Before we moved here me and the Mrs drove (in a Smart car) all the way from Barnet North London, it takes about 2 days, you can do it in a day but I wouldnt recommend it as it's a very long and tireing drive.

We set off from Barnet at around 6, got the ferry at 9 which takes an hour to cross the channel, remember the time difference, but that should work in your favour going to the UK. Then we drove all the way thru france to Strasbourg, this is a really boring drive but very straight forward, all one road, then we stayed in a hotel for the evening, got there about 8 ish.

Then in the morning drove all the way to Lugano, we did stop off on the way to see our little Pug Puppy that we got 3 weeks ago, he was only 5 weeks old then.

I really enjoyed the drive, make sure you have lots of CD's to listen to and take regular stops, but I found driving way much more relaxing and enjoyable than flying, cuz you can stop whenever you want and take a rests from all the travelling.