A trip 25 years in the making

It all started 25 years ago, when Ben and I met. We had our first weekend away and we were living in Charleston at the time, so it was easy to go down to Devon. There was a really lovely place near Dartmouth. A quirky, self-contained, sort of studio next to the house where the owner offered breakfast as well. It was hidden behind a lovely wall of flowing ivy and roses and honeysuckle. We only knew about it because Ben had found a Sawday’s book in the local Waterstones that emphasized special places. 

We ended up using the same books for all our big events. We did the meeting of the parents at a pub in Hovingham we found in one of them and we both picked places out of them for our 40th birthdays. But it was our honeymoon that really kicked things off as far as Italy was concerned. I’d been to Florence on an art trip with school years ago and we wanted to go back together, so we turned to the Italy editions. We picked a place called Hotel River, which has now been taken over and turned into something hideous, but back then it had a lovely little rooftop terrace. There was only enough room for about half a dozen people, but you could see the river and the place had a lovely concierge who looked after everything. It was just brilliant. 

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We were hooked on Italy and on the books. There was always something special about the places. It might have been the people, it might have been the service, the views, the food. We just knew we were looking at the right kind of places for us. And then we saw the tower. It was a lovely old building right on the Tuscany/Umbria border. The owner, David Lloyd Edwards, was an amazing chap, a historian and wine buff who was so knowledgeable about the area. We had a lovely week there, exploring and sitting in the sort of loggia where you could have your meals and just looking at this fabulous view. We ended up going back time and again. 

We got to know the area very well. David’s place was in the Nicona valley, which has a narrow road strung out along it that you all tottered along over to get to the lake. In between, stacked on the hills, were agriturismos and beautiful houses and tiny hotels. David then began to need his place for his grandchildren, but a friend of his had a house in the next valley up and we moved to that because we’d fallen in love with that part of Italy.  

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What we would always do on a visit was a stay at David’s place or the friend’s place in the other valley, then a city, then a few days in a nice hotel. We didn’t have much time so we were flying down and packing as much as we could into a couple of weeks. It was always our dream to drive down through France, taking it slow, picking up wine and feeling a bit less rushed. I’m semi-retired now and as we were coming up to our 25th anniversary, we thought, “let’s finally do it.” 

We’ve had our eye on Casa San Gabriel for years and it felt like the right place and time for the big trip. It’s one of those places that’s hidden up those little white roads, not very well maintained, that are all over that region. You see them leading off into the hills when you’re driving, and it feels like there are wonders just out of sight. There are three residences, which gives us that balance of being mostly on our own but having a little bit of company and the owner runs the winery down the road, which seemed like a very good reason to go to us! 

So, we’ll be rushing just a bit to get down there for a Saturday, but then we’re going to come back slowly through Emilia-Romagna and spend some time in Turin, all in our own car at our own pace. Ben loves motoring so we’ll be dropping in to some of the special places in Turin and he’ll be loving the winding mountain roads on the way. Then we’ll come up through probably Beaune or Masson or Dijon, then to Reims and Brussels, taking it nice and steady, almost exactly 25 years since we first found that book. 

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