man you can spent several weeks exploring the alps - don't take your car, take the motorcycle and ride 7+ mountain passes per day.
if you fancy go down to lake garda (which should take you something from about 2h from the border to austria all the way down), cross into france and drive up the route napoleon (really beautiful) - or the other way round.
in general - just take your preference. the only thing i strongly recommend to take the highway for is the po-plain (po is the river). it is terribly boring, nothing to see. but once you get to portofino on the french side (extremely expensive) you can easily cross to/from france or just head down the extra kms into the tuscany (one of my favourite places in italy).
if you go down from calais you could try to make a loop and take the route napoleon and then back up from italy (via lake garda, up to the alps). just don't skip the alps.
and one recommendation for just 'bout everything: take your time. don't rush. it's never worth to rush.
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hit the road jack! tr15a
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