From Switzerland we decide to make our way to Italy. Now in previous blogs we have said we would never return but.......return we did, lured by good weather and recommendations to give it another go!!!
So from Locarno we headed South down the East side of Lake Maggiore to Occimiano. The trip down was extremely hazardous as the roads were very narrow, hilly and bendy but it was definitely worth the stress for the sheer beauty of the small villages, the continuous tunnels and the breathtaking views. Somewhere along the way we crossed the Swiss Italian border where border booths were still attended but, without looking up from his cellphone, the policeman waved his arm for us to continue on. (Seriously we could have had a dozen illegal immigrants in Molly for all he cared!!) Continuing down but now on the Italian portion of the lake, the roads immediately deteriorate, becoming narrower and unkempt. The road patching seems random, the potholes huge and then, on a narrow right hand bend with a huge, solid cliff-face to our right, we come face to face with a massive tourist bus. We both come to an immediate halt, as does all the traffic behind each of us, the female bus driver hangs out the window gesticulating wildly and we can only assume she is staying right where she is and we have to sort it out!!!! OK so we have solid rock to our right, we are going uphill and we have traffic backed up behind us? Yep..... The only way is forward. Slowly, inch by inch Gary creeps forward. We are a quarter of an inch away from the cliff on my side, the motorbiker behind the tourist bus is pulling a face as though to say "you are never going to make that" and the female bus driver is shaking her head.....why we have no idea. Molly takes a big breath in and we squeeze through, give everyone a happy wave and continue on. I no longer need reminding why we said we would not return to Italy!!!!!
We make it to our free Camperstop, with electricity, in Occimiano which is absolutely lovely. The village has done a great job of setting up an area with lighting, a seating area, electricity etc but the downside is?........it is on a small island in the middle of the road where 3 maybe 4 roads converge........and it is no longer free????? That is OK though - it is still cheap - so the bikes come off and we cycle into the village to pay our money at the local pub. This is when the church bells start ringing and ringing and ringing..............and then the cockrells start crowing and crowing and crowing! Bellringing practice and Alzheimer cockrells (this is late afternoon after all)?.......we jump on our bikes and cycle out of town to hopefully a village a short distance away which is a little quieter, leaving Molly to soak up the atmosphere at the camperstop.
But we never get there!!!! The roads are soooooo bad that a screw in Gary's pedal keeps being shaken undone and he is having to stop every few minutes otherwise his pedal will fall off. After a few kilometres of this we give up and return to Molly where we are joined by 2 French couples and enjoy a lovely evening chatting over a few glasses of wine.
Italy is just not for us!!!!! Next day we decide to head towards Nice, France and there is a tunnel on a border which will eliminate us having to go over the Alps but give us some great low mountain scenery through picturesque villages. This is good. GPS set....off we go.
We skirt around Cuneo, travel through the lovely ski-ing town of Limone Piemontè, zig zagging our way up the lower mountain roads as we do so, reaching the tunnel maybe two and a half hours later..........CLOSED!!!!! Everyone is bought to a halt at a set of traffic lights, on red, which never change!! In the distance 2 men can be seen chatting, leaning on road works barricades, oblivious to peoples distress (or ignoring it) - they seemingly, really, just don't care! If they did they would have pulled the plug on that road down in the Valley or at least set up some diversions. We are, once again, on a narrow road, on an up hill with nowhere to go. Big lorries and tankers in front of us are trapped. Once a stream of traffic appears from nowhere heading towards us. There is a road over the Alps apparantly but we are advised, by very definite headshaking from other travellers not to go. Cars and motorbikes, behind us in the queue, begin to pass us and travel to the roadworks site, turn around and head back down the hill. This is what we must do too - we have lost hours of travel time, we have to find another route over a different border which is not mountainous and we realise we will have to spend another night in Italy!!!!! Mmmmmm........once again I need no reminder of why we and Italy do not agree.
So we set off for Imperia - south-east of our intended direction skirting the base of the mountains via Mondovia, past Vicofort Sancturio and through Ormea. It is actually a very nice journey, beautiful scenery, not much rubbish, only 3 prostitutes on display and those oh-so-nice little villages. We wonder how they feel or cope with the huge trucks and sheer volume of traffic rumbling through their once peaceful villages.
We finally arrive in Imperia on rush hour and Kate (GPS) takes us directly into the City Centre, thru the middle and spits us out the other side. This is a large, major city with plenty of traffic and crazy Italian drivers and it is hot! Safely out the other side and close to our campsite she instructs us to "turn left"...... Straight into the sea?????? Really have to question that choice Kate! So, missing our campsite, and not being able to do a U-turn on such a narrow, winding road we are forced to head back up into the hills again. Spying another campsite we investigate that as an alternative option even though it is nowhere near the beach and directly underneath a motorway flyover. 30Euro a night???? Get real!!!!! Think they saw us coming.
Anyway if nothing else we had the opportunity to turn around here and recalculate Kate - taking us back, correctly this time, to our original campsite. It has been a long and arduous day and we sleep like babies.
This campsite is awful - but this is Italy after all - the take it or leave it attitude we have grown to understand. There are no toilet seats, no loo paper, no handwash and filthy, but hot, showers. We make do knowing this is our absolutely last day in Italy - we need no more reminders, we will not be back.
Irony is, next morning, before we left for the French border we walked along the beachfront, over the expressway and under the railway line, opposite our campsite. We discovered a cute cafe with a lovely, charming, Italian waitress where we bought fabulous coffees and scrummy Italian choc au pain (best I ever tasted anyway) and had FREE wifi for as long as we liked. I would say a very positive ending to Italy - wouldn't you? This, however, was not the end of Italy but that all comes in the next blog.
Love to all - hope you enjoy and understand travelling, the way we are, is not all stars and roses!!!!!!
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