Italy-UK On the Road
DAY 1
Sulmona - Orvieto - Viareggio - Levanto
I've been living in England for a year now and to satisfy my curiosity to explore the United Kingdom from North to South I decide to take my car with me on a trip back from Italy. How not to take advantage of it for a beautiful, albeit short, holiday on the road through Italy and France.
We leave from Sulmona, in The Abruzzi. Before arriving at the evening stop, a farmhouse on the hill in the Cinque Terre region, we make a stop in Orvieto, to visit the famous cathedral. The town is a small medieval village that stands on a rocky spur, quickly visited with a walk to the cathedral that stands in a large and bare square. The immense two-coloured church seems almost out of place in this modest town, and it is worth a stop before heading North again.
We arrive at sunset in Viareggio, a town on the Tuscan coast. We enjoy the last rays of sunshine on the beach, we walk in front of the bathing establishments in Liberty style, and we stop for dinner in a restaurant in the port that we were lucky enough to discover in a previous trip, and that could not miss in any future stop on the coast of Tuscany. Caciucco and tempura of fish and vegetables, and we get back to the car to reach the accommodation for the night, on the hill near Levanto.
RISTORANTE: Tito del Molo | HOTEL: Agriturismo Costa di Farragiana
DAY 2
Levanto - Avignon - Lyon
A very pleasant pouring rain wakes us up in the morning and forces us to change our plans that included a trekking-excursion to the Cinque Terre. So we enjoy more calmly our breakfast with Ligurian focaccia. Before leaving, we look for a bakery to stock up on focaccia for lunch.
We are headed to Lyon, and we decide to make a small detour to visit Avignon. I had already been in this corner of France and this town always exerts a particular charm. We walk through the cobbled alleys that smell of lavender and visit the Palace of the Popes, an immense medieval structure of great beauty. We leave again in the late afternoon, and we arrive in Lyon, where we have just short time to take a walk in the Presq-Ile before having to return to the hotel because of the incessant rain.
HOTEL: Hotel Tête d’or
DAY 3
Lyon - Chenonceaux - Alençon
The following morning a magnificent spring day welcomes us to Lyon. We walk from the hotel to the centre through avenues lined with flowering trees. We have breakfast with a baguette and a brioche sitting on the steps of Place Louis Pradel, opposite the Opera. We stroll through the centre, visit the Hôtel de Ville and the garden of the Academy of Fine Arts, and then head towards the Saint Paul district, a very green residential area on a hill west of the Saône river. We climb the steep steps up to the Notre-Dame de Fourvière cathedral, from whose square you can admire a splendid view of Lyon from above.
The Vieux Lion is a charming neighborhood, and a must on a visit to the city, although the most famous monuments are found in the most modern areas. We cross a market along the banks of the Rhone and return to the car to take the road North.
We stop at the castle of Chenonceaux. A small manor compared to the more sumptuous cousins who populate the Loire Valley, but of particular charm. A fairytale place, which is reached by a long tree-lined avenue that leads to the Italian gardens in front of the building. Small houses worthy of a book by the Grimm brothers, surrounded by wisteria in bloom welcome us before arriving at the actual castle, a sixteenth-century building with a compact main body, separated from the gardens by a moat, and a secondary body that stands on imposing arches furrowed by the river. The castle can be visited entirely inside.
Under the pouring rain that will accompany us throughout the whole journey, we arrive a little lost in Alençon, wandering for a while without being able to find the address we are looking for: the hotel in which we stay is derived from an ancient manor, a castle in miniature, kept almost intact both outside and inside and full of atmosphere. We climb up to the tower in which our room is located, a bit like Merlin's lodging in the Sword in the Rock: creaking wooden corridors, very high ceilings, heavy velvet curtains, feather chandelier, desk and shelves full of books and statues.
HOTEL: Manoir de la Chapelle
DAY 4
Alençon - Mont Saint Michel - Honfleur - Etretat - Saint-Valerie en Caux
The nice and old Frenchman who hosts us welcomes us when we wake up, with a sumptuous breakfast on a table for 8 people, where all the guests of the 4 rooms sit. He illustrates the history of the manor house, of the furniture and curtains, all original of the period, coming from different illustrious buildings of Paris. The breakfast is superlative and we eat a disproportionate amount of croissants, which we are told to be brought by a boulangerie of the city every morning. Obviously we do not hesitate to ask the address and go to buy a snack for the afternoon.
BOULANGERIES: Au Pain d'Autrefois
The first daily stop is Mont Saint Michel. I had already been here years before. Today it is no longer reachable by car but just on foot. One parks at the visitor center, quite far away. A shuttle accompanies pedestrians to a footbridge that runs along the old dam. A must-see destination, a castle that emerges from the shimmering wet sands, when there is no high tide. We walk through the narrow streets of the village and visit the monastery that crowns it. For the night we reach Saint-Valerie en Caux, where we visit a friend. On the way we cross a few towns in Normandy that are worth a stop.
The first is Honfleur, a small port town not far from Caen. Dense Dutch-style houses are reflected in the water on the harbour which is the heart of the village. A cluster of very picturesque alleys unfolds around an ancient cathedral covered with wooden scales that dry out in the cold. It is one of the most unusual churches we have encountered during our travels.
The second stop is the area of Etretat, famous for its cliffs overlooking the sea. The spectacle that unfolds at the end of the small city center is really evocative. Very high white cliffs crossed by small horizontal darker strips that end in a natural arch in the middle of the sea: we climb to the top of the cliffs, where the contrast between the green of the meadows and the white of the rocks makes them even more beautiful. After a few minutes of walking and admiring the view, we leave again.
DAY 5
Saint-Valerie en Caux - Calais - London
The following morning we leave early for Calais, where the ferry that will take us to England awaits us.
The only English stop of our trip is the Seven Sisters National Park, where through fields dotted with British sheep we arrive at the cliffs that outline the coast, much higher and much whiter than those of Etretat. Obviously all moistened by a characteristic, thin English rain that actually helped to give the right atmosphere to the visit.
This content is NOT SPONSORED, but based on my genuine personal experience. Spontaneous opinions, positive and negative, shareable or not, that I hope will help to live better travel experiences. My advice is a guide to lead you through world explorations, but the real journey, you build it!
