Our last day in Italy

We were up at 7am this morning. We’d had a great nights sleep at our aire in Saluzzo. There were no dogs barking and no church bells.
By 8:30am we were ready to move and we had to get fresh water and empty the toilet and grey waste. We don’t have a clue where we will be able to fill up or empty again as now we’re driving blind.
Today would probably be our last full day in Italy but because of the weather closing in we’d decided to drive around the Alps and that meant we’d have to drive down to the coast and back into France that way. It also meant we’d be driving through proper southern France including Nice and Monaco and Cannes. Something I wasn’t looking too so today was going to be a test run.
We had a 130 mile drive ahead of us and it was set to take just over 5 hours avoiding the toll roads.
Most of the journey was monotonous except for when we drove around one mountain pass which was quite beautiful. The rest of the journey was single roads and roundabouts and we stopped for diesel and then at a Lidl around the halfway point to break the drive up.
After 100 miles we came to the coast and then we turned west driving along the coast road. It was a total nightmare. The roads were really tight and there were pedestrians everywhere and scooters. The scooter drivers just went wherever there was a gap and they were overtaking and undertaking all the time. It was crazy. Some of them were even doing double overtakes and in the other side of the road they were doing the same. How we didn’t see an accident I’ll never know.
Finally at 2:30pm we came to our park up for the night. It’s just a gravel car park but it’s right on the seafront and even though the area is a bit shabby we feel pretty safe.
When we pulled up the sun was shining outside and it was 18°c but the wind was howling and gusting at nearly 40mph. The waves were crashing into the seafront.
As we sat in Wanda drinking tea she was rocking about and making all sorts of noises.
At 3:30pm we locked Wanda up and headed east along the seafront and then inland towards town. We still hadn’t got an Italy mug for our shelf at home so now we were desperate and looking for souvenir shops.
Even though we are at the beach and it must be a tourist area because there are camping sites and Motorhome sites here, aswell as numerous apartment blocks, but there are absolutely no souvenir shops. It’s all cafes and restaurants. We walked for miles. Through the town we were in and then we turned west, over a bridge and along the seafront to the next town. In 8km and 2 hours of walking we didn’t find one souvenir shop. We were gutted. But we will make a point of making an Italy mug and using one of own pictures.
As we walked back to Wanda we watched a beautiful sunset over the sea. It was our first real sunset of the whole trip and just as it disappeared we got back to Wanda. Then out of the window we watched the clouds go orange and pink before it finally got dark.
At 6:30pm, still feeling quite safe where we were, Ellie made a lovely dinner of noodle soup and then we closed the blinds and settled in for the night. The wind is still gusting but not quite as bad so I’m hoping we get a half decent nights sleep because tomorrow we’re going to have to negotiate the roads of Monaco.Read more