Macan Rosso D'Italia - Part 2
Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:11 pm
Well today's planned activities have been postponed so I thought I'd do a more in depth review of our trip to Tuscany. This is the first time we've been to that part of Italy for 10 years so we were looking forwards to returning to some of the places we enjoyed visiting last time. 10 years ago our transport was a 3 series Convertible which was at the time very nice but we often had to keep the roof up because it was too damn hot so was a bit of a waste.
This trip started with a Thursday night dash to the Tunnel and an overnight in the Holiday Inn in Coquelles. We prefer to do it that way as it means we can start fresh the next morning for the days driving ahead and hopefully get to that day's destinations at a reasonable time. Our favoured route to Italy in the past was over to Strasbourg down through Germany to Basle and then through Switzerland on the A2 to Milan. This time however we decided to go through France via Dijon then Turin reaching Florence on Sunday.
The first challenge was to see how the SANEF toll card would work. After reading about peoples experiences on here I decided to give it a go and overall I was quite impressed. However waiting for that beep before the barrier went up was sometimes a bit nail biting although we never had any problems with it working and the getaways from the toll gates with PSE switched on were a constant giggle. So highly recommended.
We arrived in our hotel in Dijon mid afternoon after a few stops along the way and spent a lazy afternoon by the pool. The next day's destination was Turin via the Frejus Tunnel and the mountains. It was a pretty spectacular drive and we arrived in a very hot Turin again in mid afternoon.
We ended up leaving the car in the underground car park and getting the train into the city centre in the evening and having a wander around to see if we could identify any of the landmarks from the Italian Job. We think we found the indoor shopping arcade but not 100% sure and didn't bother trying to get to Lingotto as we didn't have the time.
The next day was the last day's travelling down to Florence via Genoa and again arrived mid afternoon. The hotel we chose was about 2 miles outside the city by the banks of the Arno with 2 crucial amenities, a pool and secure parking. It turned out to be a great choice and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The GTS performed faultlessly on the way down and proved itself to be a consummate mile cruncher. After several hours driving we always arrived relaxed and comfortable. The space was excellent and we got more than enough in the boot for nearly 3 weeks travelling plus all the additional stuff we brought back
.
We spent several days travelling around the region including places like Sienna, Volterra etc. and enjoyed some great Italian SS roads which really showed how competent the Macan is through the twisties. Several days were spent in Florence itself and the museums which we'd not visited before and on one occasion we decided to walk in along the river to the city from our hotel which at a reasonable pace only took 45 minutes.
While we were away I also read about the changes that came into effect from May where other EU countries can now request details from the DVLA for speeding offences etc. and chase you for payment. While I don't advocate breaking the law some of the signage in Italy leaves a lot to be desired so I'm fully expecting some unpleasant mail at some point in the future. If you go please ensure you stick to the limit no matter how mad the Italians are around you.
10 years ago we rented a house near Volterra and had several meals in a local restaurant in the town. It was great to go back one lunchtime to have a pizza in the same place and it was just as good as we remembered.
The last trip we did to Italy 5 years ago (to Lake Como) was in my old Boxster which while enjoyable was limiting on space and comfort compared to the Macan. We both agreed that for road trips the Macan is hard to beat is its highly unlikely the Cayman will get used for such trips in the future no matter how good it would sound in all those tunnels with PSE switched on.
The return journey was via Lyon and Paris and was as stress free and comfortable as the way down. We ended up going into Paris for a few hours and spent the evening wandering down the Seine from the Eiffel Tower to the Notre Dame before getting something to eat.
The only 2 criticisms I had with the car was its overall ability to keep us cool and the sat nav. Bearing in mind the temperature was very often in the mid to late 30s this might be a little unfair but without the climate on full blast we still really felt the heat. The Sat Nav was generally ok but the maps were woefully out of date. On 2 occasions while looking for overnight hotels in Dijon and Lyon the directions were completely wrong and in Lyon we ended up spending 45 minutes trying to find the right location with my wife on Google maps on my phone. Considering the car is less than a year old this was somewhat annoying, perhaps CarPlay may have a use after all.
All in all it was a good trip and we were very happy with the way the Macan performed and enjoyed the high level of comfort afforded. I can't think of another car that I would want to take on similar trips in the future other than perhaps a Panamera. For those of you that are interested all the pictures here were taken on iPhones the current one being a 7.
Thanks for reading.
This trip started with a Thursday night dash to the Tunnel and an overnight in the Holiday Inn in Coquelles. We prefer to do it that way as it means we can start fresh the next morning for the days driving ahead and hopefully get to that day's destinations at a reasonable time. Our favoured route to Italy in the past was over to Strasbourg down through Germany to Basle and then through Switzerland on the A2 to Milan. This time however we decided to go through France via Dijon then Turin reaching Florence on Sunday.
The first challenge was to see how the SANEF toll card would work. After reading about peoples experiences on here I decided to give it a go and overall I was quite impressed. However waiting for that beep before the barrier went up was sometimes a bit nail biting although we never had any problems with it working and the getaways from the toll gates with PSE switched on were a constant giggle. So highly recommended.
We arrived in our hotel in Dijon mid afternoon after a few stops along the way and spent a lazy afternoon by the pool. The next day's destination was Turin via the Frejus Tunnel and the mountains. It was a pretty spectacular drive and we arrived in a very hot Turin again in mid afternoon.
We ended up leaving the car in the underground car park and getting the train into the city centre in the evening and having a wander around to see if we could identify any of the landmarks from the Italian Job. We think we found the indoor shopping arcade but not 100% sure and didn't bother trying to get to Lingotto as we didn't have the time.
The next day was the last day's travelling down to Florence via Genoa and again arrived mid afternoon. The hotel we chose was about 2 miles outside the city by the banks of the Arno with 2 crucial amenities, a pool and secure parking. It turned out to be a great choice and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The GTS performed faultlessly on the way down and proved itself to be a consummate mile cruncher. After several hours driving we always arrived relaxed and comfortable. The space was excellent and we got more than enough in the boot for nearly 3 weeks travelling plus all the additional stuff we brought back
. We spent several days travelling around the region including places like Sienna, Volterra etc. and enjoyed some great Italian SS roads which really showed how competent the Macan is through the twisties. Several days were spent in Florence itself and the museums which we'd not visited before and on one occasion we decided to walk in along the river to the city from our hotel which at a reasonable pace only took 45 minutes.
While we were away I also read about the changes that came into effect from May where other EU countries can now request details from the DVLA for speeding offences etc. and chase you for payment. While I don't advocate breaking the law some of the signage in Italy leaves a lot to be desired so I'm fully expecting some unpleasant mail at some point in the future. If you go please ensure you stick to the limit no matter how mad the Italians are around you.
10 years ago we rented a house near Volterra and had several meals in a local restaurant in the town. It was great to go back one lunchtime to have a pizza in the same place and it was just as good as we remembered.
The last trip we did to Italy 5 years ago (to Lake Como) was in my old Boxster which while enjoyable was limiting on space and comfort compared to the Macan. We both agreed that for road trips the Macan is hard to beat is its highly unlikely the Cayman will get used for such trips in the future no matter how good it would sound in all those tunnels with PSE switched on.
The return journey was via Lyon and Paris and was as stress free and comfortable as the way down. We ended up going into Paris for a few hours and spent the evening wandering down the Seine from the Eiffel Tower to the Notre Dame before getting something to eat.
The only 2 criticisms I had with the car was its overall ability to keep us cool and the sat nav. Bearing in mind the temperature was very often in the mid to late 30s this might be a little unfair but without the climate on full blast we still really felt the heat. The Sat Nav was generally ok but the maps were woefully out of date. On 2 occasions while looking for overnight hotels in Dijon and Lyon the directions were completely wrong and in Lyon we ended up spending 45 minutes trying to find the right location with my wife on Google maps on my phone. Considering the car is less than a year old this was somewhat annoying, perhaps CarPlay may have a use after all.
All in all it was a good trip and we were very happy with the way the Macan performed and enjoyed the high level of comfort afforded. I can't think of another car that I would want to take on similar trips in the future other than perhaps a Panamera. For those of you that are interested all the pictures here were taken on iPhones the current one being a 7.
Thanks for reading.
