Road-trip to Italy! (¡A Italia! por carretera)

I know it’s a bit of cliché to say so, but one of the things I enjoy the most about living in Europe is the proximity to different cultures and languages.

From just about anywhere you can hop on a plane at breakfast time and by lunch be choosing (if somewhat unsurely) what you want to eat from a menu written in a different language. And what’s more, from many places you can do the same just by jumping on a train or in the car.

We did just that the other week: breakfast in Barcelona and lunch in Montpellier. I got the biggest thrill out of it. It would seem that all these years in Europe still haven’t robbed this son of an island continent of the wonder of being able to drive to another country.

500 metres to France. Driving into another country still gives me a thrill

This whole trip was actually a little longer than just BCN-Montpellier-BCN though: we were on our way to Italy. I wouldn’t drive to Montpellier from Barcelona just for lunch – it’s about a 4-hour drive, which makes it a bit of trek just for the day.

A much better choice from Barcelona is Perpignan – it’s just north of the border, two hours-drive away. We did that this Easter. It’s a very pretty little town, the centre of which is a lovely mix of southern French, Catalan and Parisian-style architecture; small enough to have a good walk around and a nice unrushed lunch before heading home.

Some views of Perpignan

But back to the Italian trip: we were off to see G’s family in Florence for the first time since we got married. A big party was being planned for us. And when I say big, I mean My Big Fat Greek Wedding-style big. G is one of 13 brothers and sisters!

The drive from Barcelona to Florence is about 14 hours or so if you do it non-stop. It’s basically all motorways – or to be more precise: Spanish autopistas, French autoroutes and Italian autostradas - so it’s not exactly a difficult drive, but unless I were in a huge rush, I wouldn’t do it non-stop.

In fact, if I were in a huge rush, I wouldn’t drive in the first place. It’s a 90-minute flight from Barcelona to Florence - and it’s cheaper than driving. We worked out that we spent about 100€ each way in tolls, around 100€ each way on fuel and, so far, 135€ in speeding fines (3 speed-camera fines in the space of just 20 minutes in France!) I say “so far” as these fines came in just the other day and only pertain to our first day of driving. I’m a little concerned.

Anyway, we weren’t in any great rush and were looking on it as a bit of a road-trip adventure. We wanted to check out some scenery, I wanted to indulge my thrill for driving between countries, and G had a whole heap of stuff he wanted to bring to his family.

The route took us past the vineyards of four French wine regions - the Roussillon, Languedoc, lower Rhone and Provence - all surprisingly different in appearance. We drove over the mighty river Rhone itself, across the top of the stunningly beautiful Cote dÁzur, past the countless monasteries and villages perched so precariously on top of Liguria’s coastal mountain ranges and skirted the white mountains of Tuscany’s marble quarries. Finally we were amongst the rolling olive groves, vineyards and villas surrounding the home of the Renaissance. A visually spectacular trip.

A cruise ship in the bay in front of the beautiful (if very touristy) village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice

Nice's old-town (Vieille Ville) reminded me a lot of Italy. This is the Cathédrale Sainte Réparate
in the Place Rossetti (which sounds Italian too)

A village perched on top of a mountain in Italy's Liguria region.
(Not a great photo as taken through the barrier whilst driving over a viaduct, but you get the idea)

All that white is not snow (which I though it was at first), it's marble. The Carrara marble quarries in Tuscany

Although you wouldn't guess it, this hill looks right-over central Florence

Driving on the motorways themselves was something of an adventure too, especially in the mountainous regions where viaduct-after-tunnel-after-viaduct carries you deep through mountains and ridiculously high across valleys. The engineering is impressive (and helps explain why these roads are not cheap to drive on) and a wee bit scary at times too as you share some rather narrow lanes with monster trucks barrelling along way too fast.

We didn’t do the whole drive in one go. We stopped for a couple of nights in Menton (not far from Nice) to soak up the beauty of the Cote d’Azur. While there we stayed off the autoroute and explored the area via the winding, cliff-hugging coastal roads that offer the most stunning views of both the beautiful villages and the blue, blue sea that gives the area it’s name.

Menton. It's the last French town before Italy, which is literally a one minute drive from where I took this photo 

The view from one of the cliff-top roads between Nice and Menton. Spectacular

If we had had more time, I would have also stopped a night or two further back to sniff around some of the wine country, as well as a night or two along the Liguria coast - Portofino or even Genoa. You could make a great trip out of that.

Portovenere, on the Liguria coast. We stopped here for lunch on the final leg to Florence (and brought some excellent pesto too)

Stunnning Florence. My dad's family actually came from here hundreds of years ago. Now I've married into another Florentine family

Although we weren’t in a rush, we were on a timetable: we had that big family party to get to. It was after all the main reason for our trip. And it was sensational too. G’s family are the most welcoming of people and they do love to have a good time – all 46 of them! I felt most welcomed to the family.

My new Florentine family. Phew!