If you want to save time and be warm, there are two things to look at:
- ferries from Turkey (or more likely from Greece) to Italy
- motorail trains
Unlikely I know, but if you were to follow the advice above and dont take the ferry to Italy, but plan to take a ferry from Hook of Holland to Ipswich, then the train Villach (Austria) - Hildesheim (Germany) would be your pick. Autozug – Autoreisen auf die bequeme Art - Startseite has special offers if you book in advance, and I believe there's some funny special discount if you book online on a saturday. If you get a good deal including a sleeper car, then it might even be cheaper than the fuel, toll and hotel accomodation when riding (assuming you won't winter wild camp with your cold ;-)
There should also be trains from Italy and definitely across Switzerland if you take the other route, but I don't recall the routes at the moment. Maybe someone else can help here.
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