Campervan Therapy

The A22 to Trento is packed with the whole of Europe trying to avoid baking temperatures, so it’s a relief to hit the empty winding mountain road up to Camping Vallelaghi. 16 kilometres upwards and we’ve travelled to another dimension. White and pink limestone canines pierce the blue sky. The wooded slopes are a cool…

Seán finds a camper stop, 3 kilometres from the centre of Bergamo, Area Camper Citta’ dei Mille, with shade, grass, and full facilities. When we bowl up to the tarmac clad, bleak stop, we’re parked up by a woman who seems confused when we say we’ve booked and paid – that’s because we haven’t. We’re…

Leaving the peace of the Aosta valley, we wrestle with the A4 before we turn off on the A26. The mountains reappear on the horizon like a mystical mirage. Seán has found a municipal camper-stop, or Sosta as they’re called in Italy, in Lake Varese’s Gavirate, a stone’s throw from its better-known cousin, Lake Maggiore.…

In the Valle di Gran San Bernardo, we’re spoilt for choice as to which walking trail to follow. But we have a mission, our good friend Pina, who lives in Aosta, is taking us up to see her husband, Salva’s, paintings which are showing in the Castello di Bosses and who can resist art and…

Just over the Piccolo San Bernardo Pass, we camp up at Arc en Ciel one kilometre walk from the town of Morgex. The terraced campsite is shaded with views of the glacier on the sharp toothed Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco. We fall asleep to the Dora Baltea River rushing by the campsite. The young…

We camp up on the outskirts of La Lechère merely because Marie France has a vacancy. We’ve got to stop before we face the road up to the St. Bernard Pass whose sheer drops are destined to send my nerves into overdrive and to have Seán demanding that I stop with the hand signals every…