A drive from England to Italy-and back.

In August of 2011, my family and I decided to embark on a trip from Hampshire, England to the island of Elba in Italy. This journey took place in our rather unsightly (sorry mum) people-carrier-esq bright red vehicle. My sister and I in the back, Mum and Dad in the front. I am able to remember this trip so vividly not only because of the 4000 photos I took, but also because of my musical companion (iPod). Sitting in a car for 3 days straight means you have a lot of time on your hands to think and listen to music.

So the trip in all its entirety went something like this:

Get in car, drive to Dover, hop on ferry to Calais, drive down through France, enter the Mont Blanc tunnel on the French side, exit the other side of the mountain into main land Italy, hop on another ferry with the car and finally reach the destination of Elba. Then 2 weeks later we did it all again in reverse but decided to add a few little de-tours here and there, so ended up driving through northern Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium and northern France. (Just a few de-tours.)

For someone who had never seen mountains before this was all pretty exciting and as we got stuck in a 2 hour long queue to enter the Mont Blanc tunnel, I had plenty of time to pretend I was a professional landscape photographer. So bear with the mountain photos, I was 16 when I took them.

This photo reminds me of a scene from Super Mario Kart ^_^

Playing around with the zooom! Nature can be really intricate at times.

Driving through the tunnel I used the long exposure setting to capture the tunnel lights rushing by. I never expected this to happen. It looks like a spine. Life is full of surprises. 

The ferry journey over to Elba was pretty spectacular, especially as it was well timed with sun down.

I am a sucker for sunsets...

At this beach I was stung by a jellyfish, which hurt like hell, but still doesn't detract from the beauty of this place.

I am a massive foodie and obviously going to Italy for the first time was pretty incredible for my taste buds. Nothing will beat this simple dish of Gnocchi, tomatoes, cheese and herbs. This was eaten in a small village on the top of a hill on the island. Even though the island is only 224sq KM it houses plenty of tiny villages nestled away in the hills and mountains. Great for the avid hiker. (Or people like me who can be persuaded up mountains with food.)

I don't have any decent photos of the day we actually did hike up the tallest mountain on the island, got lost and had to start rationing our water and food. It was clearly too thrilling of a day to remember to take photos.

A view of Lake Como on the drive back to England. We stopped off for a couple hours just to soak in the beautiful views and food. All I have is four words for that little pitstop: Melon and Parma Ham!

As the journey home was longer than the journey to Elba, we had to split the trip up and stay a couple nights here and there. In Germany we stumbled across this tiny wine-making village. Tiny cute shops, great food and hospitality and great wine (duh!). I had never been to Germany either, so this was a great first place to visit.

At the beginning of this post I briefly told you about the great music that accompanied me on this trip. Great for me, probably not that great for other people. My music library that summer consisted of the Creamfields festival 2011 album and 6 or 7 different Tiesto Club Life podcasts. 

These songs still to the day take me back to that summer whenever I listen to them.

H x