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Thursday 7th March – Bordighera to La Spezia

The morning view from the balcony in Bordighera was a real treat and we were able to see through the trees and houses down to the sea. We had not realised how close we were. The garden was filled with fruit laden citrus trees. We headed out on the coast road in the direction of La Spezia. We had thought we would stop for lunch in Genoa but the timings did not seem to work out and as we drove past the outskirts, of what is an undoubtedly industrial city, we did not see anything condusive to taking a break and enjoying the view.

  • View from our balcony

The coast road did not follow close enough for us to see Portafina except in outline. During the dash across the country we had used many toll roads and I had a very lovely bruise on the underside of my left arm from leaning on the rolled down window, stretching out of the passenger window to pick up tickets or insert the payment card. The journey around the coast had avoided the tolls and offered us fabulous scenery but was adding considerable time and physicality to our drive. We drove through Rappelo and then, after a quick calculation of how long it would take on the coast road vs the toll roads, we decided to go for the toll roads to save 2 hours and Al’s aching shoulders. The toll roads here, while less winding than the coast road, are either long tunnels down into and up out of mountains or they are valley spanning bridges. The views were fantastic, but you were afraid to take your eyes off the road. The barriers in some places seemed very insubstantial and there were large stretches of road works that meant traffic in both directions was running in the same tunnel or area of bridge at 110km with little to separate them but the lane markers.

We arrived in La Spezia, another town about which we knew nothing, as the sun was beginning to set. Our last coastal stop before heading in land. The hotel NH La Spezia was central and the most expensive of the trip. Our room was great and although it did not have a balcony it did have an enormous picture window over the harbour. As we were on the 6th floor and not overlooked we left the curtains open so we could wake up with natural light.

We went on our nightly sojourn for food and found a lovely bar called Odioilvino which did excellent aperitivo. We stayed there for a few drinks before going for dinner which meant that we were already quite full when we left.

Aperitivo

We ended up in an Irish themed pub, which had a massive restaurant on the corner showing sports and a really intimidating old man style more traditional pub to the side. It is worth noting that we have found at least one Irish pub in every single place we have stopped in both France and Italy. The restaurant was noisy but it was getting late so we ate there before retiring to the hotel to prepare for our final day of driving and our arrival in Bologna.

Yes, that is chips on a pizza!
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Wednesday 6th March – Saint Maxime to Bordighera

A beautiful morning saw us make a coffee stop in Cannes where we were planning on following the trail of celebrity handprints, but most of them were included in an area being set up surrounding the conference centre and were not accessible. We bought crepes to go with our coffee and ate them overlooking the marina. Then back into the van and to lunch in Nice.

Al found a couple of lunch options from “Where Chef’s eat” and although the first one was closed the 2nd did not disappoint. La Rossettisserie, Nice is a small restaurant (at this time of year, I believe there is a nearby dining room for peak times) where you pick 1 item from the 4 meat options and 1 option from the accompaniments. I had roast pork with ratatouille while Al had roast veal with mashed potato. The walls are covered in the comments of grateful customers. Al declared it one of the best meals he had ever eaten.

  • Roast Pork
  • Roast Veal

Next stop was Monaco, here we found a lot of renovation work to the extent that billboards with images of the sea blocked the view to the actual sea because there was building work on the shore. Even the world famous street racing circuit for the grand prix had been dug up, presumably to allow for resurfacing before the race later this year. We were able to recognise and photograph some of the iconic landmarks and to get into the marina to admire the yachts and superyachts. We had a drink in a marina facing bar before trekking back to the van and heading for Italy

From La Ciotat to Monte Carlo we had mostly followed the coast road (although the sat nav was fighting us on it) which meant that we hugged the cliffs and mountains, going up and down on winding roads to get into and out of each coastal resort. Al was doing all of this on the other side of the road in a right hand drive van. Crossing the border was less of a marker than we anticipated. I sat with passports in hand as we entered a tunnel in France and emerged in Italy, unsure of what checks, if any, there would be from one Schengen country to another and the answer, none at all.

We arrived in Bordighera as the sun was setting. We had booked our hotel, Astoria, during the Monte Carlo stop and we were pleased to find that once again, we had a balcony. The hotel was fairly central so we popped to a bar to consider our options and were pleased to have aperitivo* delivered with the drinks, ah Italy! Al had found the details of a restaurant up the hill and after a steep climb we found it in the back streets. Ristorante Magiarge specialised in wine, so we treated ourselves to a bottle and ate their tasting menu, the food was fantastic.