Travel Diary 11

Travel Diary 11

What an introduction to Italy today has been! Firstly, gone are the flat foreshores of the Riviera rising to hills just back from the beaches. Instead, massive mountain ridges push their way solidly down to the coast, leaving no doubt as to “this is a change”!

Gone are any hope of sandy beaches. Instead there are rocky shorelines and beaches consisting of just rounded smooth stones and rocks. Not enticing in any way, and definitely not the kind of thing you’d want to lie on to sunbake. Most uncomfortable!

Towns and villages seem to have built in the river flats between the high sharp ridges and because they have been here for a couple of thousand years, there is little flat land left if not none at all and so have been forced to start making use of the hillsides with interesting results.

Most hills are terraced for either agriculture or housing or graveyards or some small industrial enterprise. Roads wind their way up and down the hillsides in between these structures and because land is so precious, roads have been designated the least worthy of any space so are narrower than usual if that’s possible and twist and turn all over the place.

We were headed for a camp site only 100 meters from the beach at a place called Ventimiglia, which looked a nice little spot on the map and a handy base for visiting Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo etc. So with reasonably high expectations we headed off only to find expectations and reality can be somewhat different as I’m sure we’ve all discovered from time to time.

We’d pulled over to get some diesel and a coffee at an Aires just above Monaco. When we got out, we could hear all the racket from race cars drifting up the hillside. Penny didn’t drop immediately, but I’d been wondering why all the traffic on the road over the last hour and then all of a sudden the jackets some guys were wearing gave it away! Monaco Grand Prix was on and that kind of explained things.

Grabbing some coffee and after paying for some diesel (which is still around the 1.25 Euro/litre mark), we walked outside to try and see what we could. This Airees is built directly above Monaco and Monte Carlo probably about 800 meters above sea level. This gave us a good view and feel for the layout of both towns. Although I must admit, it was hard to see where one finished and the other started.

Close to the shoreline were a goodly number of large yachts and the Marinas were full as well. Motorboats could be seen ferrying the rich and famous and others to and from the large yachts. But it was an interesting sight and I thought being Grand Prix every man and his dog will be there – what a great time to visit!

Eventually, after a few photos and having finished our coffees and stretched our legs once again, we jumped back into the van and took off. According to Simon, we had about 45 mins left to drive to the campsite. No so many kms to go. We would be there about 4 or 4.30pm time to do a load of washing and drying and plan our attack on an unsuspecting Monaco for tomorrow! Maybe even time to get down to the beach for a bit of a wander.

Now you have to realise the difference between thinking and experiencing here. We were still a bit excited over hearing and seeing and imagining about it being Grand Prix and what it would be like etc. Neither of us have been to one since the circus left Adelaide and moved to Melbourne, so it seemed like something a bit new. This and a few memories about race meetings and the fun we used to have at the them dispelled any thinking about Ventimiglia and the camp site.

ON we drove and found that we were crossing more and more viaducts and getting higher and higher and travelling through more and more tunnels. It is nothing to look down from a viaduct to see rocky to see hillsides patched with human endeavours some 200 plus odd ft. below. They get VERY high above ground level. Some amazing engineering and design has gone into these. After a while the turnoff for Ventimiglia appeared and we curved our way around bends, loops, twists and turns to get back to sea level again in this river valley.

We could see plenty of houses and buildings and glass houses terraced on the hillsides and no river or creek, just patches of bare stone in places. Maybe this river only ran in the spring thaw? Maybe it never ran at all? Maybe there was no river. Maybe!

From looking at the map and Google Earth, I had gained the impression we should be going to the beach at the head of the town. Instead Simon began directing us back up the other side of the valley, through another tunnel and after we came out and I could see we were about to drop down to a small village which was definitely not Ventimiglia, but called Latte instead, I began to make noises about Simon’s capabilities. Not particularly complimentary ones either!! However, as the road was so narrow and there were no side streets or anywhere to turn around, we ploughed on.

In the village centre, which consists of about 12 shops clustered around a roundabout and bend in the road, there was a side road off the one we were travelling on and we nipped onto this hoping there would some room behind a shop or two to pull over. Fortunately, there was. Right beside a truckie having a bit of a snooze in the driver’s seat!

After breathing loud sighs of relief and telling Simon once again what we thought of him, I took the piece of paper with the address of the Camp Site on it and a map and went in search of someone with a modicum of English and the patience to try and understand me. Not always as easy as it sounds in Italy!

It must have been our lucky day! A young man outside the Super Mercado was very helpful even though he couldn’t speak more English than I could Italian, he and his best mate in the shop took about 5 mins to point up the road and make “go up there” noises amid much arm and hand waving. 

I made some hand signals of my own while asking quando kilometres?? Probably not exactly Italian, but it worked, because he said to me Come! Come! And led me about 20 meters up the street, then pointed and low and behold there was the sign and entrance to the camp site! Good grief!

Back to the van, told Kerrie what had happened and then drove the last 80 meters to the entrance! So, the Ventimiglia Camp site is not actually in Ventimiglia, it is in Latte, the little village next door and some 7 or 8 kms away. OK …. got that sorted!

After parking the van and walking into Reception, we were greeted with “Have you a booking? A reservation?” to which I replied “No” and to which he said “ohh, big problem!” Still not twigging and realising the penchant for exaggeration is a way of life in Italy, I smiled and said nothing, just waited.

Then came which is your van and how big is it. I told him and out came his tablet and with much pressing and humming etc he said Come with me and off we headed. Down a broken concrete driveway to the no concrete driveway around the corner and onto the loose metal driveway about 20 meters further on. Old buildings abounded and the place was full of campervans. And cars and motorbikes. They were jammed in everywhere and any old how. Not like a normal campsite where everything is fairly orderly. I was sure if this was normal for Italy or if they were just very busy.

He kept looking at the layout on his tablet and I figured out he was counting the vans and comparing to the map of where they all should be on his laptop. This would tell him if he had any spare sites for us or not!

The first time he stopped, he said something about you could have here, but I think not as the van will stick out and maybe is too long or if you parked this was it could be all right. What you think? Maybe is OK? Maybe not?

I looked at it and thought, why is he asking me about how to park vans in his camp site? Then due to my hesitation or maybe he was clairvoyant, he said No -  I think not and moved off. So Kerrie and I also, thought not, and followed. Around another corner and with much crunching in loose metal recently laid and spread out, we found a spot which we all agreed if I parked this way and drove in over here, turned the wheels maybe this way and generally fiddled around for half an hour executing a 36 point turn and with Kerrie giving some guidance as to how much distance would be left before I upset the neighbours by leaving large scratches on the sides of their vans, we all agreed it was the best spot for our van. We were very lucky as they were so busy due to the Grand Prix in Monaco you know. We would get last spot in campsite!

We thanked him very much and went and got our van, bought it around to the site and with some funny looks from the odd neighbour, executed the 36 point turn perfectly, lined it up and backed her in! Brilliant! Hard up against the tree with enough room to get at the electricity connection and close to the back fence without going over the edge and falling into the gully below. Because I was certain if we did that, we would probably never have been found. Such was the state of the junk and over growth in this gully!!

As it turned out, the man from reception turned out to be a really nice guy. His name is Simone and along with his father Agostino, both good guys. In fact, the other staff there are all extremely helpful and ready to do so with a smile. They run a shuttle van service to and from the local train station. When inquiring about this I was told, just tell me what time want to go and we go. I write it here on this paper and we go. OK? When you come back, get off at Mentone and you ring this number and I come and get you OK? Is not problem! Is all OK, OK? Do not ring me from Mentone Station, you must get off at Mentone Garvane. It is the next one OK? I can drive there but if it is say after 8 o’clock, it will be hard for me to pick up OK?  Is no problem!

We took advantage of the no problem shuttle pick up and delivery and it wasn’t until we were leaving and paying up the overall bill we discovered the no problem service was 5 Euros. Regardless of how many were I the shuttle! A nice little earner. Still, they just came across as being very genuine and good guys, so you couldn’t get upset with them over that! 

The next day was Saturday and I woke up early, poured myself a coffee from the thermos flask and went for a walk while Kerrie dozed on. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but back in Aachen, Germany when first stocking up the van I had bought a thermos flask and made up some morning coffee each night before going to bed. This was done in an attempt to keep the noise down while Kerrie slept on and I was up and about. Not perfect in terms of no noise, but it helped.

I decided to go for a walk down to the beach and have a bit of a gander at the local layout. So, out of the camp site and I remembered that their advertising had proudly included a section about “there are no roads to cross over to get to the beach 100m away”. At the exit, I turned left and started walking. Turned left at the next road and then down a steepish narrow lane, under the railway lines, and found that there was nowhere else to go without walking through either private land or a hotel’s premises right on the beach side. As it was about six am, no one was about and I chose to go walk through the Hotel’s premises. The forecourt was all concrete and I could see the ocean, but not the beach. Down some steps to another large concrete slab with rows of nicely laid out sun lounges and tables with folded down umbrellas and a waist high concrete wall on the beach side and there was the beach. About 80 meters long and covered in stones and rocks. No sand, anywhere! The rocks had been worn smooth by the action of the ocean and were about 6 to 8 inches long and about 2 to 3 inches thick. Difficult enough to walk on, let alone lie on! Hence the nicely laid out rows of sun lounges on the concrete slab!

I spent a couple of minutes of looking then turned and walked back. At least the advertising was correct, one does not have to cross a road to get there from the camp site. Even if it is about 700meters away!

It takes about 8 minutes to walk around the shops and look. A couple of cafes/bar type establishments. A Laundromat, a solicitor, two hairdressers, a wine, beer and spirits outlet, a super Mercado and a few empty outlets and that was that! I will say the wine, beer and spirit outlet had some great selections even if a bit pricy. Almost as big a range as the super Mercado, but much more up market.

Back to see if Kerrie was awake and to get ready to head off somewhere. We hadn’t quite finalised today’s movements last night, but the general consensus had been maybe Monaco. As it turned out, that consensus held and we made a time on the paper for 10.30am and were duely dropped off at the correct station with words of encouragement about ringing when we got back. There was some discussion about us having to wait maybe if 80 people all called at the same time as the van only held 8 people at a time. I was concerned about this as from what I had seen the 80 people all ringing at the same time was highly unlikely and I seriously doubt he had ever had more than 10 ringing at the same time. But a bit of exaggeration to emphasise a point never goes astray does it!

We negotiated the buy a ticket from the lady behind the window at the railway station and then the separate validation process in the machine outside on the station with the help of a lovely Italian couple about my age. She spoke good English and as we found out later, she had been an English teacher in school. Her accent was true to form for an Italian, but her grasp and breadth of English and its use was as good as you’d get anywhere. Turned out they were in the Camp site about 6 vans along from us. After chatting on the train and them saying they were coming to Australia in October with some friends, and us saying Ohh you’ll have to visit us and so on, we all agreed to meet that night over a couple of drinks back at the camp site.

Just before the train pulled out, the local Police Department turned up in a couple of vans and searched the train. Checking North Africans’ papers, Visas and so on. They found their man as they arrested some guy and left with him and his luggage, bags and what have you. No idea what that was all about. But after seeing the military and police presence at the old Border crossing where they had blocked off half the road and were funnelling everyone through a race and giving them them all the once over and literally seeing dozens of them everywhere in Monte Carlo and Monaco, security was obviously heightened due to the Grand Prix. 

We arrived at Monaco and exited the large underground station into a noisy, crowd filled street walking to and fro under loads of bunting and flags of the Grand Prix sponsors. The street was lined with vendors selling everything expensive to do with the race. From the T-shirts to jackets to shoes to miniature cars to food to pens, lighters, stickers and a million other mementoes that marketers the world over design and tell manufacturers they are good as “promotional material”.  Mind you, having once been in that game, I know they are a very profitable little income generator! So here was a Ferrari stand, a Lamborghini display, a Santander display, games to try out, stuff to buy and Monaco was swamped by it all. Hundreds of stands all decked out under white tents lining the streets. All had the usual gorgeous young girls looking after the displays and selling the stuff. Dressed in tight sponsors clothing and smiling as if their world was just the best and wouldn’t you like to be part of it! Every so often you’d see stunning women in their late 20’s or early 30’s wearing a designer outfit being escorted by a man about 30 years older. Handbags made from the latest fashionable vinyl or crocodile skin and long legs and hair styles reflecting the latest styles, all looking a million dollars. Every single bloke and a lot of married ones tripping over themselves and others in an effort to have a good look. I was reminded of Abba’s song - Money! Money! Money!  It’s a rich man’s world! There was plenty of that on display.

We walked up the hill to the Palace where after some photos and a bit of a chat, the Italian couple who by now were Gemma and Sergio, went their way and we went ours. We walked around the old quarter next to the palace, had some lunch, watched the palace guards look bored and step out their paces occasionally and tried to peer through some gaps in the fencing to see if we could spy some race cars. No luck in that department!

Then back down the hill and everywhere we went, we were blocked off from the Marina and downtown due to the race circuit. We checked and heard that tickets could be had for Saturday only qualifying sessions for around 700-800 Euros each and that got one entry only. We skipped on that deal and instead walked up and down a bunch of steps for a few kms to Monte Carlo. Had to go to the Casino of course.

Unless someone pointed out that this street here is Monaco and that one there is where Monte Carlo begins, you would have no idea as they just blend in together. Built on rocky headlands and using man made breakwaters as harbours, there are few if any houses, just high rise apartments starting at around the one-million-euro mark. Shops line the streets full of designer stuff with appropriately matched prices. Dresses fetching 2 or 3 thousand euros, handbags from every designer who ever lived, jewellery from all the major houses carefully displayed in a careless manner to create the impression that price is of no importance. Many items have no price tag as “if you have to ask darling, you obviously can’t afford it”!

At one point we watched two young girls on scooters all decked out in promotional material drive by very slowly, weaving around the walkers. The next minute a blast of motorbike sirens as two coppers came around the corner after them. Steering with one hand, these coppers were waving everyone back off the road to the footpaths and drew level to the two girls on scooters who were oblivious to what was going on. The coppers in no uncertain way, extended a hand with a crooked finger meaning, “Come with us”. Everyone stared and watched, expecting something to happen.

Then around the corner came more cops on bikes acting as an escort for a new late model top of the range Audi. The car stopped right in front of us about one and a half meters away, and through the lightly tinted windows I could see two men sitting in the back and one in the front beside the driver. As the car stopped, the ones in the back jumped out and started scanning the crowd. I was just beginning to think, someone is going to go a row of skates here, when I had another look. It was Prince Rainer. So out with the camera and I joined the long list of paparazzi and got a couple of snaps before the escorts and security had pushed the crowd back far enough for them to drive on.

Within a minute, everything had settled down and it was as if he’d never been there!

We walked on and asked a few security and police where was the Casino and kept getting told “just down there”. Just down there turned out to be about 2 kms away over various hills and up and down side streets. Eventually we discovered the Casino was in the middle of the race track and I was just about to give up any hope of reaching it when another security guard told is to walk over a temporary bridge to the track centre. We couldn’t see anything of the race or track as it was all closed off but we came out the other side and there was the Casino.

I must say I it is very underwhelming! It is nothing like I expected. It has a small, easily missed entranceway and the building is kind of hidden. We walked in and I had to check in my Camera, my hat and Kerrie most of her gear. Then onwards. I do not know if there are Private areas which are not available to the Public and I suspect that there are probably are, but all we saw made it look very tiny. Only 7 or 8 tables of gaming. Minimum bet 25 Euros. So much for a flutter on the one Roulette table operating!

A small escalator takes one up to the second level where there are a few hundred pokie machines in various rooms, a couple of bars, a small cafe and an outdoor area for smokers full of pokie machines!

That’s it! About the same size as the Townsville Casino was in the early 1990’s. I was a bit disappointed as I had been expecting something more glamorous and to begin with had not been at all certain we would be allowed in due to our casual dress. But, our money is as good as anyone’s it appears, so we were! And so was anyone else!

There have to be private rooms somewhere. Otherwise this makes a mockery of nearly every James Bond movie I’ve seen!

Anyway, to celebrate I convinced Kerrie to have a dabble at the pokies. At first she was a bit reluctant but soon got into the swing of things and won us what we had spent on lunch! Lovely stuff, not many people can say they got a free feed in Monaco I bet! We did not break the Bank of Monte Carlo and I doubt that would be possible these days, but it was fun!

Talking about Banks and so on. I could not believe the numbers of offices of international fund managers and investment banks that were in Monte Carlo. Side by side, all over the place. Understandable really when you think about it. I mean, where else in the world is so much wealth accumulated and looking for good investment managers while it’s owners play in their yachts or pick up their next youngest girlfriend in a Ferrari!

Back at the campsite, we caught up with Sergio and Gemma and had a great evening with them drinking a couple of red wines along with eating some nibbles. They were very interested in our trip and having done heaps of campervanning around Europe themselves, they offered some very good advice and were keen to help out some more. So we agreed to meet them in about a week at their home near Milano and spend a day with them.

They are also coming to Australia later this year and we made various suggestions to them and offered a chance to bed down with us in Brisbane in return if they want. Turns out Sergio and I are the same age. Both been married before, also had one daughter with no sons in his second marriages and we have have a whole range of similar interests. The one real difference is his love of cars. He collects minatures and at last count had nearly 500 which his wife keeps threatening to throw out! His wife, Gemma, was a teacher like Kerrie and both love cooking so there is lots in common and as Sergio proved later, what a huge help he was for us. Fantastic couple and how fortunate for us we met them. Really looking forward to hosting them in Brisbane later this year.

We have been so fortunate in the people we have met! Couldn’t really have been better. We even met a Doctor in Spain whose wife and Kerrie got on like a house on fire. Both love nice clothes and things and for a while in the camp ground over a few reds, we boys had a bit of a fashion parade as the girls compared clothes, shoes and handbags and Kerrie got some big tips about where to go to buy discounted fashions in Milano. For those ladies who like shopping, there is an Outlet place situated between Genova and Milano which consists of about 80 odd shops. It is situated about an hour South of Milano.

There is even an Outlet centre for men selling electronics, car parts, household goods, hardware and boys’ toys over the road. This consists of about 50 shops. The whole town, if you could call it that, only exists due to these shops. We did not see any houses. We did see a McDonalds and a couple of Bars for men to to while away the time while their wives and girlfriends went shopping though. Seems nothing changes the world over!

Every major fashion label and even those we have never heard of, are present. Many clothes are those that were designed in Milano, maybe appeared in fashion parades, didn’t sell and now have massive discounts on them. Or just last seasons range. I must admit, that even from a males perspective, some of the stuff was quite stunning. It would be very easy to blow 20,000 Euros here without trying too hard!

I say massive discounts. But … when the original price of a dress was say 1,000 Euros, being discounted to 500 Euros is huge, but still an awful amount of money! The most expensive we saw was just over three thousand dollars! It amazes me how the less material used, the more it costs!

 We stopped off on our way through, but Kerrie didn’t buy anything. Apparently shopping with your husband by your side seems to put one off somehow. I’ve got no idea why!  But that was something useful to learn!!

Anyway, it turns out the Doctor is a specialist and when he saw me limping and stretching and rubbing my back and knees etc, he askled what was wrong and then asked if he could see my Doctor’s reports which I have bought with me in case of an emergency. After reading them and asking me some questions, he pronounced I was in good hands and the advice I had received was very good.

Great to receive some confirmation from a Belgium Doctor!!

This is another couple who plan to come to visit Australia in a few years, so she and Kerrie became facebook “friends” and we will stay in touch. Who knows, maybe some else we can accommodate for a few days sometime.