Itching to hit the road but stuck for ideas? Let movies be your muse, and customise the famous expeditions of big screen stars for the drive of a lifetime…
The Italian Job
Retrace Michael Caine’s tire tracks with a pilgrimage to the sights of the cult Mafia flick. Go the whole hog with a 2,500 mile round trip from West London (the scene of many of the film’s car chases) and via the French alpine Col du Petit St Bernard, the setting for the bulldozer scene, to Turin’s Piazza Castello, where Caine charged through the colonnade, spinning on the freshly mopped tiles. A less intense option is a flight to Turin for a four-wheeled jaunt through the city that provided the film with its most memorable locations. The Gran Madre Di Dio Church is where Caine and his car rumbled down 40 or so steps, narrowly avoiding collision with a wedding party.
The Motorcycle Diaries
In 1952, a young Che Guevara averaged 1,000 miles per month on the clapped-out motorbike he and his mate navigated across South America. If you don’t have eight months to spare, it’s possible to make the journey from Argentina to Venezuela via Chile, Peru and Colombia in a fraction of the time. If such a lengthy road trip is out of the question, fly to Bolivia (a very ‘now’ tourist destination, thanks to the 2004 film adaptation of Che’s journals) and allow yourself a day or two to experience rugged roads and endless dirt tracks leading to who knows where.
The Open Road
Made back in 1924 by pioneering filmmaker Claude Friese-Greene, The Open Road is remarkable in several ways. Firstly, it was set in colour. Secondly, it saw Friese-Green journey from Lands End to John O’Groats, a staggering feat for those early days of the automobile. And thirdly, his journey, a magical travelogue of Britain’s beauty spots in the twenties, continues, more than 80 years on, to capture the imagination of drivers eager to explore their own country. Draw up your own journey plan, or stick to the original with stop offs in St Ives, Chepstow, Liverpool, Windemere, Carlisle and Loch Lomond, to name a few.
On The Road
Jack Kerouac’s classic novel immortalised Route 66 and continues to inspire people around the world to take to the road in search of the American dream. The novel is due to be made into a film in 2006, and the first ever big screen adaptation of Kerouac’s adventure is likely to send even more drivers on the trip of a lifetime. Route 66, affectionately known as Main Street, USA, is 2,450 miles long, stretching from Chicago to California, taking in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois and Missouri, and littered with middle-of-nowhere small towns and classic diners.
Search dozens more road trips at www.channel4.com/4car.
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