2013 Corvette roadtrip through Italy (Tuscany), day-by-day diary
04-28-2013, 09:09 AM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
2013 Corvette roadtrip through Italy (Tuscany), day-by-day diary
Some of you might remember a thread with a similar name from last year: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...day-diary.html. A group of European Corvette enthusiasts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland toured the South Coast of France in May 2012 and we chronicled our stories in a thread here on this forum. Well, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys: Season 2 of the European adventure roadtrip is about to begin.
"Tour de Vino - 25 Corvettes ranging from a Big Block C2 up to a C6 Z06 are touring the Tuscany region in Italy from May 10 - 18, 2013"
And if I live to tell the tale, I will again chronicle the tour on a daily basis, hopefully with some of my friends to help me out.
. To start off, some background info. The gang will meet up at the shore of Lake Garda in Northern Italy on May 10. For some, this will be a 7-800 miles drive. We'll have a welcom party there to kickstart the tour.
We'll then be driving through some of the most beautiful regions of Southern Europe, taking scenic back roads.
Along the way we'll be visiting some famous landmarks
Eat (well, what else?) finest Italian food and drink sweet Italian wine
There will be more: A day at the races, marble, Roman history, the Mediterranian Sea, incredible landscapes and all this in world's most beautiful sports car ever: A Corvette.
In less than 2 weeks the pilot episode of Season 2 will air exclusively on this forum. See you then.
Greetings from Switzerland,
Martin
"Tour de Vino - 25 Corvettes ranging from a Big Block C2 up to a C6 Z06 are touring the Tuscany region in Italy from May 10 - 18, 2013"
And if I live to tell the tale, I will again chronicle the tour on a daily basis, hopefully with some of my friends to help me out.
. To start off, some background info. The gang will meet up at the shore of Lake Garda in Northern Italy on May 10. For some, this will be a 7-800 miles drive. We'll have a welcom party there to kickstart the tour.
We'll then be driving through some of the most beautiful regions of Southern Europe, taking scenic back roads.
Along the way we'll be visiting some famous landmarks
Eat (well, what else?) finest Italian food and drink sweet Italian wine
There will be more: A day at the races, marble, Roman history, the Mediterranian Sea, incredible landscapes and all this in world's most beautiful sports car ever: A Corvette.
In less than 2 weeks the pilot episode of Season 2 will air exclusively on this forum. See you then.
Greetings from Switzerland,
Martin
04-28-2013, 09:25 AM
#2
Team Owner
Member Since: Sep 2006
Location: Westminster Maryland
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Hi Martin,
Well!
This should be fun for all of you and interesting for us!
Regards,
Alan
Well!
This should be fun for all of you and interesting for us!
Regards,
Alan
04-29-2013, 01:38 PM
#4
Pro
Thread Starter
@Alan
Thank you. I remember your nice comments from last year.
@Rogman
That depends on what you're willing to do to get invited. I had to sign over my first born, enslave and sell my wife and give away all my earthly goods to be part of this. So now you know what it takes.
If there will be another tour again next year and you're still genuinely interested, I can send you the Email adress of the guy who organized this. It's not certain at all, if there will be another one, though. The work involved in organizing it must be immense. I wouldn't know, since I'm only "the blogger".
The number of participants is limited to 25 cars
8 days to countdown...
Martin
Thank you. I remember your nice comments from last year.
@Rogman
That depends on what you're willing to do to get invited. I had to sign over my first born, enslave and sell my wife and give away all my earthly goods to be part of this. So now you know what it takes.
If there will be another tour again next year and you're still genuinely interested, I can send you the Email adress of the guy who organized this. It's not certain at all, if there will be another one, though. The work involved in organizing it must be immense. I wouldn't know, since I'm only "the blogger".The number of participants is limited to 25 cars
8 days to countdown...
Martin
04-30-2013, 07:39 AM
#10
Drifting
@Rogman
That depends on what you're willing to do to get invited. I had to sign over my first born,
enslave and sell my wife and give away all my earthly goods to be part of this. So now you know what it takes.
Martin
The number of participants is limited to 25 cars
Have a blast!!!
Rogman
05-09-2013, 05:32 PM
#11
Pro
Thread Starter
11 hours to countdown...
Most of the crew coming from Germany already left and are spending the night somewhere in between our meeting point at the Lake Garda in Northern Italy. Having the geographical advantage of living in Switzerland, the border to Italy is close. So we will be leaving tomorrow morning. Weather forecast is cloudy, some rain but nothing that could stop a true member of the faithful community of Corvettitians
. Here's the route we plan to take. You can see all of Switzerland and the Lake Garda (Lago di Garda). For your orientation: Venice can be seen on the right. The route will take us over several Swiss mountain passes and through the Swiss National Park. We'll drive through Merano and will then follow the highway for the last leg to Verona. Ah, I'm so looking forward to an Italian dinner and that regional red wine.
This time, I'm prepared to take pictues and videos: I'm taking a video drone along for the ride for those "chopper views" and that new Hero GoPro 3 I got for my birthday
This and my trusty SONY NEX5N with the 18-200mm lens should cover almost every angle of the trip.
Day 1 of the diary coming up...
So, if you like, join us too by following our diary.
Martin
Most of the crew coming from Germany already left and are spending the night somewhere in between our meeting point at the Lake Garda in Northern Italy. Having the geographical advantage of living in Switzerland, the border to Italy is close. So we will be leaving tomorrow morning. Weather forecast is cloudy, some rain but nothing that could stop a true member of the faithful community of Corvettitians
. Here's the route we plan to take. You can see all of Switzerland and the Lake Garda (Lago di Garda). For your orientation: Venice can be seen on the right. The route will take us over several Swiss mountain passes and through the Swiss National Park. We'll drive through Merano and will then follow the highway for the last leg to Verona. Ah, I'm so looking forward to an Italian dinner and that regional red wine.
This time, I'm prepared to take pictues and videos: I'm taking a video drone along for the ride for those "chopper views" and that new Hero GoPro 3 I got for my birthday
This and my trusty SONY NEX5N with the 18-200mm lens should cover almost every angle of the trip.
Day 1 of the diary coming up...
So, if you like, join us too by following our diary.
Martin
Last edited by Yankeededandy; 05-09-2013 at 05:34 PM.
05-11-2013, 06:06 PM
#15
Pro
Thread Starter
Day 1 – The Gathering
Are you familiar with the weather itch? No? That's the itch you get about 5 days before a tour when you just have to check the weather channel about every 20 minutes to see if those nasty rain clouds would vanish from the map on D-Day. I had the itch right until the morning of Day 1 and scratching my head didn't make the clouds go away.
Robert and his girlfriend Nayla came over to start the trip with us. The morning of D-Day saw the four of us packing everything we would probably never need into too large bags and hammer them into the too tight backspace of our 69 convertibles. At least enough weight on the rear wheels.
We took off to meet with more friends along the way. When we reached the foot of the mountains near the Swiss city Chur, the rain was coming down hard. But it got worse: Traffic service reported snow down to 3500 feet evelation. This meant, the mountain passes we wanted to cross where closed. So we drove the San Bernardino route with its tunnels as the only alternative. The weather was awful but it still made for some impressive sights.
We were 4 cars by then, 2 C3s, a C4 and a C6. The roads were slippery and we found out once more that there are apparently no decent tires available for our C3s if you want to drive on a wet surface.
Once we reached the southern side of the Alps, the sun finally broke through. Our spirits went up and the tops down. Before we reached the border to Italy, we stopped to gas up on the Swiss side. That's one of the few things that are actually cheaper than in Italy in this insanely expensive country. The lake “Lago di Garda” lies east of Milano. You can imagine how much traffic we had to dodge on a Friday afternoon near that big city. We kept our heads down and stepped on it, once we cleared the outskirts of Milano. I hate highway driving by the way. With a 3.36 rear axle there is no high speed cruising possible. We kept sane speeds – no point in grenading the small block screamer at the beginning of such a trip.
Well, we finally made it to the hotel near Verona. I'll be introducing the cars and drivers in a later post. There are some really nice ones here.
The welcome party was in full swing thanks to the tours signature drink, the “Aperol Sprizz”.
I have no idea if you can get “Aperol” in the US. But if you do, try it: The recipe is simple: 6 parts Prosecco, 4 parts Aperol, 1 part soda water, 1 slice of orange and ice. It will put you instantly into that Italian mood and you start singing silly songs like this:
End of day 1. Day 2 will see us visiting the race track of Modena and more. Signing off for now,
Martin
Are you familiar with the weather itch? No? That's the itch you get about 5 days before a tour when you just have to check the weather channel about every 20 minutes to see if those nasty rain clouds would vanish from the map on D-Day. I had the itch right until the morning of Day 1 and scratching my head didn't make the clouds go away.
Robert and his girlfriend Nayla came over to start the trip with us. The morning of D-Day saw the four of us packing everything we would probably never need into too large bags and hammer them into the too tight backspace of our 69 convertibles. At least enough weight on the rear wheels.
We took off to meet with more friends along the way. When we reached the foot of the mountains near the Swiss city Chur, the rain was coming down hard. But it got worse: Traffic service reported snow down to 3500 feet evelation. This meant, the mountain passes we wanted to cross where closed. So we drove the San Bernardino route with its tunnels as the only alternative. The weather was awful but it still made for some impressive sights.
We were 4 cars by then, 2 C3s, a C4 and a C6. The roads were slippery and we found out once more that there are apparently no decent tires available for our C3s if you want to drive on a wet surface.
Once we reached the southern side of the Alps, the sun finally broke through. Our spirits went up and the tops down. Before we reached the border to Italy, we stopped to gas up on the Swiss side. That's one of the few things that are actually cheaper than in Italy in this insanely expensive country. The lake “Lago di Garda” lies east of Milano. You can imagine how much traffic we had to dodge on a Friday afternoon near that big city. We kept our heads down and stepped on it, once we cleared the outskirts of Milano. I hate highway driving by the way. With a 3.36 rear axle there is no high speed cruising possible. We kept sane speeds – no point in grenading the small block screamer at the beginning of such a trip.
Well, we finally made it to the hotel near Verona. I'll be introducing the cars and drivers in a later post. There are some really nice ones here.
The welcome party was in full swing thanks to the tours signature drink, the “Aperol Sprizz”.
I have no idea if you can get “Aperol” in the US. But if you do, try it: The recipe is simple: 6 parts Prosecco, 4 parts Aperol, 1 part soda water, 1 slice of orange and ice. It will put you instantly into that Italian mood and you start singing silly songs like this:
End of day 1. Day 2 will see us visiting the race track of Modena and more. Signing off for now,
Martin
05-12-2013, 02:23 AM
#17
Burning Brakes
Thought I saw my vet in the back of the garage
. Nope just checked, mines still here! Damn, that means I'm still here!
Wish I was with you.
Can't wait till tomorrow.
. Nope just checked, mines still here! Damn, that means I'm still here!Wish I was with you.
Can't wait till tomorrow.
05-13-2013, 06:08 AM
#18
Intermediate
Hello guys....... next time call us
www.corvetteitalia.it
we will be happy to meet you!!!!!!
see u next time??????
Ciaooooo
www.corvetteitalia.it
we will be happy to meet you!!!!!!
see u next time??????
Ciaooooo
Last edited by Alain_President; 05-13-2013 at 07:13 AM.
