Bardi must be one of Italy’s best kept secrets ! I only heard about it from Leno Conti at Conti’s Café in Lampeter. I had never realised that most of the Italians in Wales came from this one little corner until I mentioned over a coffee one day that I was heading for Italy whilst en-route to an Horizons Unlimited meeting in Greece. With that he popped up stairs and came back with a book all about the Italian migration to Wales which I found fascinating… So here we were, the three of us in this little heard of town in the middle of… well, nowhere really and what a revelation it was.

The first sight that greats you as you approach, no matter what direction you come from is the fortress; over 1000 years old, it totally dominates the landscape. As you enter the town you are greeted by an impressive town square complete with fountain. Not one but two beautiful churches and a small, neat little town that you just can’t help falling in love with.

In fact we all liked it so much that it was decided that we would stay at a camp site fairly close by so that we could spend a few more hours visiting the fortress and just enjoying the general ambiance of the place. Whilst I was sitting in the square relaxing with an ice cream I noticed a couple of guys looking at our bikes, the older man seemed particularly interested in mine so I wandered over to say “hello”. I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when he spoke with a Welsh accent (as did the younger one!). It turned out I was speaking to one of very people that had inspired my curiosity about Bardi; one Angelo Antoniazzi formerly of Aberystwyth, whilst the younger man was the a son of the Rossi family from Llandore, Swansea… There was also a young lady from Cardiff working in the tourist information office. A fascinating conversation ensued for the next half hour of so before we had to kit up for our ride down to the coast.

Tonight we are camped quite close to the Mediterranean coast at Moneglia on a typically overprice, over crowded Italian camp site where we are staying for two nights whilst we do the “tourist” bit at the Cinque Terre just along the coast from us. One bonus of the site is that it does have free WiFi, a swimming pool and ice cold beers !!!