No yearly itinerary would be complete without our famous Alpine tour. 9 days of pure driving on the roads that real petrolheads dream of.

The famous Stelvio pass is the one everyone has heard of, but it's not the best….we know there are much better roads and we'll take you to them. The route Napoleon, Col de Turini (a Monte Carlo rally special stage), the San Bernadino pass (one of our favourites), the Fluellapass and the Julier pass to name but a few. We'll also take you to the Black forest and show you why they are used as testing grounds by Ducati, you'll see Lake Como and visit the Mille Miglia Museum. It's the tour that everyone has to do once in their lifetime, although if you've done it once you'll want to do it again and again!

We've made a couple of changes for 2010. We know that those who want to go to the Alps on a driving tour are focussed purely on the driving. You want the best roads possible and while you're in the Alps you want to do as many passes as possible. So that is what we've created, a pure drivers tour. We've dispensed with the unnecessary expense of 5 star spa hotels and concentrated on getting to as many of the best roads as possible. Don't think though that this is going to be a Spartan bare boards tour, it isn't - the hotels are still of a high standard with secure parking for our cars and have been chosen because of their location and friendly atmosphere. We're aware that you want to drive and where you lay your head is of secondary importance, so why pay for something you won't use?

That said, we've included dinner on 4 out of the 8 nights, and you'll still get the benefit of 2 tour support cars and two tour managers, our sat-nav files, loan of our powerful walkie talkies, detailed route notes and drivers info pack. So if you want to get out and drive and make the most of your time there, then this is the tour for you. It is a full on tour, however if on any day you wish to miss out certain passes and head straight to the next hotel we'll help you do that. We've also got two nights at the top of Stelvio so if you want a complete rest you can have that too. However, once you're on tour the chances are you'll want to take every opportunity to drive the magnificent alpine roads... the choice is yours!

Once again numbers are limited and we've already had repeat bookings from last year so hurry up and book now!

Calais to Strasbourg – Our ‘getting there' day. The idea here is to cover the distance between our shores and the start of the best driving roads in Europe, so we do just that utilising France's fine autoroutes.

Leaving Strasbourg we head into the Ducati proving grounds in the Black Forest - and you'll quickly see why we do! As we head further south we'll follow Lake Geneva and then cross back into France before bedding down for the night near historic Aix Les Bains.

We spend the day running through France's alpine national parks, enabling us to enjoy quite roads at a brisk pace with beautiful vistas around every corner. The night's accommodation is actually on the Col De Turini itself, which means sinuous tarmac before dinner and again the next morning!

After breakfast we continue on the Col De Turini and cross the alpine ridge into Italy - a slightly shorter day taking us into the heart of northern Italy and picturesque Piacenza.

The day starts with a short drive north to the Mille Miglia museum, before continuing up into the Alps after lunch and to our hotel for the next two nights, nestled at the top of the famous Stelvio Pass.

Our "passes" day - a lap of the finest roads in southern Switzerland, including Stelvio (twice!), Julier Pass, San Bernardino (twice!), and the Fluela Pass.

After a good night's sleep, we head back down Stelvio, through St Moritz, down the Julier Pass, over the San Bernardino Pass, and along the shores of Lake Maggiore on the way to our overnight stop in the Aosta Valley, near the majestic Mont Blanc.

Leaving Aosta we head straight into the mountains again, this time exercising our steeds on the wonderful hairpins of the Petit San Bernard on our way to Besancon for our last night on tour. See you at the bar!

Dole to Calais - a dash back to the coast and Blighty, via the old circuit at Reims.