2. A celebratory birthday trip to Italy 🇮🇹

Having visited Italy a few times over the years I’ve always had a desire to spend more time there, exploring the country and culture, and in particular spending some time at a traditional agriturismo. So the plan was hatched to travel in the van for 7 weeks, exploring parts of the north and central Italy - a period within which my 60th birthday fell! So in someways, a celebratory birthday trip 🥳

The Italy trip is well documented in its own blog, https://Italianadventure2023.blogspot.com  So I’m not planning on recounting all the fabulous experiences here - but rather aim to give an overview of a few highlights, as well as reflections on our travel through Italy, and what made it a very special experience to remember.

Having always wanted to stay at an authentic agriturismo, our time at La Luna di Quarazzana was special. Although it isn’t an actual working farm, the whole building complex is a rambling combination of three ancient farm houses, with outbuildings. Rustic but luxurious in essence, it felt a special place to stay. Run by a wonderful couple Ilaria and Stefano, our time there was wonderful. Set in Lunigiana, in the north west corner of Tuscany, the area had so much to offer, and explore, while at the same time being a region less taken over by mass tourism. Ilaria was an amazing cook, having been “trained” by her nonna who had a restaurant in Florence, and indeed so was Stefano - the tomato pasta he cooked being one of my favourite dishes in the whole trip. Participating in a cooking lesson (with a lovely Australian couple) led by Ilaria was a highlight, as we all served up a wonderful meal for other guests too 😃 Pottering around the countryside, visiting local towns, sampling local food, walking through ancient woods and swimming in dazzling waterfalls was all truly magical. 

It was a truely wondrful place to stay, and one we will remember for a very long time. Lunigiana definitely a region to explore further 👍

Favourite tomato pasta, pickled from the garden & cooked by Stefano

View of La Luna from the pool

  

Much welcomed dip on beautiful walk through ancient woods in Lunigiana 

Relaxing with dinner in the courtyard at La Luna

Our amazing cookery lesson with Ilaria and Australian guest - starting off with wine certainly set the scene!.

Courtyard leading to our room at La Luna - Ruby very much at one 😃

On the theme of food, this is where Italy excels. Italians are immensely proud of their food, and also extremely knowledgeable of regional specialties - that suited us very well! We had some amazing meals out, becoming quite used to the traditional four course Italian dinner 😃 Opportunities to eat out were abundant, high in quality, and often many vegetarian options. Buying food was also a delight, as we ere often invited to sample a range of products before the actual purchase. Tasty, high quality food, in abundance was a great highlight for us! Some particular favourites are shown in the photographs.

Antipasti at Il Rigo - the start of a four course dinner 🤣

Burrata pizza - best ever!

Balsamic vinegar tasting at La Razza - we had no idea there was such a range!

Amazing truffle at San Pedro di Pettine - the stunning restaurant outside Trevi, and the place from where we have been buying white truffle oil for years. The owner actually gave us some oil and truffle oil to take away as a gift ❤️

Amazing gelato - learnt about flavours according to seasons 🤣

Super tasty croissants sitting in the main square at beautiful Trevi 

Fabulous food at il Razza - an agriturismo with an amazing restaurant, which through Dave’s persistence we eventually got a table for the evening - and the meal was totally delicious - definitely one of the best on our trip!

Italian wine - the natural accompaniment to the amazing food was fabulous too. Similarly, people seemed very proud and knowledgeable about the wines produced, and certainly compared to within the UK, was easily affordable. Drinking lovely wines in restaurants, sometimes straight from the barrel, participating in local wine tasting sessions, and visiting award winning vineyards all were delightful 😃

Wine tasting at our camp in Barga - €18 per person for 5 fabulous wines (large glasses!) and tasty nibbles to accompany each wine - superb 😃

A winery, La Montanan in Chianti where we stayed - delicious wines 😃

Delicious wine we had with our dinner at San Pedro di Pettine - we later bought some from the local vineyard at Bevagna  

A lovely dark dry Rose - we ended up bringing a case home with us 🤣

Small craft beer and wine bar in Susa, where wine was €2.5 per litre - locals came in with their 5 litre demi jugs for filling 😃

Ancient history was on display, in abundance- old Roman and Etruscan buildings and artefacts, medieval villages and towns, and all mostly freely accessible to the public. We marvelled at the degree of preservation of many old towns and villages, managing to retain their ancient origins alongside modern growth.  Particular highlights included Anghiari in the north east corner of Tuscany, the beautiful and ancient small city of Trevi in Umbria, along with its close neighbour Bevagna. Larger towns and cities with particularly spectacular ancient remains included Volterra, Assisi and Lucca - all visually stunning and with their own unique history. Even on our drive home through the mountains north of Turin, we came across perhaps the most well preserved Roman amphitheatre that we had seen on our travels, in the small town of Susa 😃

The ancient town of Anghiari in north east Tuscany. The old town was a maze of beautiful narrow old streets with overhanging arches and ancient artefacts.

Roman gateway in Susa

Stunning Volterra and ancient gateways

Porticos in Assisi

Triple arches in ancient Bevagna

Roman baths at Bagno Vignoni 

We were quite amazed by the range of natural landscape, and within a relatively small geographical area. Lots of quintessentially Italian rolling hills, often covered in vineyards or olive groves, beautiful colours and hues, amazing lakes and forests, and huge mountain ranges - some we had never even heard about before! The Sibillini mountains were new to us, and perhaps Dave’s favourite 🤩 - a remote mountainous range straddling Tuscany and Umbria, communities still in the process of recovering and regenerating following the devastating 2018 earthquake. Varied and awesome landscapes, and amazing sunsets - beautiful 🤩 

Burnt Sienna landscapes in Val d’Orcia

Walking in the Sibillini mountains 

Sibillini mountains - still recovering from the 2016 earthquake 

Cereal plains in Sibillini 

Sunset over the Apennines from Barga

The varied landscapes created many possibilities for activity - walking, gentle cycling, and more adventurous mountain biking for Dave. As we’ve seen in other parts of Europe, walking routes were clearly signed, complete with suggested time durations; and greenways and traffic free cycle routes were abundant - and seemingly well used, as daily activity appeared to be the cultural norm, for all ages. Dave took advantage of more adventurous MTB opportunities when available, including going on a day’s ride with one of our camping hosts, along with @100 local villagers. 

Walking in the hills around Barga

Walking in the beautiful Garfagnana 

Exploring  artless in Chianti by bike

Cycling along the river and through crop growing regions in Umbria

Hot sulphur springs in the forest in Val d’Orcia

Travelling around we felt a real sense of community. Lots of evidence of people coming together to socialise and connect, and again of all ages, although particularly evident in older populations. Lots of groups of people gathering in parks, town squares, or other communal spaces, spending time together. There was an air of general relaxation, and possibly contentment, and few obvious (unnecessary) rules or obstacles - seemed like people were getting on and living their best lives. We experienced a general sense of welcome too - people reached out to us, were welcoming and kind, some giving us thumbs up and waving as they saw us drive by in our UK van.

We totally loved our time in Italy, and will certainly be back in the future to explore more 👍

Very happy with our trip to Italy 🇮🇹 

Could t be done without our lovely van 🤣