Italy – Portugal

Toward the Far West

We say goodbye to our hometown Mirandola, in the province of Modena, at dawn. We cross the northwest of our peninsula and see the last glimpse of Italian blue in the lake of Castello at Pontechianale, in the province of Cuneo. Once we arrive at the French border, it’s full immersion in greenery. We cross over at an altitude of 2,744 meters, through the Col Agnel pass populated by whistling marmots. We continue, shunning the superhighways to avoid paying tolls, and opting for much more interesting routes. We cross the bridge over the Serre-Ponçon lake – the third largest European artificial water reservoir – and all of southern France, as far as northern Spain; there we stop over at Bilbao, the largest city of the Basque country which stretches as far as the coast of the Bay of Biscay. We also travel by night, aided by our additional LED headlights, until we stop to watch the sunrise: the panorama miracle that is always a gorgeous sight to admire together with someone, and which everyone talks about, but everyone describes differently. Also along the Costa Norte, in Asturias, we are captivated by Andrín: it’s one of the loveliest Spanish beaches. At the westernmost tip of Spain is the sensational lighthouse of Cabo Prior, absolutely breathtaking! We follow Playa de la Muerte across little roads, woods, and scrubland, and reach what we call the “Forest of Talking Trees” because of the sounds the wind makes as it blows through the branches.