Krakow - Brno - Vienna - Klagenfurt - Venice - Rimini
So after taking a trip this long I have my opinion to share about the current road condition / driving comfort within Poland, CZ, Austria and Italy.
In general I would call Italy the most intense traffic wise, they also have bad road navigation, signs are placed one close to each other - it's easy to miss a turn you need, in fact i missed 2 times.
Best road signs belong to Austria, big, readable and they are placed twice within a certain distance one from another ( i guess its made for those who missed the first one ).
Poland and CZ have no traffic almost, you drive free and smooth, people use the right lane and never bully you on the road which happens in Italy every now and then.
Food on the go. Ah boy, Poland gets all 100% of my votes - other countries don't have much along the highway, so be prepared to drive miles from one gas station to another and you better have your tank at full whenever you can.
Toll systems in CZ and Austria are similar, you buy a sticker for certain predefined period of time and attach it to your car window shield. Comes very handy when you travel short and long term.
In Italy you take a ticket first at the highway entrance and then pay it on exit, can be there is a person in the toll box or cash/debit card ( and other systems like EazyPass)
terminal - works pretty well, it operates coins, banknotes easily.
Poland has an operator taking cash from you when you enter a toll road. Most simple for a tourist I guess.
When we speak booking a hotel and registering the simplest would be Austria, they didn't ask for my documents at all while in Italy we were asked to show both passports - for "security reasons". Booking.com works fine - I'd recommend this site for all your booking needs.
Most entertaining road it's exiting Austria for North Italy - amazing mountains, tunnels, rivers and speed driving combined
Talking about borders I must say that there are no borders in terms where you get your car and passport checked but when you enter Austria from CZ they have a control point with cops where you slow down. Also, when you enter Italy from Austria its the same.
I'm not saying I'd better take a plane instead of this car trip, but be prepared for dramatic weather change when you are down in Italy - once you have the mountains behind you it gets real freaking hot in Italy!
In general highways are freaking boring, it's better if you have more time and money to take alternative routes where you could see local towns and life, like I saw in Austria, the most amazing town of Klagenfurt.
P.S.: Venice was too hot and crowded, we were happy we could take a water taxi ( pretty nice fast boat ) for 60 effing Euros
back to the parking place that was EUR26 also. Take no kids, go alone if you can. This time of the year Italy is very hot.
Cheers,
Sid