# Fattore Amico



## ardgour (Mar 22, 2008)

I seem to remember someone asked about Fattore Amico earlier in the year but no-one had tried it so we have taken the plunge and used it for the first time on friday night.
The scheme is the Italian version of france passion but is obviously much newer so there are only 350+ properties as opposed to around 1500 in france passion. The highest concentration of places is in the north. You can get a discount on the price if you are already a member of france passion or the C&CC so we paid 25 euros instead of 30. The joining process online is a little odd but works.
The properties listed in the book have GPS co-ordinates which is much better than their french counterparts (spent many hours down french lanes looking for properties) but for some you must ring up first - which is a little offputting - the rest say a phone call in advance would be welcome, but the suggestion is even a few minutes would do. Don't be put off by this, they provide a simple script in Italian in the book and it works. I speak a very small amount of basic Italian but managed fine.
We chose an agritourismo that also did meals for our first attempt and phoned about 2 hours before arriving. The lady who answered the phone did not speak any english but instantly understood my awkward Italian when I mentioned fattore amico. We received a very enthusiastic welcome by the owners when we arrived and the whole experience was very positive. I will put the place in the campsite database tomorrow when I have more time but based on this initial experience we will definitely be making full use of this scheme as a much better alternative to some of the cramped and expensive campsites. The property listings also give the location of the nearest camper service point which is very helpful and means that so long as you don't need EHU you can be totally independent

Chris


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