European route E62

, Italy's largest commercial and industrial centre, before descending to Genoa on the Mediterranean coast.

France

Nantes is France's sixth largest city by population, but the rest of the E62's route across France from west to east serves middling or smaller towns and cities, two of the best known of them to English speakers being, for historical reasons, Poitiers and for reasons involving viticulture, Mâcon. Reflecting the relatively low population densities across much of the French heartland, most of the western section of the E62 follows toll free Routes Nationales rather than autoroutes.

witzerland

The route enters Switzerland near Geneva and follows the northern and eastern shores of the Lake of Geneva before tracking the course of the Rhône upstream towards the Italian frontier. In order to use the autoroutes in Switzerland it is necessary to buy a 'vignette' windscreen sticker, renewable each December or January: this represents twelve months of unlimited access to most of the Swiss autoroutes without additional tolls being levied.

Italy

Italy is entered via the Simplon Pass which is one of the gentler of Alpine passes, although both the approaches and the pass itself follow single carriageway roads and are not suitable for fast driving. Soon after entering Italy, the road reverts to Autostrada quality, permitting rapid progress at most times of day, though in Italy tolls, variable according to vehicle type and distance traveled, are payable by autostrada users, generally at the point of exit from the road, using a ticket issued at the point of entry to compute the distance covered since the autostrada network was entered or the last toll was levied.

The route

ources and further reading

*Italian|Strada Europea E62|2008-05-15