A Weekend in Italy

The Italian border isn't far from Nice with Ventimiglia being the first town you arrive in. When planning this trip, we had thought spending a couple of days in Italy might be a nice change of scenery. San Remo had been mentioned in some turn of the century (the last one not 1999) book I had read and the town sounded interesting. My friend has also heard of it so we decided to give it a visit.

We picked up our rental car yesterday at Nice airport and headed east after saying "au revoir" to our apartment. I am sure hoping to get back here again next year. Our plan was to visit the village of Eze on the way - it is a very famous and popular, as it turned out - village perche on a hill above Monaco. We had no luck finding parking there or in the nearby village, La Turbie, where we thought we might have lunch Given there is a gas shortage in France right now because refinery workers are on strike, we were shocked to see how much traffic was around and finding anywhere to park was impossible. Maybe on a Saturday, the French just throw caution to the wind and figure by Monday, it will all be okay. So, we decided to head down, and further down, to join the coast road just east of Monaco. In Roquebrune-Cap Martin, we found not only a parking place but a lovely little beach cafe right on sea. It was perfect. We enjoyed a lovely salad there before heading to Italy along the coast road.

Now, it has been a few years since I have driven in Italy but not that many that I didn't remember how crazy it is sometimes to drive there. You simply have to get used to motorcyclists coming straight at you in your lane as if they have some sort of death wish, only to veer in between cars on their side of the road at the last minute to avoid hitting you. We reached our destination, San Remo, about 4 pm but the traffic was bumper to bumper with everyone honking. We circled around several times trying to find our hotel and, in spite of having GPS, we were challenged. I decided to "get out of Dodge" so we could regroup and I could calm down. I drove up into the hills above the town where we found a place to pull over and I called the hotel. Then, we tackled it again. We found the hotel and a tiny little gate beside it that, once my friend had the hotel receptionist open it, I drove down and parked the car in the tiniest parking lot I think I have ever seen! So, we finally arrived at 5 pm at the Hotel Belle Epoque and I don't think I have ever been more relieved to get somewhere! The car will stay parked until we leave in a couple of days. That is certain!

Today, when the "parking lot" was nearly empty I managed to turn our blue car around to have it pointed ready to drive straight out. However, the white car which arrived after that parked beside ours and it doesn't leave me enough room to get into it. That will be interesting in the morning!!

While San Remo wasn't exactly what we were expecting, when we wandered around we started to see some of its charms. In the evening we stopped in Piazza Bresca, a very busy square lined with bars and restaurants, for an aperitif. We quickly decided the square was too frenetic a place to eat, particularly after our day, so we wandered to some side streets to find a casual restaurant where we could have dinner. There is no shortage of choices, believe me, and we found one that appeared to be popular and settled in for a pasta dinner. What was very curious is that every time more people arrived wanting a table, the proprietor just kept adding tables and chairs up and down the sidewalk by the restaurant to accommodate them. It was quite amazing. The shuttered pharmacy we'd stopped in earlier was now completely hidden by people enjoying their Saturday evening dinner. Can you imagine the government or health inspectors back home permitting that kind of fluidity in terms of owners "renovating" their establishments to meet their needs?

The following day after our breakfast, we decided we needed to explore the town further. I am currently having back issues so my friend took off and hiked up the hill to the Santuario Madonna della Costa which was about 40 minutes up a hill. When she got back, we walked down to the sea on a wider boulevard called Corso Augusto Mombello.

At the sea, we walked along the promenade with restaurants and bars on one side and boats and the sea on the other. We walked further along Corso Trente Trieste past the yacht club then away from the shore to Via Alfredo Nobel. The street is named after the Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize. He lived here towards the end of his life and died here in 1896. There is a villa here (not sure if it is open to the public) but the gardens are and they are beautiful. There is also the Villa Ormond which is a recommended place to see. It was closed.

Located nearby is also the Museo del Fiore (Flower Museum) but, unfortunately, it closed at 12:30 just before we got there and didn't reopen until 3:30 which didn't work for us.

For our lunch, we walked back to the seafront where there were lots of restaurants to choose from. We skipped the very casual stop, a boat selling freshly fried seafood off the stern and chose one called Delle Palme where we both had salads and I enjoyed a local rose which was very good - and the price was even better: 5 euros for a 1/4 litre.

Later in the afternoon, we walked along a pedestrian street with lots of high-end shops like Rolex, Maxa Mara, etc. before stopping for an aperitif. For dinner, we went to a restaurant that the hotel recommended called Flipper. It did not disappoint. We had grilled local prawns, apparently a specialty, with a local red wine from an area called Dolceaqua (a comune in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria. It went perfectly with our dinner because it was a very light wine. I enjoyed panna cotta for dessert. We were also given a complimentary prosecco to start (probably because we arrived early and they weren’t quite ready) and a limoncello after our meal. It was a great way to spend the evening here before heading back to France.