140-mile stretch took 15 minutes longer than it took for years in greater safety as you could avoid bunching and use acceleration to clear traffic situations; good news did nearly 47mpg so saved a gallon of petrol - means I earned 25 quid an hour. The roads in Umbria are in a really shocking state - the only place where I feel the 100HP's hard ride is a problem. There are numerous familiar bumps and dents around Spoleto that must be at least 25 years old. Progress on upgrading the A1 across the hills between Bologna and Florence has eased some of the hassles with slow lorries but not all - lack of government money is slowing it down.

Petrol about same price as UK in Belgium, France and Switzerland, ranges up to £1.50/litre in Italy and as low as £1.20 in Luxembourg, so pays to arrange empty tank as you get there. Diesel less than petrol except in Switzerland.

Sitting in the garden at midday keying this in (sorry - couldn't resist that). Italy has had strange weather, very wet late winter and early spring with water-logged fields as far south as Bologna, but this should be good for agriculture from now on as weather has (hopefully) turned with temps about 20 degrees C.

Good write up as usual. some pics would be great if you get a chance.

Thank you - here are a couple of shots of the 100HP in Umbria. The first is parked outside our place here and the second - spot the car - is in a car park near Forca Canapine on the border between Umbria and Le Marche - both taken last year as the leaves are nowhere near this far out this year.

Looks like you had to fight for a space there. Weather looks lovely, it's raining here.

Whats the cost in fuel, tolls and tunnel fees compared to flying. i find its normally cheeper to drive anywhere in europe now than to fly,unless its a solo flight. I assume you have aa or rac breakdown cover. aa europe costs me £89 per year going through eurotunnel, best price ive found.

we normally get a 8am ferry to dunkirk leave the ferry at 11ish [10am uk time] and get to colderio services or at least to belinzona before stopping for the night, but then you seem to have further to go so maybe a proper hotel stop to freshen up is best, and err well April its not gonna be warm at night in Switzerland either.
hey i will give you a fiver for your vignette .hahaha....

We do 1200 miles door to door, so petrol about 200 pounds, ferry 80-ish, only toll is Swiss tessera about 30, then two nights stopping - so the cost is much more than flying. However, being here for three months we get it back on car hire costs - a car is essential for us here - and we bring back masses of wine and some olive oil - Umbrian olive oil is the best there is, by the way; because of the higher altitude and harsher winters, there's no need to spray for olive fly so, unlike almost every other area's oil, "ours" shows no trace of organo-phosphates (sheep dip). I also hate flying and getting to airports from deepest Devon is a hassle.

I know I ought to have additional cover but I never have and have only had one breakdown, with a 500 Sporting some years ago when the head gasket went - limped to Umbrian home and friend of friend did great job of replacing it.

Afraid we'll need the Swiss motorway pass in the autumn when we come down in Mrs b_u's 1.2.

The mountains at Forca Canapine are absolutely beautiful - google Piano Grande - they'll be a mass of spring flowers in a week or two. I'm a professional maker of wooden flutes and can get something like a five-second echo if I play facing towards the right bump. One of the possible reasons for swapping the 100HP for a 4x4 would be to make it easier to explore the less-travelled parts of this area.

Enjoy your holiday. I might go to Spain in July and this time I'll take the fiat. I drove last year 1236 miles Calais to near Murcia. The tolls and fuel car hire from the uk plus the tunnel it's was still cheaper than the £1800 for flights plus £800 car hire that the person whose house we stayed at paid to get out there. Yes we lost a day each way but I got to drive over the Milau bridge which was ace.

Brief update - please read this as it could literally save your life!

I've suffered from mild hay fever for ages and the amount of pollen in our Umbrian garden and from the woods round about is huge in the spring.

This year I seemed to be particularly affected and was becoming increasingly short of breath if I exerted myself. It got to the point where I felt asthmatic so I forced myself (hating hospitals) to go to the Pronto Soccorso (A&E) at Spoleto mid-morning on Friday. The triage doctor gave me a few tests, frowned, and sent me for more tests - at five o'clock I was lying as still as possible, forbidden to even bend over to take my shoes off, covered in wires and tubes in intensive care (UTIC) with deep vein thrombosis in the right leg leading to a serious pulmonary embolism.

The specialists reckon the problem started when we drove down in April, sitting with my right leg stationary on the accelerator for hours. When I had to fly a lot in the past, especially to western US, I was meticulous about wearing pressure stockings and doing exercises, and I normally do exercises when not driving but have let the habit lapse.

The attention I received was really excellent - and life saving. I'm out of hospital now but will require treatment for at least the next six months. So - long-distance drivers, take note.

Blimey, glad you good it identified and seen to in time. Quite a nasty thing to experience I'm sure. I do a lot of flying and had a colleague hit with DVT. Not pleasant.

All the best with the treatment and recovery.

Van Diemen said:

Blimey, glad you good it identified and seen to in time. Quite a nasty thing to experience I'm sure. I do a lot of flying and had a colleague hit with DVT. Not pleasant.

All the best with the treatment and recovery.

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Thanks so much.

The specialists were saying that we need to do more stops and shorter stints on the way back to Devon. My suggestion was to make use of the Panda's small fuel tank and range - go absolutely balls out for a tank full - able to put either foot on the accelerator - which would mean close to 180 miles in the hour and a half that the petrol would last - and tell the police that it was to obey medical advice. They were amused but unconvinced, while Mrs b_u was only unconvinced.

Five days lying still with numerous needles and sensors in play is not my idea of fun but so far it beats the alternative (as Groucho Marx said when he was asked about becoming old and infirm).

Get well soon (and I know it won't be... -- but at least I hope you feel better...).

And have a safe, leisurely journey back.... Have you thought of walking some of it...?

1st time I`ve seen pics of your car and the area you go to, both look superb!

Sorry to hear of your problems, although I don`t get to drive the distance you do, I always take a 10 minute or so break every couple of hours. I find it just gives me a bit more energy.

I`d love to hear how your 1.2 goes, and compare to mine Mine's a 2011, what`s Mrs B_U's?

Glad you're ok, must have been mighty scary. Make sure you enjoy the rest of the time in Italy..

Thank you very much for your good wishes.

The whole thing is more than scary enough, though it was worse in some ways for Mrs b_u. Makes you realise what a thin thread we dangle on.

Mrs b_u's 1.2 is the very last of the Euro 4s, bought at Christmas 2010 to replace her MJ, which was written off in the ice and snow on the edge of Dartmoor. It's what a typical small Fiat should be and goes pretty well for its size and spec. The most obvious difference is the lack of grunt at 70mph-plus and limitations like the difficulty of accelerating into spaces in the outside lane if the autostrade are busy. In the autumn of 2011 we came to Umbria in it - perfectly fine if not too stimulating - and went back to Devon in September via Berlin, which was a fair trek.