The change of scenery I have witnessed in the past 24 hours has been astonishing. I left Geneva on the train to Nice, and with the mountains a distant memory, fields of sunflowers, olive groves and the occasional vineyard opened up before me. The difference couldn’t be more profound. I definitely feel like I’ve left Switzerland, and as I write this, I’m sitting by the Mediterranean Sea for the first time this trip. Definitely not the last time however, in fact I’ll more or less be hugging the Mediterranean for the remainder of my cycle to Egypt.
The weather is continuing its marvellous streak of sunshine and hot days. As I came into southern France, I checked the forecast, and the next 5 days are all for glorious sunshine, with temperatures hovering around the high 20’s. First stop was Nice, and I was going to spend the night there, but the hostel that I was aiming to stay in was full, and I couldn’t be bothered looking around for anything else, so I had a quick look around town, then headed out following the coast road for a bit of ‘night riding’. I fired up the lights which haven’t had a lot of use since leaving London, and cycled out of Nice towards Monaco, getting to within about 5km of the small principality before finding a quiet place on a hill beside a rarely used road. I setup camp on the cliff top here. Well, ‘camp’ is a loose word. It was so hot and I was so sweaty, that I didn’t even bother with the hammock. There were no trees here anyway, and I was lucky to find any spot that I could hide away for the night, given that the French Riviera coastline is fairly densely populated. I simply threw the sleeping bag on the ground, rolled up a t-shirt for a pillow, and passed out on some rocky patch of the cliff, thought first making sure my bike wasn’t about to roll of the edge during the night!
It was the first time I’d wild camped and not even bothered with the hammock, and I surprisingly had about 6 hours of good sleep. The sun woke me at about 6am, then again at 7am, and I got up, and was on the road again by about 7:15am. Minutes later I was in Monaco, checking out the harbour full of stupid-size cruisers, and then hooning around the Monte-Carlo Grand Prix circuit on Bessie. I liked Monaco, it was small, yet about 10 times more interesting than Liechtenstein. And it was beautiful.
I needed a shower badly, and a little further down the road from Monaco, I finally found a beach I could use. There are two things that have been shitting me about the French Riviera so far. The first, is that despite the fact that I’m literally cycling as close to the coastline as the roads allow me, it’s not always easy to just ‘pull over’ and jump into the water. There always seems to be something in the way; railway lines, houses, or the fact that the road is on a cliff face 200 metres higher than sea-level. The second thing, is that there are many beaches, but many are private beaches. On one stretch of sand in Nice, there were 15 ‘private’ beaches and in between or at each end, the spaces were made public. Now, anyone can visit the private beaches usually, but it’s at a cost. Normally the hire of a sun-bed or umbrella space or something, for between 7-15€ per day. And on the public beaches, the amenities seem to close fairly early, so despite the fact that it’s 9pm and the sun still hasn’t set properly, you can’t really use the beach unless you have a hotel room in the town, otherwise you are locked out of the toilets/change rooms. But hey, I’m whinging, and I shouldn’t be. Today I swam in salt water for the first time since I visited Croatia last September. And it was wonderful! I can feel the salt goodness working wonders with my skin already – especially my blistered feet.
From Monaco, I cycled another 20km across the border into Italy, and immediately, I’m sure that things got a little hotter, and a little more beautiful as soon as I came out the road tunnel at the Italian end. It might have been my imagination, but that’s what it felt like! The other notable change was of course, the Italians – and their driving! I have never been to India, but I’ve heard about the chaos on the roads. Well, I wouldn’t put Italy into the ‘chaos’ category, however there certainly us a uniqueness to the way they drive. Basically, anything kind of goes, as long as you don’t hit somebody. People do wait for the traffic lights (most of the time) and there’s sort of a pecking order on the roads. Basically, scooters or mopeds (and there are thousands and thousands of these everywhere!) will go wherever they want, when they are on the move, so long as they can make progress in the direction they are trying to move in. They weave in and out of traffic, cross over to the other side of the road regularly, and will make their way to the front of the traffic lights by following the middle line of the road. Bicycles can do the same, but tend to stick to the curb side, the right hand side of the lane. Cars will pass the bikes when it is safe, but the scooters pretty much reign supreme. They aren’t much of a problem for the bikes because they are so skinny, and I’ve found that scooters or mopeds will generally pass me easily, at speed, and they do it all the time. You get used to it. There’s a lot of horn beeping and stuff going on, but overall, as long as you keep your eye on the traffic, you’ll have no problem and you’ll find it quite safe. I definitely made sure to wear my helmet though!
From the Italian border, I stopped off at the first town, Ventimiglia, and had a short look around before jumping on another short train up to Genoa (Genova). I had to do this to make sure I had enough time to cycle to the Cinque Terre by Wednesday. I’m staying in a hostel there and meeting up with Malf and Dan, so can’t be late!
As it stands, I’m very close to there now. I didn’t hang around in Genova either. The city, to be honest, was too big to explore in just a few hours, and I didn’t even want to start. I hit the road immediately, and I’m glad I did because it took ages to get out of the city, and then there were two very steep climbs along the coastal road to the Cinque Terre that I didn’t expect. I seriously thought it would be nearly flat (if not winding) along the coast, but that wasn’t the case. Unlike the Swiss, the Italians seem to build tunnels as a last resort. The roads snake up and down the hillside, and I spent another 3 ½ hours cycling after I left Genova. But I’m not in a place called Sesti Levanto, at a wonderful campsite. The people here are very nice, and despite the fact that the kitchen ewas closed, they cooked me up a wonderful (and cheap!) spaghetti bowl, and I’m downing a few equally cheap beers from the bar as I type this.
With any luck, tomorrow I’ll actually only be a few kilometres from the train station that takes you into the Cinque Terre park. I’m going to dump my belongings at the hostel in Manarola, then meet up with Malf and Dan, wherever they are. I think they’re going hiking some place nearby. So it should be a lot of fun! I can see lots of red wine flowing tomorrow evening 🙂
Ciao! (Which funnily enough means hello in Italian, but also goodbye?
2 thoughts on “Rule Italia! (oh and I went to Monaco too)”
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(Psst Matt…… I think you need to change Morocco to Monaco……..)
Eh!! Brucey,
You’ve been hosted by some fine people, but I’m dying to know about the contact you made that enabled you to be flitting from Nice to Morocco then to Monaco, and again off to Morocco, before doing the Monte Carlo Grand Prix circuit, Morocco once more, prior to crossing into Italy.
I know there are some people of phenomenal wealth around those parts, but I’d love to know if you were transported by Helicopter, or as the speed of your transits suggest, perhaps you were in a private Jet.
Or, was it in fact, all in your mind, the result of something you had taken, other than the local beer.
Probably, the beer, the exertion and the Sun, rendered you so tired, that for a short time you didn’t really know where you were, until a swim in the Med cleared your head.
Whatever, I’m continuing to enjoy every episode, even though we your impatient readers sometimes have to wait 8- 10 days for the next one, so keep up the good work.
Be safe and don’t start any wars in Bosnia.
Cheers,
Robbo.