Piacenza - Milano (50 miles)

The road to Milano is not the most interesting. No more mountains, beaches, rivers or descents. However my mind is full of new experience.

What did the father of the family say last night?

'I hope your visit here helps you to make better decisions- so you can do the right things for you and for children and help them to have better lives.'

It was a very beautiful thing to say and very Italian, more so when you understand how the country now sees itself in the world.

Modern Italy does not pretend to be best. It accepts that there are many things that others - the Germans, the British, even the French - do better than them. They would prefer to stay indoors rather than work in the rain, a Sunday is for eating and drinking rather than exercise or preparing for the week ahead, and sometimes...sometimes people make better wine than them.

However, that does not make them inferior. The land of the Romans, the Renaissance and the foundations of European civilization is hardly one to be ignored. It was important then and it is important now – how to create a unity of progression and invention.

In trying to come together Europe must realise its past and use it to make good decisions for the future. Unity is based on mutual understanding - Italy knows this and it knows it knows that it plays an important part. I feel embarrassed that we seem to think the opposite, that due to our past we have no need to participate in the future.

My host in Piacenza agrees, but he is more considered:

'You must remember that Britain is in the unique position in that they won the Second World War. It is different for them.'

I am starting to understand. I used to think that Britain's relentless reliance on past glories was our greatest weakness, but the more I travel the more I see that it is not that simple. Millions and millions of people dying, fighting for a national identity and way of life for the world – this was not something just to forget. To simply walk up to those who attacked us and relinquish all that sovereignty to them is not okay, not in the Italian's opinion.

'You come from a family, with a creed and a moral code and you should not forget this. It might seemed old fashioned but its true. You should respect and listen to the country that created your way of life. It may teach you much more than you think.'

He is right. To simply forget the past is ignorant in the extreme.

Should Britain then sit on its Constables and it castles and ignore its old foes? Or should it try to understand who they are and why they have to come to be. Surely it makes sense to try. Consider yourself and consider others and you never know, maybe you'll find out you have more in common than you thought you did. Maybe you do some things well, but maybe they do some things better.

German Bread

Italian pasta

British beef

Ice Cream

French wine

If we could dine together it would be a beautiful meal indeed.