anyone any stories 
I parked there last week but there were only two other Brits staying overnight, in the old days there would be dozens…
I am parked there at the moment, and have been since Tuesday apart from a run into Milan to load yesterday evening. Each night there has been 6 or 7 Brits parked up. At the moment there are 40 to 50 trucks here for the weekend and around half of them are Brits. The rest are a mix of Cloggies, couple of French, German and Belgians with the odd Czech and Latvian.
It is still a great stop with a big new extension to the restaurant, which apart from one glassed off area is no smoking. The bar has also been altered; it is no longer L shaped and is also no smoking. The area that was to the left of the main door, as you walked in, is also closed off with glass doors and is a smoking area. This has a big screen with overhead projector showing sport etc, yesterday afternoon the Fulham v Arsenal game was on live.
The food is excellent, with a varied choice. Each day there is a set 3 course menu (choice from 3 starters and 3 main dishes) with wine and coffee for €11. There is a €1.50 cover charge but each table has a big basket of rolls and bread sticks which offset that. They also have a big buffet, with tables groaning under the weight of a selection of meats, cheeses, seafood and salads. Small, medium and large options are available at €5, €7.50 and €10 respectively, the medium and large are a meal in them self. Last night I got back here just after 22:00 and the restaurant was packed with families as well as drivers, being Billy No Mates they found me a table for one no problem. 
Wine to go with the meal comes in at €2.50 a half litre and on Friday night there was a table of five local police, in uniform complete with guns on their belts, making a dent in the red wine stocks along with their meal. One was only drinking water so I think he may have been the designated shooter. 
The showers and toilets haven’t changed, showers are excellent (€2.50) and the women still have to walk past the urinals to get to their toilet. Still only one proper toilet, the others being spread axles, where the main toilets are but I have found another proper one at the back of the restaurant.
Some of the staff have been there for years, one guy behind the bar and the woman on the cash desk in the evenings for instance. The old boy who does ‘security’ now has a pedal bike to get around, along with a big Hi Viz coat, green during the week nad orange at weekends it seems. He completes the look with a pair of wrap round shades but the ‘cool’ look is somewhat spoiled by the wire shopping basket on the front of his bike, containing plastic refuse sacks.
The parking area is bigger than it used to be, with an extension out the back towards the old factory, this area has a proper truck wash. The whole parking area is tarmac, although there is still a heavy coating of dust so every time a truck moves it still creates a dust storm. The guy with the stall outside the front door, selling belts, wallets and clothes fights a losing battle trying to keep the dust of his merchandise by constantly damping down the area in front of his stall. He doesn’t half get annoyed when a truck goes past him at speed.
In my opinion it is still one of the best stops in Europe and even though it has changed and been modernised, the orders are now taken using PDA’s, connected wirelessly to printers at the bar and in the cooking area, it still has the feel of a family run place.
A few times on these forums people have asked for the phone number etc so the details are as follows
Ristorante Garrone
Albergo - Pizzeria - Steakhouse
Strada Prov. Torino Svizzera.
13040 Carisio (VC)
Tel 0161 939803
email ristorante.garrone@tiscali.it
For those who have never been, take the Carisio exit from the A4 Milano — Torino motorway, go through the Peage, turn left and you can’t miss it.
Oh yeah, despite being here for most of the week I haven’t seen one Mafioso ………… There was one bloke in a dodgy overcoat though, maybe…………… 
Good to hear about Carisio Truckstop information, its interesting one, also if you dont mind can you take the pic of carisio truckstop and parking area too, i want to know what looks like there, i never seen them before!
Cheers Ben
Coffeeholic:
I am parked there at the moment…
on Friday night there was a table of five local police, in uniform complete with guns on their belts, making a dent in the red wine stocks along with their meal. One was only drinking water so I think he may have been the designated shooter.Oh yeah, despite being here for most of the week I haven’t seen one Mafioso ………… There was one bloke in a dodgy overcoat though, maybe……………
Maybe the non-drinker was the driver not the shooter 
…and the guy in the dodgy overcoat…Jose Mourinho?? 
The_Catman:
Coffeeholic:
I am parked there at the moment…
on Friday night there was a table of five local police, in uniform complete with guns on their belts, making a dent in the red wine stocks along with their meal. One was only drinking water so I think he may have been the designated shooter.Oh yeah, despite being here for most of the week I haven’t seen one Mafioso ………… There was one bloke in a dodgy overcoat though, maybe……………
Maybe the non-drinker was the driver not the shooter
He must have special skills then because they were in two vehicles.
The_Catman:
…and the guy in the dodgy overcoat…Jose Mourinho??
Only if he has shaved his head.
Coffeeholic:
It is still a great stop … glassed off area is no smoking … L shaped and is also no smoking.
They’re going to have to be careful Neil; it must be a Human Rights issue!!
Betz:
if you dont mind can you take the pic of carisio truckstop and parking area too, i want to know what looks like there, i never seen them before
Here are a couple I took on Thursday afternoon Ben.
You can see the new extension, which is the main part of the restaurant, behind the building in the first pic, it’s got the pyramid shaped thing on top.
Here is a poor quality one of the inside of the restaurant.
Nice italian building! also is your new volvo Fh12 ? with aircooler on cab’s roof ? its looks super! also looks similars of spanish truck! 
Thanks for photos! cheers
Coffeeholic:
It is still a great stop with a big new extension to the restaurant, which apart from one glassed off area is no smoking. The bar has also been altered; it is no longer L shaped and is also no smoking. The area that was to the left of the main door, as you walked in, is also closed off with glass doors and is a smoking area.Wine to go with the meal comes in at €2.50 a half litre and on Friday night there was a table of five local police, in uniform complete with guns on their belts, making a dent in the red wine stocks along with their meal. One was only drinking water so I think he may have been the designated shooter.
Oh yeah, despite being here for most of the week I haven’t seen one Mafioso ………… There was one bloke in a dodgy overcoat though, maybe……………
Is it bulletproof glass in the no smoking part?
It reminds me more of Delboy and Rodney being mistaken for the mafia 
They have certainly tidied that place up, the last time I was there the parking was full of pot holes. In the same area is the Resturant near to Navvara still going , it was known as The Sisters??
i was there this week, the first time in 6 years and i have to admit that i really did enjoy that part of my trip.
it was great to see the place still open and not only that but with an extension to the parking area and a truckwash out the back as well as the new extended bar area and restaurant.
as neal says - they could do with a few more proper english sit down type toilets instead of the traditional italian/turkish squat down ones but i suppose if they did that then there would be boot prints on them where the lovers of the squat down type stand on the edge of the seat and do the biz.
italy has changed quite a bit since my last visit in 2000, the roads are mostly the same but being widened although the bridges seem to have been replaced which probably had to be done before road widening could take place.
the italians still seem to be unaware of the european directive regarding speed limiters and despite the speed limit being 80kph a lot of italians were travelling at 100kph.
driving and talking on a mobile seems to have surpassed driving with your hand on the horn as a national past time, possibly the worst thing about this is that the italians are very expressive so they are actually driving around 90% of the time with no hands on the steering wheel.
i also noticed a dramatic rise in the amount of renault trucks being operated by italian transport companies, i have to wonder if they were on sale cheap or if the stralis etc. did not go down too well in italy.
i didn’t notice an excessive amount of eastern bloc trucks in italy unlike here in the uk and i didn’t spot too many uk trucks either.
i saw a couple of european road freights, a pulleyns, walkers of tuxford, ptm, e m rogers, a few unmarked trucks with uk plates but nothing like i used to see 6 years ago.
uk international haulage rip?
could be, few and far between it seems - the further afield you travel, maybe we just don’t want it anymore - prefering to be home at the weekends - which is exactly why this was quite possibly my last ever trip to italy in a truck - i too like to be home at the weekend and unless you have 1 delivery and 1 collection in the milan or turin areas then you cannot keep doing italy week after week without being weekended.
grazie et arriverderci me italiano amece
The Sisters at Novarra was still going a couple of years ago, if its also know as Alcatraz. Nice place, as are most of the places I’ve been to in Italy.
When Murfitts shut their doors you would have expected other UK hauliers to have taken up the slack, but their work seems to have gone mostly to Italian companies. Spinellies have become quite a large company since the demise of Murfitts for eg.
Simon
When I worked for GBE (the origanal GBE) we had 2 trucks stolen from there ,we were banned from using the place in the end as it was owned by one of the Bournemouth drivers sister (Mina ? ) and her husband. Talking about Murffits ,I got to know a Simon on there who used to be an Estate agent,Was that you ?
is that the same place there used to be a good radio shop there and the guy done repairs and installed Antennas
