Campervan Therapy

Only 4 days to go until we hit the road. I’m immersed in past photographs, trying to decide on the point of entry into Italy.

2. Route into Italy Number 2 – Through Switzerland to Lake Orta

This route takes you over the Simplon Pass from Switzerland to Italy’s S33 and on to Lake Orta – Lake Maggiore’s lesser known cousin, avoiding Swiss motorways and the 40 Swiss Francs for the motorway vignette. It’s worth circumnavigating busy Lake Geneva and taking the national road through Sion to save some cool cash – a necessity when thinking of the Italian cured meat platters served with delicious lemon chutney I sampled last time I was camping on Lake Orta.

Awe-inspiring Alps

But more than the saving, this is an awe inspiring Alpine road-trip. Enough to make me break out into The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music. Though I take a dimmer view of Seán’s rendition of How do you solve a problem like Maria. But I must admit I’d quite like to emulate my namesake and romp through these verdant valleys under snow topped majestic mountains, but  without the seven singing children in tow.

Lake Orta

The area is riddled with footpaths up into mountain villages. We spent five days on random rambles and, outside of the centre of Orta, we often had woods, meadows, churches and villages to ourselves. The quirks of this area won us over too, like the 21 chapels on San Francesco’s mountain, telling his life story; or the village featuring frescoes from famous films set on the lake. All these things discovered with the help of the map from the tourist office.

3. Route 3 – from Switzerland to Lake Lugano

This route is the same as Route 2 but at Verbania, the picturesque S34 takes you round the north of Lake Maggiore to Locarno to the A2 to Lake Lugano.

Lake Lugano

We bowled up to Lake Lugano’s Camping Darna in time to see the setting sun paint the lake a moody purple, so it’s a contender this year.

Of course, we ignored advice to buy an O.S. map when we set off into the mountains, armed only with a tourist leaflet, to find a wild swimming spot, ending up going up the wrong mountain and accidentally kidnapping someone’s dog. To be fair, the dog sashayed out to me while I ate my picnic and refused to leave my side.

When we got back to Porlezza town, I managed to explain to a group of women about my canine companion. They leapt into action, phoned the owners and spoilt him rotten until he was reclaimed.

After his owners retrieved him, somehow the world seemed an emptier place without my four-legged  companion – even though we eventually found the idyllic wild swimming spot.