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