Sibling Road Trip (2025)

In February 2025, my brother and I decided to go on a sibling roadtrip to Italy. We had skied in Livigno a few years beforehand and enjoyed the slopes, so this became the main aim of the trip. In addition, neither of us had properly explored Bologna, making this our second goal.

Day 1 - Nancy, France

We started nice and early, leaving the house at 4:30am, ready for a 10 hour drive. Luckily, as soon as we got to the Eurotunnel, we were offered an earlier crossing, meaning that we went straight on through. Unfortunately, this also meant that we didn’t have any time to grab a coffee or use the restrooms, and for the first time, I used the loo on the Eurotunnel; I would not recommend.

The crossing was very quick, and once we arrived into Calais, I took the wheel. I am not a fan of French food, but I do enjoy their breakfasts, so we stopped for coffee and a croissant, before starting our drive properly. We had taken my brother’s car, which I’d never driven properly before but the plan was to switch driver every other hour, which we often do on family road trips and worked well for us. Luckily, I’ve driven on the right side many times before, including just 18 months ago in Belgium, so I felt comfortable driving in continental Europe. I will say, the French love to pull out right in front of you on a motorway, but once you learn to expect that, you get used to it.

Between my brother and I, we’d packed a little lunch, and although we hadn’t banked on eating it as an actual lunch, as we neared lunchtime and turned up to two bakeries that were closed for the weekend, we thanked our lucky stars that we’d brought something and enjoyed our sandwiches and fruit in a little village. Something to know about France is that they take their lunch time very seriously; if you don’t find food by 2pm, you’re screwed as everywhere then closes until dinnertime, and this is a lesson I learnt the hard way. Nonetheless, we were satisfied with our home-packed lunch and quickly realised that it was carnival, which might have explained the closure of many businesses on this day.

In order to break up the long drive, we made a little stop in Nancy, which neither of us had visited before. The city centre was pretty, with a main square called “Place Stanislas” and it was nice to stretch our legs and grab a pain au chocolate (a constant theme of this trip). We then ended up in Mulhouse for the night, arriving at around 4:30pm. Despite the long drive, we surprisingly had quite a bit of energy left so I ran a 5k on arrival, whilst my brother looked up a restaurant for dinner.

Mulhouse is on the border with Germany and Switzerland, and since I am not a huge fan of French cuisine, we decided to try a highly-rated German restaurant on the border (German restaurants also open significantly earlier than French ones, which was a noted factor). We arrived at the restaurant, only to get turned away as it was fully booked, so called another one nearby, which was also fully booked. With our tails between our legs, we ended up back in France, where my brother ordered a steak frites and I tried the cordon bleu with spätzle. Despite its pricey tag, the food was average, but it did the job (and the wine went down a treat). We then got tucked in, ready for another long drive the following morning.

Day 2 - Basel, Switzerland

Something that I’d forgotten about my brother is that he snores like a trucker. Since we were sharing a room, this meant that I slept very poorly. I have always been very sensitive to snoring so this wasn’t a surprise, but it didn’t make the lack of sleep any easier. Nonetheless, I woke up nice and early for a 5k run in the gym, where I turned on the news to find that there had been a terrorist attack in Mulhouse the previous night - luckily, there seemed to be few casualties.

My brother had spent several weeks in Basel, Switzerland for work, which was just over the border, so we went to his regular café for breakfas. I had just gotten used to speaking in (broken) French, so was shocked to hear German, but luckily everyone spoke fluent English to us. We had a pain au chocolate and a coffee, both of which were delicious (despite costing an arm and a leg), and then headed on towards Italy.

The drive today was only calculated to be 4 hours, which was easy work for us and mainly consisted of driving across Switzerland, as Livigno is located near the border. However, we hadn’t realised that the 4 hours included a train on which cars can travel, so at the point in which we thought that we only had an hour left, we learnt that we actually had 2.5 hours to go. Luckily, we were in the Swiss Alps at this point, which are absolutely breathtaking, with the sun shining on the lakes, and snow in the peaks. We drove the scenic route to Italy, enjoying the views en route, and then finally arrived in Livigno, ready for lunch.

My first meal was a carbonara, which I enjoyed greatly, and since we’d arrived in the early afternoon, we decided to get all of the ski admin out of the way to save the time the following morning. We went to get our ski boots and skis, as well as the ski passes, and were excitedly greeted by a gorgeous border collie in the shop. The worker was cheeky with the boots, sizing down both my brother and I, but they were super friendly and it was a speedy process. The main worry was how on earth we were going to fit all of our ski stuff in my brother’s two-seater Porsche 718. After a lot of rearranging, we managing to (just about) fit everything in the car and the plan was to check in to our hotel (which was just out of town) and spend the rest of the evening chilling.

Unfortunately, on arriving at the hotel we couldn’t find my brother’s ski boots and quickly realised that neither of us had picked them up whilst packing up the car, instead leaving them on the side of the road in the snow. We tried to call the ski rental shop, however the call wouldn’t go through. Luckily, we had an hour or so until the shop closed so off we headed back to the shop. On arrival, we couldn’t see any ski boots but as we walked into the shop the staff smiled and said my brother’s name (followed by a saying similar to “you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your body”). We were extremely relieved by this, especially as my brother had rented very specific boots, which they didn’t have another pair of.

Since we were already in the town for the boots, we spent the evening exploring Livigno and then had a delicious pizza for dinner at Hotel Angelica, before getting some rest ready for a big ski session the next day.

Day 3 - Livigno, Italy

Day 3 was our first ski day and I was beyond excited; skiing is one of my absolute favourite things in the world (alongside swimming in the sea) and it had been a minute since I’d last skied so I couldn’t wait. We had breakfast at the hotel (a shout out to the Nutella crêpes) before taking the free shuttle from the hotel to the slopes in Trepalle. Annoyingly, the first shuttle was full so we had to wait for an additional 20 minutes, but the sun was shining and the excitement pulled us through. My top tip for skiing is to go first thing in the morning, whilst there are no crowds and the snow is fresh, and that’s exactly what we did - we spent the whole morning going down the blacks in Trepalle, which was absolutely dreamy.

We had initially planned to stay on the Trepalle slopes on this day and try the Livigno slopes the following day, however we couldn’t see any restaurants on the mountain for lunch and decided to get a bus into Livigno. I had ravioli with Angus steak and berries for lunch, which was divine, and then off we went to try the slopes on the Livigno side. By this point, part of my foot was rubbing on my ski boot but I pushed through. We did a couple of runs in Livigno, but it was much more crowded and the snow wasn’t as great as in Trepalle, so we soon headed back over.

Once we were back, we did a couple of runs on our favourite slopes and then had a hot chocolate (Italian style) on the mountain, which was very rich and exactly what we needed, before skiing to the bottom. Luckily, the shuttle bus to our hotel was already waiting for us and we went straight back to shower and relax. At this point, we were knackered but I’ve got to say, there is no better feeling than taking off ski boots and feeling the release. I had truly forgotten how achy and tired you are after skiing, especially as we’d spent the morning belting it down the slopes repeatedly, so instead of doing the swim that I’d planned, I fully relaxed.

This ended up being a good shout, as I later learned that to use the hotel’s swimming pool, there was a EUR 20 surcharge and it was apparently very small and filled with children. We had an early dinner at the same restaurant we’d been to the previous day (Hotel Angelica), which was phenomenal, and truly treated ourselves. We had a burrata and tomato starter, which I loved, followed by our delicious pizzas and the service was great, as expected. Thereafter, we headed back to the hotel and were conked out by 9:30pm.

Day 4 - Livigno, Italy

The following morning, we both woke up fairly sore but rearing to go, as it was our last day on the mountain and had snowed overnight, so we wanted to get the fresh snow. It was much colder and cloudier than the previous day, but the crowds were reduced so swings and roundabouts. We spent the entire morning skiing on our favourite runs and gaining speed as much as possible, with the odd fall here and there, and then enjoyed a carbonara for lunch on the slopes.

After lunch, we couldn’t see a thing as it was snowing and visibility was so low at the top of the mountain that we couldn’t see any signposts until within a couple of metres from them, which meant me and my brother stayed very close together for our final runs of the day. Eventually, we were tired and satisfied with our ski experience (and my brother decked it) so we waited for the shuttle to arrive, and headed back to the hotel to shower and relax.

In the evening, we returned our skis and boots to the rental company (although I wasn’t able to pet the dog unfortunately) and then we had dinner at a restaurant called “La Pastorella”, comprising a cheese board, wine and goulash, all of which were incredible and I’d highly recommend.

Day 5 - Bologna, Italy

I started the day with a 5k run, as this hotel was the last place we were staying in with a treadmill, and then enjoyed our last breakfast in this hotel, before packing our bags and checking out. We were headed to Bologna, where neither of us had been previously but had both heard good things about. The drive was only around 3 hours away, so it was not bad at all and it meant we could enjoy the city that same afternoon.

It had snowed all night so the roads were icy, and I didn’t have too much faith in my brother’s car to get us down the mountain so he drove the initial leg, whilst I prayed. The views were beautiful and I drove through a lovely passage towards Lake Moro, which had a lot of tunnels, vineyards, and windy roads. I also ended up on the Italian motorway, which I’d never driven on before and was a shock, as lorries cut people off consistently and overtook one another willy-nilly, meaning that two of the three lanes were often occupied solely by lorries. It was a great learning experience nonetheless, and we had lunch at an Autogrill, in true Italian fashion; I had a focaccia sandwich followed by a doughnut, both of which were decent.

We eventually arriving in Bologna, and despite a couple of mishaps trying to access our Airbnb apartment, including being unable to unlock the doors and standing in the rain waiting for the host to join us, we eventually made it in. The Airbnb was gorgeous, with multiple rooms and everything we could possibly need, and was very centrally located, so was perfect for us. We put a wash on as soon as we arrived as we were around halfway through our trip and were in Bologna long enough for the clothes to dry, and then headed out to explore the city.

My brother delivered an express tour of the city centre, including the statue of Neptune, the wireless telephone (Voltone del Podestà, which was actually much cooler than I’d expected) and the leaning towers (Torre deli Asinelli). The city was very typical of Italy, with orange and red buildings lining the streets and arched passages for pavements. The weather was slightly drizzly and grey, but the area was nice and we were excited to try the food.

We had booked dinner at a local restaurant, A Balus, where I enjoyed a lasagna and chocolate cake and my brother tried the bolognese and a panna cotta, both of which he enjoyed too, before heading to bed.

Day 6 - Bologna, Italy

I awoke fairly early and was very excited to explore the city centre in its entirety and devour more delicious food, however when my brother got up he was feeling very unwell (which is very unlike him) and wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to manage. Luckily, our express tour the previous afternoon had provided him with a fairly good idea of the city, but he had also been looking forward to trying more of the food.

Nonetheless, we started the day with a coffee and croissant (or “cornetto” as they are called in Italy) at Aroma, which was lovely and by far the best coffee I’d had on the trip, before walking back to the Airbnb. En route, we did some souvenir shopping, including buying prosciutto, parmesan, olive oil and olives for our family, and as we approached our Airbnb, we spotted multiple police cars and ambulances on the road, as well as a white sheet covering a body with blood spilling out from underneath, which was very shocking.

We spent the next couple of hours in the Airbnb as my brother was feeling very queasy and I did another wash and then wrote a letter as part of my 2025 resolution to volunteer with people who are lonely in the UK. It was my first letter and I found it very enjoyable, however I later found out that the recipient was unwell and wouldn’t be able to continue with the service, which was a shame. My brother was still feeling sick at lunch time, so I grabbed a piadina (a stuffed Italian flatbread) from Piadineria la Piadeina, which was the perfect on-the-go solo lunch and was delicious. The sun was shining so I walked through all of the landmarks we’d seen the previous evening to experience the city in its full glory, and added an additional stop at La Piccola Venezia (“Little Venice”), which featured a canal and was very picturesque.

As I approached the Airbnb, I picked up some snacks for my brother and myself and we watched a film together (Bad Boys). The film was better than expected but as the sun was shining and my brother wanted to rest, I picked up some pistachio gelato from Cremeria Mascarella, which was very good and the lady who served me was extremely helpful and friendly, which is not always guaranteed in Italy in my experience! I enjoyed a little walk soaking up the sun, and despite our initial plans to have dinner in Il Veliero, we ended up just picking up some pizza and fruit locally and I spent the evening reading with a face mask on.

Whilst not ideal for my brother to get ill, I feel like it happened on the best possible day of the trip, as he was able to spend the whole day recovering in bed and he’d already managed to see the city centre quickly the previous evening, so all is well that ends well.

Day 7 - Lago Maggiore, Italy

Truth be told, this was one of three days on our trip that we had made little to no plans for and simply used to make progress on the road (the others were days 1 and 9). That said, this actually ended up being one of my favourite days of the trip!

I woke up early and read for a bit before packing and checking out of the Airbnb (my brother accidentally broke a picture frame whilst lugging his bags down the stairs, but the host didn’t seem to mind, which was lucky). Our aim of the day was simply to drive to Lago Maggiore, however whilst looking at our route on a map, I realised that we were passing through Parma, where a friend is from, so I asked him for any café recommendations and this was where we had our breakfast. The weather was lovely and the area was very cute; my only qualm was that we, of course, wanted to try the local parma ham and parmesan, so ordered two sandwiches with both of these ingredients, which cost us EUR 18. This is a hefty bill for a sandwich at the best of times, but in Italy food is dirt cheap so we were shocked. Suffice to say, it was a decent sandwich but nowhere near worth that price tag - we were well and truly ripped off.

Nonetheless, we had to move onwards and upwards, so I continued the drive to Lago Maggiore, and within no time (read: three hours) we reached our hotel. Italy is one of those countries where lunch is strictly between 12pm and 2pm, and we were pushing our luck, so had to hurry out to find some grub. Luckily, there was a pizzeria right by the lake, were we ate our lunch, and then we continued driving along the lake bound for Cannobio. The drive was absolutely spectacular, with fun roads, incredible views and ideal weather. We stopped for more gelato and souvenirs, which I was very happy with, and then drove through the mountains to reach our hotel.

We had booked dinner at Ristorante Castagneto dal 1969, which had been recommended in the Michelin guide, and for good reason too; this was hands-down my favourite restaurant of the trip and I could not fault anything about our experience; the service was good, the food divine, and the atmosphere wonderful. We were offered an amuse-bouche and petit-fours, which were a nice touch, and the meal wasn’t too expensive either - I would 100% recommend this restaurant if you’re in the area!

It was a wonderful day with no complaints, the only issue that arose was that my brother’s Bip&Go stopped working in Italy, so we had to go through the tolls the old fashioned way (read: hanging out the car trying to get the barrier to open).

Day 8 - Wissembourg, France

Day 8 was one that had been much anticipated. My brother had been to a small commune on the French border with Germany over summer and could not speak highly enough about it, insisting that we had to go as I’d love it so much. Therefore, as you can imagine, I was very excited to visit. All that stood between us was the German Autobahn.

We ate breakfast at our hotel, which was very weak but sufficed, before driving in the rain north towards Switzerland. Our aim was to visit Bürgenstock viewpoint, which I had never heard of but my brother insisted on us seeing. On that same trip over summer, he’d aimed to see this viewpoint but had been turned away by security as the Ukraine Peace Summit had been occurring and so various heads of state were there, which did not include my brother. Therefore, he was excited to visit this time round. The viewpoint is not very clearly signposted so we were slightly confused as to how to reach the viewpoint, but after a quick Google, we parked in the Bürgenstock Resort (which looked incredible and offered a very cool parking ticket), before heading to the viewing platform. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that this view is stunning, however we visited during cloudy skies, which I hesitate to say made the view slightly less awe-inspiring (it was also freezing so we didn’t stay for long at all).

We then headed to Germany for something my brother had been looking forward to: the Autobahn. We’d both been on the Autobahn before, however I’d never actually driven on it so he let me take the wheel and I reached 225kmph (140mph), which I was pretty happy with. We headed to McDonalds to refuel, before reaching our final destination. Driving in Germany after driving in France and Italy really puts things into perspective, and I will say that the German stereotype of doing things in the correct and most efficient way really shines through.

Eventually we made it to Wissembourg in Alsace, which indeed was very gorgeous, however we passed another village en route, Hunspach, which had been voted France’s prettiest village, and indeed it was beautiful and so reminiscent of Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast! We also drove through French country roads, which I love, and when we made it to the Airbnb I was in awe of how gorgeous it was; it was a loft apartment with beamed ceilings and had everything we could possibly ask for.

I decompressed with a herbal tea and face mask, and eventually we headed into the town centre to buy some local cheese as souvenirs. Despite having gotten an A* in French GCSE, my French nowadays is limited at best so there was a lot of back and forth, but eventually the cheesemonger gave us a cheese to try and both of us purchased some there and then (Tomme de Montagne in case you’re curious). We then headed out for dinner, and similarly to the previous Saturday night, got turned away from a restaurant before managing to find one with availability.

We dined at La Rose, which was very entertaining as it was a young boy serving us (who I struggled to understand and I’m sure the feeling was mutual), but the steak frites and fondant au chocolate were both great and it was a nice final meal in France. We then headed back to the Airbnb, where I finished my book and chilled until bedtime.

Day 9 - Dinant, Belgium

Our final day was meant to simply get us back home to London, however it ended up being another highlight of the trip. We woke up to blue skies and sunshine coming through the windows and again, I could not get over how spacious and aesthetic this Airbnb was (let’s just say that you could tell a woman designed it). We walked through the town in the sunshine and had a pain au chocolate and coffee at a little café by the river, Café La Pépinière, which was ideal. We then headed off, and my brother drove us through Germany on the Autobahn, reaching 248kmph (needing to beat me, in true sibling fashion), then we made a pit stop in Luxembourg to refuel as it’s cheaper than in the neighbouring countries, and finally I drove us through Belgium.

My brother had made an argument against driving through Belgium, however I’d done it a year and a half ago so didn’t understand his point; he argued that Belgian motorways are very loud and boring, and in hindsight I have to say I agree. Nonetheless, I took us on a little detour to Dinant, where I’d been in 2023 but it had been cloudy and since it wasn’t too out of the way and the weather was gorgeous, I insisted on going there for lunch. Dinant is the home of the saxophone and is absolutely stunning; we stopped for lunch at a café by the river, having soup, quiche and crêpes for only EUR 16 each.

We eventually arrived at the Eurotunnel at around 4:30pm and managed to get an earlier train departing at 4:52pm, so we headed straight through (again!), which was dreamy. We arrived in the UK at 4:30pm (GMT) and I was home by 6:30pm, so the day flew by.

Although I’m not the biggest proponent of road trips, I absolutely loved this trip, especially as it’s so rare for my brother and I to do a trip just the two of us, and we have very similar desires and paces whilst travelling, which made it very enjoyable. Despite a couple of minor hiccups, we managed to see even more than we’d anticipated and I liked driving his car more than expected, so it worked out very well!