Andiamo Lombardy

 Monday 4 May 2026 (May the 4th be with you...)

A long-awaited organised 6-day trip to northern Italy is happening today, and so I wake up almost 2 hours before my alarm is set and after flailing about for a while I decide to get up and get organised. Kim and I are heading for Heathrow and it soon emerges that on a bank holiday Monday, the buses to the nearest Windrush line station are going to let me down, so I plump for an Uber with a driver who informs me that the back hatch is open so I can pay him a tenner to go 2 miles and handle my own baggage...

The airport wait (thank god for the relaxation of liquids regs) is relatively short and the flight gets into Milan Linate before time. The passport control man takes my photo and my fingerprints efficiently, but for some reason, Kim gets away with taking either which may not bode well for the outbound trip. We board a bus with 40 other people for our hotel in the hamlet of Rota d'Imagna, high up the Imagna valley not far from Bergamo, accompanied by our very enthusiastic and friendly tour manager, Barbara, a Bergamo native. Our hotel, the Miramonti Spa, accessed expertly by driver Davide via a lengthy set of hairy hairpin bends way way up above the valley, is family-run, friendly, clean and comfortable and promises a delightful stay.

After a little welcome bone-dry Prosecco and snacks, and getting to know a couple of our fellow travellers, we enjoy a delicious 3-course dinner served by a team for whom nothing is too much trouble  (though my cauliflower starter promises three textures which turn out to be - um - steamed cauliflower),  accompanied by an incredibly reasonable wine list - we plump for a pink. 

Kim and I chat afterwards for a while to a couple of like-minded women of our age with whom we queued at the airport, and we enjoy a delicious (even for me) Grappa variant called Elisir di Corte with herb and honey flavourings. I sleep well in my quiet room with its super kingsize bed, and despite waking up super-early again I get back to sleep, have a troubling dream about being late for breakfast and the next day's trip, and am then rudely awakened by the annoying ringtone on my phone alarm. 

Tuesday 5 May

After a pleasant continental breakfast) my eyes as per bigger than my belly), we got back on Davide's coach in the steady rain and mist headed back down the hairpins of this incredibly verdant valley bound for San Pellegrino (yes, that of sparkling water and soft drink fame). It's only 7km as the crow flies, but the hairpins added on the time to arrive after a little shy of an hour in the pretty though slightly faded town, characterised by Art Nouveau facades hinting at past glories. The S Pellegrino plant long worked in the centre of town, even with bottles being filled by hand to satisfy demand from the USA back in the 1930s, but as demand and markets grew it automated and moved to the outskirts of town, employing about 400 people.

Sights included a beautiful casino/spa (not allowed in), an 800m 40% incline funicular railway (not working on weekdays - it just goes up a mountain and back again, no real reason to ascend so it's just for the tourists!) and a church with a breathtaking interior entirely made up of mosaics and numerous plaques detailing the names of all the fallen during WW1. And the teenagers attending the local high school leaned out of the window to wave (and I think cheer?) at our shuffling group as we filed past.

Shopping opportunities weren't plentiful, though sufficient to buy a notebook for blogging purposes and retro-style fridge magnet - a lovely artisan food shop selling all kinds of quality (therefore pricey) local delicacies also served us well for lunch, where we enjoyed a bitter orangey spritz and panini. We wandered back to the pick-up point and enjoyed 2 euro copi di gelati on the way (Bounty flavour for me, if you're asking), then snoozed on the bus back to the hotel, where I discovered I could sign into my account and catch up on some Apple TV.

We then attended a short course in the hotel kitchen learning how to prepare the ravioli which was to form one of the dinner courses that evening. Again the staff were helpful and charming, and despite my trepidation based on disastrous efforts at shaping sourdough pizza last year, I didn't make a bad job of mine and they even compared quite favourably to the wonkiness of others.

Then - a treat! a short massage of my back and legs in the hotel spa, followed by the steam room and sauna, a thermal swimming pool and whirlpool bath/jacuzzi. Utter bliss, and I hope to at least repeat a dip and a sweat at some point in the next few days. Another lovely dinner with braesola, ravioli and a chocolate fondant followed, accompanied of course by inexpensive, decent Gavi, and an earlier night to start writing this.