On the Road in Valle Maira …with the wind in your hair by Faustina Gilbey   Memories of Georgio Diritti’s brilliant 2005 documentary film ‘Il Vento Fa il Suo Giro’ (‘The wind blows round’) kept coming back to me as we drove up Valle Maira, in the province of Cuneo, with it’s spectacular view of Monviso at the top. Diritti was assistant to one of the great Italian Directors, Ermanno Olmi, and like Olmi in his film ‘l’albero degli zoccoli’ he movingly documents the traditional life of the ‘contadini’ (farmers) living on and with the land….accurately portraying the harshness and prejudices of community life, as well as its simplicity and beauty. We drove up on a hot, cloudless sunny day stopping for a ‘pasta con funghi’ lunch in Dronero – which was the nearest main town for Diritti’s mountain village. As we turned off the road out of Dronero the road got narrower and narrower and the scenery got more and more sensational each bend we rounded – until we were fit to burst with the beauty of it all by the time we reached the highest village of all – Elva. Elva has an extraordinary legacy of being the ‘place … Continue reading Valle Maira