Italy by the back roads

A proper day of stark contrasts today.After an awful night's sleep, thanks to a chiller lorry that parked nearby and kept starting it's cooler motor every 10 minutes, I headed off in heavy mist. The road dropped down following the river deep below. This meant that the road was a superb mountain road. Bend after bend and couple of cols to add to the fun. 

The sun crested the ridges eventually and although the Landy was warm, my fingers stayed cold until I eventually stopped for a large Cafe Creme in a village.

After this, and some more cheese and pate, I dropped down to Nice looking for the hi lift jack again. No joy, but I did get some photos of the blue sea.

My route north east took me above Monaco and into Menton, where I started climbing to Sospel. 

Another set of nice mountain road bends, that the Landy just cruised through, saw me at the Col de Brouis for lunch and with a home made coffee this time. 

Oh and if you're looking for a business, try this one for a clientele of cyclists and all kinds of vehicles, local hunters etc...

A good look at the road map showed the Col de Tende was the only nearby pass into Italy and from there I needed to decide on coast or mountain road to Aulla, which is at the foot of the Appenines and before I get to a friend's place on the Passo Di Radici.

My choice was decided for me, Tende was closed, but the drive up satisfied some of my rock geekiness as I found the biggest load of purple rock in the riverbed adjacent to the road. I believe this stuff only forms under extreme temperatures and usually deep underground. I've only ever seen it as boulders before, never in such amounts though.

After this it was back to the coast to drive through town after town along the coast road. Scooters seemed to outnumber cars and people, women crossed the bustling roads mid telephone conversation with an air of studied self importance and looking chique because they were Italian. The smell of cigarettes and perfume seemed to fill the air. 

San Remo was busy, Savona was a working port with millions of containers stacked high, all lit up after the sun had set. Crazy people with a bit of a death wish either cycled along with no lights on or just randomly stepped out into the road without bothering to look around

I finally found a place to stop on a col, sandwiched between the Autostrader and a cliff edge. It was gonna be another noisy night, but some Satdinian wine might take the edge off!