A day in Ventimiglia

Today we caught the campsite shuttle bus into Ventimiglia for the weekly street market on the sea front promenade.

What a market it was too, endless stalls, just when you thought you'd reached the end you'd turn a corner and there'd be more.

It was busy, it seems people come from quite far afield, both locals and tourists.

It had a pleasant atmosphere though.

Later we walked to the Marina to look at the floating gin palaces moored up waiting for their owners to give the command.

Actually, I googled one or two names and they were all charter yachts including Rock 13 with it's distinctive black livery.

From it's website it looks like a party boat waiting for it's next gig of wealthy party goers.

It's quite a modern Marina forming almost a circle and has a Lovely walk through gardens with plenty of places to stop and check your bank balance and dream, if only ............

Next, conveniently there was a lift up to the medieval village on the top of the hill.

This was quite scenic with lots of classic Italian village houses, with five or six storys and with shuttered windows, washing lines strung between the buildings, churches of course and fantastic views of the Marina below and the Mediterranean Sea beyond.

So all in all, an enjoyable day in Ventimiglia

Here are some photos of our day.

Stress on the Autostrada

We left our campsite at Agliano Terme this morning and set off towards the Mediterranean coast.

I set the sat nav for the Autostrada but the first hour was traveling cross country, following mostly valleys and dry river beds, but through some quite green and lush countryside.

There were miles and miles of vineyards, all the grapes seemingly having been harvested by now.

So we got to the Autostrada without having been able to find a suitable park up for our morning coffee so it was straight onto the motorway.

We stopped at a service area for coffee and I decided to change the route to non toll. Partly because I thought the coast road would be more scenic and we also need to do a supermarket shop.

Big mistake.

Firstly at the automated toll booth Sue put the card in and it fired it out again at great velocity, having taken the money though.

The card ended up on the road under Ed, so I had to scramble around under the van to retrieve my credit card while a queue of impatient Italians formed behind me.

Clearly Italians in this region are either wise to this trick or have developed lightening reactions for these situations.

The route took us into quite a big town called Imperia with more than it's fair share of scooter riders with a death wish, and also a low underpass at 2.8 metres, we're 2.9 metres and not going to fit through.

So it was a case of backing up, (assisted by a helpful local) turning and finding another route.

Fortunately google maps came up trump's and we were soon out of that busy town, but without finding a supermarket.

By now I was quite frazzled, the coast road was now much less appealing than before, and the large town of San Remo looming, and I was having visions of lots more low underpasses there.

So I reverted to the Autostrada again for the final miles.

Thankfully Sue kept her hand over the credit card slot and caught the card as it was fired out again.

Another stress was the wind. The Autostrada in this region is a series of tunnels and extremely high bridges across ravines. It's windy today, so you exit the tunnel and are immediatly hit by really strong cross winds. 

Un-nerving to say the least the first time or two.

I was glad when todays driving was over and I could relax with a beer.

We arrived at our campsite after find a Lidl and stocking up.

We're in a town called Latte, right on the coast clinging to the rocks with the coast road passing through and the Autostrada very high up above the town on stilts.

It's a bit of a scruffy town and the campsite is very cramped and neither hold much attraction really, in the small town there seems to be Africans hanging around, illegals I presume ?

There isn't really a lot of choice for campsites in this area without going to the more chic resorts and paying a lot more euros.

I think this site trades on being a reasonably priced base for travel to nearby towns such a Menton, Nice, Cannes, Monaco etc. 

There is also a town we came through today called Ventimiglia which holds a very large street market on a Friday and the campsite run a shuttle bus there, so that's the plan for tomorrow.

I'd planned to spend a few nights here to have a break from driving as we've covered a fair few miles this week, so we may get the train into Monaco on Saturday.

Not many photos today, Latte is not very picturesque :(

The stoney beach was being used just by some brave surfers, I'd hoped
for a prom with some bars but I was disappointed to find none

There's quite a surf up today

Walking down to the beach we came across this rather grand entrance gate which appeared to go nowhere. I can only presume a large house once stood behind it but there's nothing there now

Monte Borghetto to Agliano Terme

We left the lovely little village of Monte Borghetto this morning waving goodbye to our neighbours in their million pound palaces.

Heading further west, I decided we'd again take the Autostrada toll road.

What the tolls charge are, can largely be saved in fuel costs by not having to slow for roundabouts every few kilometers, and they certainly save a considerable amount of time.

We're parked up now in a small village called Agliano Terme on a campsite that doesn't really have much to recommend it apart from the fantastic countryside it sits in.

We're in the Piedmont region famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling wine which seems to me to have fallen out of favour in the UK to Prosseco from Trieste.

Both are not really to my taste, being very sweet and low in alcohol 😉. 

So I doubt we'll be buying any whilst here. 

The pitches here are rather threadbare grass, a sign of a long hot summer and drought I expect.

There's a huge swimming pool and hard courts for a variety of sports.

I had a walk up to the hilltop village center, it's quite a steep slog up to the top, but worth it for the spectacular views it affords. 

I'd hoped there would be a bar at the village for refreshments, but sadly nothing was available. 

So I just wandered around taking some photos.

There seems to be about five churches, for a tiny village that seems an awful lot.

So here are some photos of my climb up the hill, and the village of Agliano Terme at the summit.

Our rather dusty grassless pitch

I can assure you, it was steeper than it looks !

Steep lane up, but worth the effort

This was a nice place to spend 10 minutes pondering life,
one I shall not forget