Hotel Bos & Ven turned into something of a Fawlty Towers experience. When we arrived we were told that the hotel had been given over to a large corporate conference. The restaurant was closed and there was no room service, so we went out for dinner, which was very good. When we got back to the hotel we were having a drink in the bar when the manager told the barmaid to inform us that the delegates were just finishing their dessert and would soon be in the bar so could take our drinks and go. I grabbed the manager on his way through, proved I could shout much louder than him, we finished our drinks and went off to bed. Was a shame because it was a nice place and really nice people apart from the manager, but I didn’t pay and so our holiday got off to a curious and cheap start.

 We left the hotel at 11:00 and drove just fourteen miles on another glorious morning using sat-nav lady to get us to Den Bosch station. I have been thinking about a train journey with the car for some years now. These services are limited to the summer months and are, I reckon, pretty pricey. Our one-way journey came in at almost £600. There used to be a service from Calais down to Southern France but that service no longer operates, however there seems to be a variety of services from Holland and also Germany. As much as I love to drive when heading for Italy, France, as wonderful as it is, is a lot of miles so the train seemed like a fun option. 
 
We were amongst the first cars at check-in and we were waved forward and were the first car on, which meant we would be the first car off. After leaving the car on the train we went off into the town, which turned out to be a very pleasant place, had a spot of lunch and we were back on the train at 15:30 and pulled out of the station at 16:17 on the dot, scheduled arrival time in Alessandria was 09:50 the following morning. 
  
The compartment was very pleasant and cosy; this is old rolling stock but was just a totally different experience. We had pre-booked a three course dinner and that wasn’t bad either. We had just reached the Rhine by the third course. After that it was off to the land of nod in our compartment which had been converted into a sleeping cabin with Susan taking the top bunk on the basis that she is more agile than me and better able to tackle the step ladder. I thnk she was being serious.
 
I make a daily commute from the South Cost up to the city so I see plenty of trains, but this was really fun, comfortable, some nice scenery and a very acceptable way of travelling five hundred miles into Northern Italy. Not sure I would want to do it both ways, but one way is perfect.
 
Night passed fitfully and we got into Alessandria about 25 minutes late. A German train finished unloading and then we walked to our cars and drove ourselves off. One of the negatives of being first in the queue is that everyone else has to walk past my car to reach their vehicle, and there is not a lot of room. Anyway, we got off the train, re-loaded the car and set off out of Alessandria, heading for Genoa.
 
For sure we had left the Low Countries behind. The previous days we had not experienced a gradient of any description and now we were cruising along some very nice Italian Autostrade through a load of tunnels and some very lovely scenery. We hit queues of traffic as we approached Genoa and it was hot! The A/C was blowing out something approaching cold air and with the cooling fans coming on, lights on through the tunnels it is all quite a strain. But as usual the car seems to cope better than us. Eventually we got round Genoa and didn’t really face any more traffic, but it continued hot and the A/C pretty much gave up the ghost middle of the afternoon when we reverted to open windows, which was probably better anyway. Until you stop! 

Next issue was finding the hotel. They had emailed me some directions which looked so clear but we immediately managed to go off route and so followed sat-nav lady. She typically took us a shorter route but through a lot of small roads, directed us down one way streets but we finally made it using a combination of the hotel map and sat-nav lady. But I am telling you now dear reader I will not be driving out of here again until I have to i.e. when we leave Wednesday. My Chianti explore will have to wait until I am in a slightly more accessible hotel. The view is fantastic but so is the climb.

A final note on Italian road signs, they are complete rubbish. I have been suspecting the same for years now on the basis that I have never been able to get to Maranello without getting lost. I am man enough to admit when I am at fault but I realised today it was not me; they are bad. For example, when we were heading out of Genoa, the only place sign was for Livorno. Livorno is way down the coast way past the towns we were passing or heading for. Why would I be looking for Livorno? Why not a sign for at least a couple of the intermediate towns? These are not mentioned until you are there, I mean right there and turning off. There is no warning what-so-ever. Anyway, I think they are crap, which seems another good reason to park up and sit tight in the hotel for a few days relying on the hotel shuttle to get us into Florence and back.

Mileage at the end of the day: 57,598, includes yesterday hotel to the station
Distance covered: 216, I have double checked as it felt a lot longer but that’s what it says!
 
Two stops for petrol in Holland 94.99 EUR at 1.819 per litre and 88.00 EUR at 2.053 per litre in Italy - £1.64 per Italian motorway litre!! Another good reason to stay put!
 
Highlight of the day: Driving on Italian Autostrade, 16,659 felt so pleased to be home.
Lowlight of the day: £1.64 per litre! 

We are finally on the road, fully gassed, fully loaded and full of excitement and a tiny bit of nerves. The run down to Folkestone was most enjoyable. I do believe this is the first time in the entire summer that I have left the house without the threat of dreadful weather just around the corner.
 
Susan, as she usually is, was correct. We left at 07:30, I had rather forgotten the other road users at this time of
the day and it was busy, but we were at Folkestone within the two hours. We escaped with minimal duty free excess baggage but did have a bit of a queue on to the train and we do not like queuing at all. And the bloomin sun was shining all the time! Where’s the cloud and rain when you want it? Fans kick in sweetly and the car cools but it all makes me very twitchy.
 
And then, inevitably, it came to get off the train and I could not start the car. I have a new starter motor and it is a lot fiercer then the original. I’m not sure if it was the new starter, if it was the standing around before loading, if it was too much right pedal, not enough right pedal, but it would not catch. The train was emptying in front of me and was full of perfectly firing modern vehicles sitting patiently(ish) behind. As I was turning the ignition key I could see the nice bright yellow ignition light getting dimmer and dimmer, I was just about ready for the battery to die when it finally spluttered into life. Then plenty of right foot and as quick an exit from a Eurotunnel train as is possible. Ooh I was sweating.   

We were off the train about midday, local time and rather than the south western route we normally take via Reims we headed up the cost towards Dunkirk, the A16 towards Bruges, then Gent, skirt Antwerp and then up to Oisterwijk and our hotel. I have the route highlighted on a map, which Susan keeps handy then I mark down the road numbers and main towns on a post-it note and stick that to the steering wheel. I have a pretty good picture in my head of the route and we might refer to the map occasionally or give the sat-nav a whizz every now and then. I have only recently started using a sat-nav but I really don’t like driving unless I have a good idea of the route. Sat-nav lady did a pretty good job actually, she was off our route once but adjusted as we went and got us the hotel in the back of beyond perfectly. I am warming to her.
 
I must say it was not a great route unless you like lorries, lots of lorries. We were skirting Antwerp and then on the main road for Rotterdam, I suppose these qualify as pretty significant ports and I have never seen so many lorries. Goodness knows what happens when they all arrive, must be chaos. 
 
And the driving in Belgium is nuts, France is all calm and regulated the Dutch are sweetness personified but in
between the Belgium’s drive like loons. It was really quite scary at times. 
  
The only really nice part of the drive was the last few miles as we approached our hotel, a perfect bit of Holland, all those push-bikes and there was even a windmill! 
Our hotel is the slightly oddly named Bos & Ven. The website states:  
Mansion Hotel Bos & Ven has a glorious past. In 1919 decided "some gentlemen to start a big hotel in the extensive woods of Oisterwijk 1,000 ha." A year later, on June 15, 1920, became the first officially received guests. 
Can’t say fairer than that! The hotel and its grounds look lovely, much nicer than on the website but then the opposite is true of the rooms. Functional it may be, inspiring it is not. But I am pretty knackered after a reasonable day at the wheel and the bed looks fine, there is a massive squidgy pillow, huge it is.
 
From the hotel it is a short 20-30 minute drive to Den Bosch where we take the train on Friday afternoon down to Alessandria in North Western Italy, pretty much due North of Genoa. Now I can enjoy a day or so worrying about getting the car off another train! I think I may need to practice my re-starts!
 
Mileage at the end of the day: 57,382
Distance covered: 285 miles, 456 KM
 One stop for petrol at EUR 1.785 per litre, I had to pre-pay, got very confused, got accused of pushing in and ended up with a measly EUR 50 of petrol. That’s enough for one dodgy re-start in a Daytona!

Highlight of the Day: Getting off the bloody train!
Lowlight of the Day: Very nearly getting stuck on the bloody train!

It does not matter how many times I drive down the A27, M23 and M25 (and it is a lot) when leaving for a tour it just feels different. I guess it is the knowledge that rather than popping over to my Mum’s for a spot of Sunday lunch or up to Sandringham for a Ferrari picnic, we are off in V12 Ferrari glory for fully twelve days with plans to travel through approximately six European countries (I haven’t worked out the actual number yet), booked into some world class hotels, expecting some top quality nosh and vino. Not forgetting the cultural riches of Florence and of course the Maranello Ferrari store. If the prospect of this lot doesn’t stimulate the senses, you must have ice in your veins. Yet at the same time there is a twinge in the stomach, a butterfly or two and that slight (very tiny) thought in the noggin that it could all go horribly wrong (Euro assistance/recovery IS in place!).     

After our long and mostly dreadful summer September has dawned brilliantly and I can prepare the car and expect to drive away Thursday morning in lovely fine conditions. And that is always a very pleasant way to start. I shall take it as an omen of weather to come.  

It is exactly 100 miles from my house to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel, usually about two hours from home; the train is booked for 10:20. All I have to do is try to keep Susan out of the Duty Free shop; she is attracted to a duty free shop like a magpie to a shiny thing. I wouldn’t normally mind, but there will be zero space left in the car for even the tiniest indulgence, lipstick or perfume! If we will leave the house at about 08:00 that should leave no time for shopping! Susan says we are leaving at 07:30! 
 
Start mileage: 57,097 and a full tank of unleaded!

Nearly forgot to pack the original log book and the original insurance certificate, again for the benefit of the French traffic police. And the head light adapter things. And of course my driving licence. A few years ago I went on a Euro road trip with a friend who forgot his driving licence; I will never forget the look on the Swiss border guard’s face. (Does French Mr. Plod require that apparently worthless green paper part of the UK licence I wonder? I’ll take it just in case). And I may need to inform my insurance company of the trip – actually I do not. Worth checking though as the first time I went to Europe in the Daytona I was not aware that my insurance company needed to be informed, so I effectively I completed my week’s trip uninsured. I came out in a cold sweat when I eventually realised!

Ten day weather forecast for Florence has started to look a little questionable. The weather has been fiercely hot for the past month or two and it might be just about set to break. I do hope not. Exactly that happened when I visited three years ago with my son; south of the Alps it just poured.

Major issue could be developing around the staggering amount of clothes Susan is accumulating. If I am not careful I might have to leave my new collapsible bucket behind! One positive is that even she realises things are getting slightly out of control. Clothes are arriving on a daily basis via an assortment of web sites. It was less easy when she actually had to leave the house to shop. Mind you, she managed pretty well then too!
 
Car cleaning........ 
Irrespective of the potential weather at the off or forecast, one simply has to leave in a bright and shining vehicle. After an attempted weekend buff up when the rain arrived immediately after a wash and leather I am left till Wednesday, the day before we leave, for a final polish up to our usual concours winning standard. Then all I have to do now is squeeze in all of the aforementioned clothes, photo gear, maps and Euro regulatory paraphernalia and we shall be ready. Thursday morning the 6th September is the off.  

I checked my email trail and I sent my first accommodation enquiry 1st December 2011, nothing like being prepared. I decide on a general route and use Google maps to plot a journey with stops where distances are dependent upon who my passenger is going to be. If it is me and my son, as it was three years ago, distances are not an object and we managed days of 400 and 500 miles. If it is with my wife, Susan, as it is this time we will make more stops and rarely travel more than 250 miles in a day. I will also head for specific hotels that I might have spotted along the way, which is the case with our little Florence bolt hole, but more of that later.
Next I buy a ton of maps, there is nothing I like more than poring over a pile of maps picking out what looks like a good route. I have also added for this trip a sat-nav but will use it in conjunction with maps. I will plot the route by map and then use the sat-nav for the tricky little bits i.e. getting onto my selected road and more likely finding the hotel at the end of the day. 
The Daytona has a really very good capacity for luggage. We will each have a large holdall which will sit on the shelf behind our seats, a small “carry on” size suit case each, which will fit side-by-side in the boot and the rear parcel shelf for the posh frocks and suits. It all works very well, though I did have to order a collapsible bucket as space was pretty much all taken up by now. Oh and a bit of space for the Euro requirements: GB sticker, red triangle, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, fluorescent vest, bulbs (oh really!) and the latest wacko requirement.........
breathalysers. And I managed to disable my speed camera alert, another French requirement. I am sure there was a time, not too distant, when motoring in France was a pretty carefree affair; those days appear to be long gone. I wonder how things are shaping up in Italy these days. We shall see, but for now I am starting to feel well and truly “prepared”. Now I will get down to some detailed prep, maps, post-it notes for the road numbers, I really enjoy this bit! It means the “off” is getting closer. 

The Plan is to leave home Thursday 6th September, Eurotunnel to Calais and then approx. 180 miles to Oisterwijk in the Netherlands and stay the night. Following day load the car onto a train at Den Bosch arriving the following morning Saturday 8th September in Alessandria, Northern Irtaly. Then just over 220 miles to Florence where we will stay for a few days.

I will let you know the rest of "The Plan" as we get going.............