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Today we wake up and the sun is shining, the sky and the Mediterranean are blazing blue and Italy beckons just a few miles east along the coast! We are as happy as the day we landed in France (before we started attempting to put the bikes back together.)
We started off with bags full of some of our favorites from France (you know, in case they don't have good food in Italy).
And our brightest shirts to prepare for the Italian drivers. (Sorry Mom, but it's true).
I forgot to post a glamor shot of our hotel, The Balmoral, yesterday. It was way fancier than our usual (and cheap because it isn't yet the season), and dripping with that slightly faded, early 20th century glamor that is characteristic of the Riviera.
We said goodbye to the French coast and just a few minutes later, we crossed into Italy, where you absolutely can't drive 90kph through cities.
The route had a little bit of everything - curvy winding stretches, uphill, downhill, tunnels, and lots and lots of coast traffic.
Of course it took about 15 minutes, falling into potholes, swerving to avoid illegally parked cars and sensing a headache coming on from all the souped up scooters for me to start reminiscing fondly about France...
We found a lovely spot for lunch
With a confusing waste disposal system.
Soon after that, Eric followed a hunch and we headed down to the sea to the very start of a waterfront bike lane
That took us through an amazing 2-mile long tunnel with historical trivia about the Milan-San Remo bike race (started in 1908)
And all the way into town
We checked into the Villa Maria (more faded glamour, and down a star from its heyday) and set out to see San Remo.
Besides the glitz and bling of the casino, the yachts and the villas, San Remo has an amazing, warren-like old town that climbs up from the sea.
We hiked through it and discovered that there's no sweeping view from the top, but there is a small church with this odd lawn art.
San Remo has also been a favorite winter destination for Russians since the mid-19th cen, when tsarina Maria lived here. There's a spectacular onion-domed Russian Orthodox church in town - this is a photo, since it is currently covered with scaffolding.
And the real thing
The inside has a riot of modern murals
As well as a collection of icons
Some of the murals are quite clear about the future for sinners...
The crypt is like no other we've seen. Not only does it have a statue of Tsar Nicholas II, but the only tombs are not of saints or clerocs, but of the royal family of Montenegro.
Our sightseeing done, we wandered down to the sea to look for oligarchs and the EuroRich. Instead, we would up sipping beers next to the Friday afternoon senior citizens' bridge club.
We did see a couple of Lamborghinis, and some mega yachts hiding behind the fishing boats. As well as some teeny weeny bikinis (on both genders), and a lot of scalded and leathery skin.
Dinner at Chicco e Rosa was, frankly, mediocre. But there was meat that wasn't canard (pork) for E
Branzino ravioli for A
And gelato for both of us!
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