Spring is beginning to green the rolling Piedmontese hills as we make our way down the auto strada from Milan.Thi s is familiar country – I spent long stretches of my childhood here, among the wide fields and castle towns, the Alps a constant backdrop of crags and snow.

Now, though, I’m here for a glimpse of the future that is also a window into the past: Bulgari’s vast new factory in the farmland outside Valenza – an extraordinary new chapter in the history of this most classically Italian jeweller.