Austria / Italy
 

I posted originally about exploring northern europe but the warmer climate, lakes and mountains appealed more so I'm heading to Austria in just a few days after spending the weekend in Ostend.

The idea is to get near to Villach by Tuesday evening & spend 1/2 nights at the European Bike Week festival for the entertainment; I'm not into Harley's.

I then have 5/6 days to explore the Alps in Austria and Italy before returning home. I would love to visit the Moto Guzzi factory in Mandello de Lario and ride some of the passes.
Any must-do's?
Will be camping.

Q1 - I know I need to buy a ticket to use some of the passes but someone else said I need to buy a ticket to use the motorways in Austria and some in Italy - where can I find out that information?
Q2 - I assume the German autobahns are still free?

thanks!

Q1: For the austrian motorways you need a toll sticker. The cheapest is valid for 10 days and costs aroung € 4,50 for motorbikes. They are sold at the border to Austria or at most petrol stations in Austria if you do not enter via a motorway. More infos here: Toll stickers in Austria (I believe the prices have gone up a little).
One of the most spectacular mountain passes is the "Gross Glockner" which will cost you extra toll of € 18. Coming from the north it turns off near the small town of Zell am See.

Another beautiful pass is the "Timmelsjoch" on the border between Austria & Italy. 2,500m. Toll is € 11.

Q2: Correct. No toll for cars and M/Cs and no speed limit yet except where signed out.

Correct.

Here in Itay highways are not free, unfortunately.
Simply take your ticket at the entrance station's automatic machine, and you pay to the employee at the exit station after giving him the ticket.

Since you coming to Italy, don't miss the Dolomites: hundreds of km. of mountain passes and stunning landscapes.

Couple little ideas, but if you are starting in villach it doesn't matter much. I was around that region a couple months ago.

My last trip I did the wurzenpass down into slovenia (very close to villach). Nice little up and over, nothing crazy however. You could then drive through that northern part of slovenia and go across the predil pass back into italy and head on your way. I did this all separately as I went down through slovenia and did the other on the way back a couple weeks later, but I don't think it's far.

The grossglockner (sp?) is good fun, it's not that far from villach either. You have to pay for it though and wasn't cheap.

We also did stelvio (which was a little too busy for my liking, even on a weekday) and Pordoi, which I liked a little more because it wasn't as crazy.

Hope you enjoy it!

ps - alpineroads.com a great source of info for this area.

to pheonix,
if you plan to visit the moto guzzi factory, this is could be the next saturday (sept. 19) after the european bike week in faaker see. at that date there will be a meeting at the guzzi. the actual ownership seems to decided to move the production line from mandello to noale (wich the aprilia headquarter is located). thousands of bikers will be there tryng to avoid the historic factory quite up. a public petition will be on to raise as much signs as possible as it can convince the local government to do something to avoid that.
i'll be there, hope you too.

all the best

www.lungastrada.it

Like all things Moto Guzzi the museum only works occaisionally. It used to be Friday afternoons only but I think it is every week day now but only for an hour or so, make sure you check times to avoid disappointment.
The Grossglockner does cost 18 euros for a day ticket but this gives admission to about 7 museums and visitor centres on the pass. You could spend an entire day on the pass, visiting the musuems, taking in the views and of course riding the pass again and again. Check out the biker hotel at the highest point it's called Edelweissspitze. It costs about 27 euros for b&b to wake up to one of the most fantastic views on the planet.

Vaufi - thanks for the mway info. I have Grossglockner and Timmelsjoch on my list but probably won't do many others - don't wish to spend a fortune on tolls.

Knight - you previously offered a chat over coffee some time ago on a previous post - are you at home near the dates of 11-14th Sept?

dnicoletti - unfortunately I will be home at the time of the protest. I only found it just a couple of days ago and cannot extend my holiday to include it. Fed up I will miss this event but have already added my name to the petition online.

thanks to others for contributing, some very useful tips. I can't wait to be there!

Oh, yes, I will! Remember that on Friday the 11th, on Saturday morning the 12th (probably, but I'll update you) and on Monday, the 14th I'll be at work so I can't be there.

No problem for Saturday afternoon and the entire Sunday.

I and my girlfriend eager to hook up with you and have a coffe (or beer, wine... :thumbup1: ) with you.
I live in Mantua, 25-30 minutes south of Lake Garda.
Let me know the exact date and place and we'll be there (send me a PM or an e-mail to: nicola dot bottazzi at yahoo dot it. I'll give you my cell number, then.)