I believe that a French bed is a double with a single mattress, rather than two separate mattresses. At least that's what we've found when taking rooms in Germany. I guess Italy could be the same?

My booking confirmation has copied my entry in the Notes box viz. that I'm attending the event; I make the assumption that the pay-on-the-day arrangement will reflect some sort of discount...

The double bed is referred to as letto matrimoniale and

camera doppia is a twin room (2 singles)

Neil I think you may have booked a bed in France and not Italy

Anyone got experience of using Toll Box Italy from Tolltickets?

We've never bothered to look at them before now but I think it should save me from kerbing that same alloy again.

There are similar devices available but Tolltickets box works out at 16 euro Inc delivery for it and that covers Italy.

Or the box from Bip&Go works out at 24 euro.

1) I noted in the requests box, and again in the email I sent to correct my email address, that I was part of the group and also would appreciate a car parking place, but neither the email response nor the confirmation email contain anything relevant. Perhaps when the official website opens things will change?

2) Last time I observed that most of the autoroutes (charged for) in Italy had domestic routes (uncharged) running either alongside or close to them... being from Yorkshire, and having no great rush, I used them. I expect to do something similar this year... if not, we are well versed in the passenger leaning out of the window. We'll be coming through Switzerland or Austria anyway, both of which which charge for their motorways but at least allow purchase of a vignette in advance if you're organised (I need to sort one out for a trip to France in the French Thing a month or so later anyway and another for a trip to Slovenia a couple of weeks before. Slovenia also uses vignettes but again, careful route planning can remove the need.)

Neil

Seeing the rest of the club members booking there and wanting to have the chance to know you guys personally (after few years of accessing your knowledge on the forum), I just made my booking on B&B Borgaro Torinese 14th to 17th, planning to arrive Friday morning.

I also found a working discount code, WELCOME10. It's a 10% off for the new clients, as the name implies.

Looking forward,
Vlad

Neil, this is part of my confirmation email...

If anyone on the confirmation list lives near Peterborough could they please PM me?

Yah, my email contains nothing similar... (and it's in Italian)

Shame Italy doesn't do a vignette like Switzerland and others! I'm not keen on toll gates. With my little arms I struggled in the family car to reach to take the tickets and to pay in France, when we went skiing last month. I'm worried about damaging the Coupe as its lower too.

I got an Emovis Tag for the French motorways (we'll be heading down through France from the Channel tunnel) just before you posted this. Like you we've not bothered before but I wish I'd done it sooner now. We tend to drive through France most years en route to somewhere and it can be swapped between cars which is great for us. It can be extended for use in Spain and Portugal but unfortunately not Italy.

Looking at Italian motoway tolls they seem confusing. Does the Tolltickets box cover all motorways/toll roads in Italy as it says some routes can't be billed? I'm not sure they can be used for driving through the various tunnels.

I may go for Toll Box Italy too so I may end up with 2 different ones stuck to the windscreen as they say the holders can only take their tags.

Hi Alison, So far I don't think we have but I'd rather not try out motorist's impatience at the tolls and probably the best solution all round is the Tollbox although I'll likely be gritting my teeth for the first few tolls I'm sure with the signal being picked up approaching barriers.

Pauline wont drive in Europe and even on the odd occasion she drives the coupe at home she needs a cushion so I can appreciate that struggle reaching out to put coins in the machine.

We ordered the Tollbox Italy just a few days ago and its making its way from Germany now and should arrive tomorrow so a very speedy service indeed. There a few car specific questions to be filled in when purchasing and your registration is one of them but I think that can be changed online if you wanted to use in the family car. We will be driving through Switzerland on the way down and the way back. I quite like having the sticker vignette in the windscreen so always opt for that and not the digital.

I think there are some exceptions listed on Tollbox page were the box doesn't work. Gran S. Bernardo is listed as one which is maybe one we will encounter.

They do offer a box that covers France, Italy, Spain and Portugal if that's an option for you.

We have had in the past few years both stick-on vignettes and electric vignettes for Austria and Switzerland; no problem with either. The only issue with the electric vignettes is that you have to buy them at least a month before you need them as they aren't active for about three weeks - something to do with the online refund requirements, I think.

Irritating that Slovenia offers a 7-day and a 30-day vignette - I need eight... but the last couple of years I haven't needed one at all as I know the back roads now (our destination is a couple of miles across the border and there's a local route that the satnav doesn't like; all our internal travel is to flying sites and again on back roads.)

In previous visits we have been advised for our French site (Samoens, in the corner near Mt Blanc between Switzerland, Italy, and France) to cross the border at Mulhouse and avoid Switzerland - but it turned out our guide had a downer on Switzerland since he had to buy separate vignettes for his van and his trailer . We came back through Switzerland last time and found it quicker and cheaper - the A36/A39/A40 has some silly tolls on it. Again, the vignette is only for the motorways.

Neil

Interesting comments about European tolls and yes it's a shame there appears to be no Euro wide vignette Been doing route planning on ViaMichelin and total tolls for our route is £85 - the biggest hit being French motorways on our return journey. Not sure getting a vignette for France will reduce the cost by much and don't want to get involved in monthly fee hassles etc

Ok - further hassles. Being registered in January 1996 my coupe is too old for a French air quality sticker I thought it may squeeze into the Euro 2 bracket. For the life of me I can't find any detail what this means in reality but I'm assuming the car is not permitted anywhere in France where there is a ULEZ?

Just found some detail on the RAC site. What with French ZCR's and ZPA's I reckon it's best to give France a miss all together as from experience the police can be real zealots particularly on non-French vehicles

The only road in France I intend to use is the E40 across the top into Belgium and thence Holland and Germany. It's also about the only toll-free motorway in France.

Alan, have you had a look on the Green-Zones page or even on the android app apple app From what i gathered basically keep out of the city center's. Sorry cant be of much use as we only briefly travelled in an out of France.

What route had you planned Alan, tunnel?

Ferry from Newcastle each way Simon but taking a return loop through France which is proving awkward. On the way down we're stopping off in Colmar which both the town and province appears to be OK from an emissions perspective. But further up in Strasbourg and region is a no go for example.

@ Brian - it's more than city centres and impacts on approx 28 regions in France on a flexible basis. Apparently they can change at short notice dependant on conditions so unless you're monitoring updates all the time IMHO it's not worth the hassle.

Still nothing from clubdelcoupefiat.piemonte.it where we might register? Nothing on their website (which looks like it froze five years ago!)

Luca? Paging Luca! Luca to the white courtesy phone please!

Neil

Hi Neil - Luca PM'd me sometime ago and said it would be up early April so should be anytime soon hopefully

it might more like halfway through April...

I see that headlamp beam deflectors are required (sounds like something from Star Wars). Do these work on the uniquely styled Coupe headlights?

From past experience using them years ago they're pretty useless, mind you so are the head lights at night time, lol

Usually stick them on but wether they are effective I dunno.

I guess you need to be seen to have them, whether they work or not!

A quick look at ebay.de indicates that new continental side headlights can be obtained for as little as 499 Euros a side (plus postage)

Wow - what a steal

I suppose it depends if you intend to be driving much at night? We had a week in France last year in the MGTF and had on occasion to drive in the evening and had no issues with our lights for what it's worth.

I have never bothered with them on the coupe over the last 15 years and never had any problem. That said I keep a pair of stick on beam deflectors in the car just in case anyone gets stroppy.

That sounds like a good plan Pete, I'll do that