Lenore the explorer

A glimpse of Italy

We borrowed a cottage in a tiny village (just a cluster of hamlets, farms and a church) called Rovinaglia, from Lenore's sister-in-law's parents — Luigi and Virginia Ferrari, who live in Canada but who have family in these parts. Rovinaglia is 5km south of Borgo Val Di Taro, a town in the south west of Parma province, in the foothills of the mountains that separate that flat part of Italy from the Mediterranean.

Many thanks, Luigi and Virginia!

If there's a single impression that Ralph has brought away it was of the old stone and wood — you'll find pictures of some of them here, old walls, old doors and windows, blocked doors and windows. Italy, whether by accident or design, has managed to preserve much of the feeling of its past, something that can't be provided by museums or lifeless monuments or preserved archaeological sites. So for him the highlight was a little place, discovered by chance, called Rometta, where Ralph felt he was experiencing a little of what it would have been like in medieval times.