Back in May 2013 I was lucky enough to be invited on a trip that began in Italy’s Abruzzo and ended on the island of Hvar, in Croatia, by way of Le Marche. Lots of people used to think the latter of those three was in France, I was told by an English homeowner who was rightly proud of the fact that not only did he know that not to be the case, but had been canny enough to buy a property in the region before the word got out.

All three regions were previously unknown to me, but being Italian, I was particularly struck by Abruzzo and Le Marche, whose scenery, people, food and drink are a match for anything in more well-known parts of Italy. I took the picture below from Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a hill village which is slowly being restored by Daniel Kihlgren as a boutique hotel called Sextantio. It’s enough to make me feel quite proud of being Italian – and then I remember Berlusconi. And a lot of his unsavoury predecessors.

Read about the trip on the Time Out travel website.