Campervan Therapy

Six days to go until we set off.  I’m submerged in Seán’s photographs of Italy, with the hope of choosing which route we’ll follow into that most romantic of countries.

A Life-long Love Affair

When I was 15, Pina, my Italian school friend, scooped me up as I wandered, disconsolate, to assembly. I had fallen out with my previous group of chums.

“Come with us. We’ll look after you,” she said, tucking her arm through mine.

And so, Pina, Antonietta and Anna introduced me to Leicester Square’s Italian disco, with the mirrored ceiling ball, called incongruously, The French. Then came their parents’ cafés and restaurants, and thus I discovered the joys of Italian food. Ironically, since I hail from a good old Irish home, Pina’s dad introduced me to Irish coffee too! So, began my love affair with Italy.

Honeymoon

We honeymooned throughout Italy, with people applauding us on the motorways as Seán, who in another life fancies himself a rally driver, put the pedal to the metal on our battered green Citroen Diane. We ricocheted from the Med to Venice.

 We then wandered from Florence to Rome, from Rome to the Amalfi coast, from Amalfi to Brindisi. Surprisingly, our rust-bucket stood up to it.

Three Favourite Routes into Italy

For this year’s road trip I’m torn between three routes.

1. The Mediterranean Alps Route

On this scenic Alpine route, France’s D900 becomes the Italian S21. The French Col du Larche becomes the musical Colle della Maddalena at the border and the view down through the valley of lakes and peak after peak of blue-hued mountains takes your breath away.

Peveragno

Our first Italian stop on this route is always Peveragno’s Camping Il Melo, a friendly site, among the vegetable growers’ fields, with the majestic Alps in the backdrop.

The campsite also sports a swimming pool, fruit trees and a walk by a burbling stream to the fresco painted houses of the village. There are also fantastic walking routes, where you meet no one but the odd farmer, which take you up through chestnut, hazel, larch forests to mountain lookouts and ancient stone churches.

Choosing a Restaurant

Food is never far from my radar and I had the most fantastic radicchio and mountain cheese risotto in Peveragno. Here’s a tip on choosing a restaurant – follow the locals.

Seán was most put-out when I chased groups of unsuspecting locals, around the ring-road to a roadside restaurant, the TV blaring under the awning, a hubbub of conversation and no one taking the blindest bit of notice of the detective programme. I knew it was the sort of place where the food would be honest, good and local.

So, Route 1 to Peveragno is a definite contender this year – if only to sample that radicchio risotto again.