Tag: italy

I travel to our house in Florence about ten times a year.

Usually Ryanair or EasyJet from Manchester to Pisa. About 7–8 hours from Shropshire door to Florentine porta, and about £400 all‑in — flights, airport parking, fuel etc.

Remember that figure.

Because I am seriously considering a slower, more expensive, but possibly far more enjoyable way of doing the journey.

Why? Because I am sick of air travel. The airport/security experience is challenging. The flights are cramped. And I’m getting more anxious by the year. Totally unreasonably, as I clearly have way more chance of issue or injury en route to the airport than on any commercial flight. But it’s my arse 12km from terra firma… and I don’t like it. 

So I’ve been thinking about stowing my cabin luggage in the Range Rover and driving instead. 

This started on a turbulent flight a year or so back. Captain Ryanair thought he would heroically land at Pisa. In a tempest. I later learned every other plane diverted. Ours did not. Even the cabin crew were hugging when we got down safe and sound. I vowed if fate spared me I would never fly again.

I did fly again. Five days later. You have to, or the fear takes over. But the idea of Shropshire–Tuscany–Shropshire by gentle waft over land never went away.

The idea grew recently. I have a bike needing to get to Italy. Too much faff to take it through the airport.

Yes, traditional couriers – FedEx, UPS etc – could collect it from the house. But you can end up paying import duty on its value. Not correct for a used personal item, but often the default outcome.

There are also “man with a van” services running the UK–Italy route. But that still means trusting a total stranger to carry your pride and joy 1,000 miles to Tuscany.

Mmmmm. Maybe not.

So I did what any thinking person does when caught on the horns of a modern dilemma. I turned to ChatGPT. Which turned into a gloriously enjoyable rabbit hole.

First. Calculations. ChatGPT had a think, asked for the real‑world mpg of my diesel Range Rover and gave me a range of £1k–£1.2k to do the return trip to Florence. This included fuel, ferry or chunnel, tolls and overnight stops. Punchy. About three times the cost by air. Plus it would take the best part of two days instead of 7–8 hours.

And yet. There might be something in this.

So I bantered around with my lifestyle advisor – ChatGPT – and before long it suggested I could offset the cost by offering to carry other people’s personal effects and objects of value from the UK to Italy.. or back. Genius!

Fifteen minutes later we had a business plan and flyer (see pic) entirely generated by our online guru. Although fair enough, I had to upload a recent-ish photo, taken by my niece when we visited the wax anatomicals at La Specola Museum on Via Romana. Deftly using the sepia-esque colouring of the museum exhibits to stylise the flyer was classy and impressive.

What next? Maybe I will take my bike over and see how the land journey pans out in reality. The drive itself — two days through France, over the Alps, into Tuscany — is one of the great European road journeys. The original Grand Tour. I can stop where I like, eat well, decompress, explore. With the added bonus: nobody asking me to remove my shoes at airport security.

There are downsides for sure. But it’s got to be worth a go. Stay posted for updates.