Routing FOR YOU
FILMING for the next series of Top Gear, with new hosts Andrew Flintoff and Paddy Mcguinness, is getting under way. So we’re dreaming about life on the open road – in some of Europe’s most spectacular locations.
Volcanic vistas Santiago to La Orotava via El Teide National Park, Tenerife
NOT many selections of great drives include this volcanic route across the top of Tenerife, but they’re missing out. The climb up El Teide from Santiago, through belts of pines, is a much sweeter choice than the traffic-clogged route from the main southern resorts.
The badlands at the top, a rictus sea of fossilised lava in an immense broken crater, is astonishing, especially under the intense sunlight up at 2,000 metres above sea level.
There’s a good coffee stop at the Parador de Las Cañadas, by the misshapen lumps of tortured rock called Los Roques, where a network of hiking trails snake away through shoe-shredding lava.
Afterwards descend into the refined world of La Orotava with great views out to sea. DETAILS: 51 miles. Allow a whole day, especially if you plan to do any walking. Nearest airport Tenerife South.
Mani attractions Kalamata to Vathia, Mani Peninsula, Greece
FOR ancient Greeks the Mani Peninsula, the middle of the three sea-dabbling fingers at the southern end of the Peloponnese, was the furthest point of the known world.
A cave entrance, still there at the tip, was reputedly the entrance to the underworld.
Today driving down the Mani is compelling because of the increasingly stark landscape on this swooping coastal route.
The Maniots were farmers and fishermen whose feuding, vendetta culture necessitated living in castellated towers rather than houses, of which Vathia itself is a supreme example.
Just a century ago some 22,000 Maniots lived in these villages but now many are abandoned. The key to their migration was the construction of the Kalamata road, which conquered the barrier of mountains that isolated the Mani, and made it accessible to the rest of the world. DETAILS: 70 miles. Take two days to explore, stopping overnight either in the refined village of Kardamyli, or the seaside resort of Stoupa. Nearest airport Kalamata.
Starry eyed Sorrento to Ravello along the Amalfi Coast, Italy
THIS is the route for which you really need a classic car, preferably convertible. The Amalfi coastline is a Unesco World Heritage site which traces the southern shore of the Gulf of Salerno in southern Italy.
It’s a route of spectacular coastal scenery and picture-perfect towns and villages such as Positano, Praiano and Amalfi itself. Films made here include Scandal in Sorrento with Sophia Loren, to the Talented Mr Ripley starring Jude Law, Mat Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Imagine yourself in a movie of your own as you swerve the curves, soak up the sunsets and crunch up the gravel to one of dozens of villa hotels set in bouquets of gardens that tumble down the hillsides towards a turquoise sea. DETAILS: 24 miles. Take three days, especially as this epic place has an even more epic neighbour ne in the form of Pompeii, the Roman city ci that was buried by erupting Mount Vesuvius back ba in 79AD. Nearest airport is Naples.
Get schlossed Augsburg to Füssen on the Romantic Road, Germany
THIS TH is a long and sumptuous mooch through the th best of a country celebrated among drivers for fo its autobahns without speed limits.
The Romantic Road runs down the spine of B Bavaria, ticking off fairytale medieval towns su such as Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg, towns re regularly used as film locations.
The final destination is the most filmic of all, Fü Füssen’s Neuschwanstein castle, setting for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Disney’s model for Sleeping l Beauty’s Castle.
Other highlights are the Franconian wines