DRIVING TO A TASTE OF ITALY - GREAT UK HOTELS, RESTAURANTS & BARS

Here, we suggest accessible UK driving destinations that, if you squint, could be in Italy, and suggest how you can savour a taste of bella Italia courtesy of Britain's population of Italian chefs, baristas, ice cream makers and others.

PORTMEIRION:

Portmeirion, in North Wales, is a magical place. Behold, a Mediterranean vision emerging from the dark hills; a merry jumble of domes and turrets in ice-cream shades. Situated on the estuary of the River Dwyryd, it was the lifetime's work of eccentric landowner and self-taught architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. Many of Portmeirion's colourful cottages, grottos, tiny castles and towers look Italianate. The Hotel Portmeiron offers 14 bedrooms, but you really ought to rent one of the stage set-like self-catering cottages. They promise pure escapism.

www.portmeirion.wales

CLIVEDEN:

Situated just 30 miles west of London, between the M4 and M40 motorways in Berkshire, Cliveden House is one of the most exclusive hotels in the country; a mating of Italian style and British taste. Crowning an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hills and designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1851, it blends English Palladian architecture with the Italian Cinquecento, rendered in Roman cement. Your Ferrari will be perfectly on point here, its rakish glamour attuned to the house's history of celebrity and scandal. The 'Cliveden Set' in the 1930s were the influencer...