Leaving
St Aygulf, we followed the coastal road around Cannes, where we stopped to
stock up on food and fuel. We then
headed on to the beautiful towns of Nice, Monaco and Monte-Carlo. We had visited these 3 places a couple of
years ago, and as lovely as they are we decided not to stop but head all the
way into Italy. Plus, Monaco was gearing up for the Monaco Grand Prix and it
was going to be tricky getting in and out, so another reason to avoid. En route, we passed this pub – much to Mel’s
delight!
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| Mel's Pub - he wishes! |
As
we approached the border, we were not anticipating getting stopped; however, as
we approached 3 French policemen pulled us over. Having checked our passports, they asked us
where we had come from, where we were going and how long we were on holiday
for. We told them we were on a year-long
holiday and they whistled loudly and expressed how envious they were. They
wished us a good holiday and we slowly moved forward into the Italian side
where 2 Italian soldiers stood in our way with guns. They just gave us a ‘hard
stare’ and moved the barriers to one side to let us pass. We figured they were stepping up security considering
all the troubles, but we could have been smuggling in some immigrants for all
they knew, as they didn’t bother checking the motorhome at either side. We weren’t smuggling anything, by the way!
So,
we were in Italy and ready to explore the ‘Boot’! Our first impression was how
stunning the coastline was, and how old and ornate the buildings were as we passed through the little towns/villages. The last time we were in Italy was in 1987 and had started our travels from Venice, so this coastline was all new to us. We were under no illusion that a lot will have changed in this country since we last visited.
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| The start of the Riviera di Ponente coastline |
Our
first stop was an Aire (or Sosta, as they are known in Italy), 2kms outside San
Remo (N43.80266 E007.74809). It’s a massive Sosta (basically just a large car park) that overlooks the sea. It had the usual - water, chemical
toilet and grey waste but no electric and cost us the princely sum of €15,
which we thought rather expensive, given that the 4* campsite we had just come
from in France was only €17. We had read
that it was expensive around this coastline but hope to stop on more ACSI
campsites as we get further round, or find some scenic areas to do a spot of wild camping.
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| San Remo Sosta - with Sonny now wearing the Italian sticker on the map! |
The
following morning, we got on the scooter to visit San Remo. It was 9.30am and the road was chocka with
cars and loads and loads of scooters!
San
Remo had its heyday as a classy resort in the 60 or so years up to the outbreak
of WW2. There was a substantial Russian
community in the town then and Tchaikovsky wrote his Fourth Symphony in San
Remo in 1878. We think these large iron chairs and music
stands down by the marina are representative of the music festival they hold every year.
Walking
around the labyrinth of streets in the old quarter was lovely but it was evident that a lot of the
buildings were crumbling and in need of restoration. Although, in the western parts of the town
they are in pristine condition and there is a long upmarket pedestrianised area
(Corso Matteotti), lined with clothes stores and cocktail bars, and at the end of it is San Remo Casino - the Italian Riviera’s most famous casino built in 1905. It
is very ornate from the outside but to be honest it wasn’t as glamorous as we thought it would be inside. Unfortunately, they don't allow you take photos of the inside. It was nice to see that they had put the red carpet out for us ha! ha!
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| San Remo Casino |
The
Romanesque Cathedral di San Siro sits near the very busy Via Palazzo.
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| Cathedral di San Siro |
And
nearby a lot of narrow streets and Kasbah-like arched passageways and alleys.
So,
here is a conundrum: how do you find
your scooter in San Remo among all of these?
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| One of many scooter parks in San Remo |
The lady in the bottom middle of the picture was sat on her scooter waiting for someone to move
theirs so she could get out. Luckily
for us, we had parked ours down by the marina and easily found it! From here we
strolled along the lovely palm-laden walkway along the beach, before enjoying a lovely lunch down by the marina.
Leaving
San Remo yesterday afternoon, we travelled a short distance to Loano. We got to the Sosta, only to find it was
closed so ended up parking in the car park opposite, along with a couple of
French motorhomes. We woke up to this
little fella going passed our door!
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| It may be small, but a snake is a snake! |
We
continued to follow the coastal road passing through some lovely seaside towns, which we imagined would be really busy in July/August. We decided to take the autostrada to get
around Genoa's port and most of the town, and to avoid the traffic that was now getting very busy. Nearly all of Italy’s motorways
are tolled but the stretch we took only cost us €3 for about a 20km journey, so not as expensive as
the French motorways. Mel has done all the driving in Italy so far as they are, how can I say this nicely.... 'crazy drivers'. The rules of the road, well there doesn't seem to be any! Scooters are all around you and cars cut you up at every opportunity. So, as the saying goes 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' and so far Mel seems to have mastered this well ha! ha!
We
are now parked up on a free Sosta at San Rocco (N44.33249 E9.16613).
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| View from the Sosta – left on the hill is San Rocco, on the right down by the sea is Camogli |
From
the Sosta you have to walk into San Rocco (about 300m), as the road is very narrow and is only open to
residents. From here you can follow a
labyrinth of paths to Portofino and San Frutuoso, but we plan to explore these
areas on the scooter or maybe take a boat trip. We walked the
paths for about an hour and took in some lovely views.
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| San Nicolò of Capodimonte |
There
were about 800 steps down, which wasn't too bad - it was the walking back up that was hard especially in the hot sun! So, needless to say we needed to stop for a well earned beer, at a lovely little bar/restaurant overlooking the sea.
Buona salute!
Sally
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