Today began like the others – breakfast followed by our early morning briefing with the rally organisers, then set off and make our way to the finish. After building our own excursions into the itinerary over the last couple of days, we thought today would be the day when we could finally take a more relaxed journey to our finishing point, exploring some more beautiful scenery at the same time.

We started by crossing over the border from Austria to Lichtenstein – small at only 62 square miles, but another country crossed off the list regardless. A quick stop at a supermarket made us realise just why Lichtenstein is the tax haven it’s famed for being, and we were soon on our way.
Our first major stop of the day was the Swiss town of Chur – a large but pretty town overshadowed by the Alps. After an hour exploring the area – including a short break on the edge of a beautiful lake we happened to pass ready were ready for our first motoring challenge of the day – the Alpine roads between Landquart and Davos.

The mountain road to Davos was spectacular – as was the scenery that surrounds it. Peaking at 2,900 metres above sea level, wave after wave of Alpine meadow, waterfalls and lakes unfolded before us as we pushed on to our destination.
It was on this stretch of the journey however that we noticed a small problem with the car – its characteristic sports saloon low profile, coupled with large wheels, wide tyres and ten day’s worth of clothes for three people in the back meant that negotiating the steeper uphill sections was proving difficult. Over a picnic lunch at Davos, we made the decision to seek an alternative route. We’re disappointed not to have been able to do the Stelvio Pass, but happy to have driven the mountain road to Davos (which was also named by Top Gear as one of their ultimate driving roads, and is in fact 200 metres higher than the Stelvio) – small compromise I think!

From Davos, we sought flatter ground and returned to the motorway system, soon crossing into Italy and getting our first taste of the Autostrade (think of them as the German Autobahn, but with the rule books torn up). After a stunning evening ascent into the Dolomites, we reached our hotel for the evening in darkness and headed straight for diner (the first two courses were beer), and retired for the evening.
Today was a remarkably car-free day. We’ll fix that tomorrow with a little help from Ferrari on our way to Bologna!
Day 4 distance: 261 miles
Total distance: 1435 miles
