ITALY ITALY
ABOUT ITALY
SAN REMO
VENTIMIGLIA
Population: 50 000. Year: 2002
Because of the beautiful setting on the Italian Riviera, San Remo is a famous city and very popular for tourists. A film festival is just one of many events that take place every year. San Remo´s most famous building is the casino, that I didn´t manage to find. San Remo is a wonderful city. When I arrived the sky was a bit grey, but the rest of the day in San Remo was very warm and sunny. One thing I remember was that I was very thirsty when arriving in San Remo and wanted something cheap to drink. But all stores where closed in the middle of day. It didn´t take long to figure out they had siesta!
The fountain in the city center with the text "San
Remo". The Fiat that is driving by is a typical Italian car.
This beautiful piazza is the core of San Remo.
I tried to find a moderately priced typical Italian restaurant there, but unfortunately
ended up at the McDonald´s in the center. As you see, motorcycles and scooters
are very common in Italy.
This modern and large central station was built
when the railtracks were moved (the old station is not a great sight today). This
is were I arrived, just a few blocks from the city center. You have to go through
eternally moving walkways (horisontal escalators) that goes through the mountain
to the station building that is very far from the tracks. When the long
walkway has stopped, you have to transport yourself through yet another walkway.
A typical street between downtown and the harbour.
Note the mountain in the background.
A narrow park in the city center. Far to the left,
below the hill, is the harbour.
The nice harbour with its many yachts. There are
two tourist harbors in San Remo: Porto Vecchio and the modern Porto Sole.
I got the idea to walk upwards through the hills of a
residential area, just to get some nice views. It was so high it took almost
half an hour I think. There were these typically Italian highrises, that looked
bohemic and oldfashioned, but they were far more charmy than commie blocks in
Eastern Europe.
Population: 25 000. Year: 2001 and 2002
This small coast town is just half of the size of San Remo... It was very warm and sunny both times I was there. It was the first Italian town I ever visited in 2001. In 2002 I just dropped off there for half an hour or so to change trains. Ventmiglia is a border town where many French people, as alcohol in Italy is even cheaper than in France. Ventimiglia is called Vintimille in French.
The main street is called Via Roma. Ventmiglia
also has a long harbour area, popular for tourists.
We began walking in the old part of town
with very narrow streets. But the city center is situated in the newer part.
The autostrada high above the outskirts of Ventimiglia. The road standard
in Italy is generally very good, probably because of the high road taxes.
This is the section about the Italian Riviera, including the cities San Remo and Ventimiglia, both belonging to the Italian province Liguria. The Italian Riviera is the Eastern extension of the French Riviera. I made a trip to Italy for about half a day on both occasions I visited the French Riviera. In 2001 we went by car both to Monaco and Italy for the first time at the same day. We just visited Ventimiglia, but the next year I went to Italy alone by train. Then I went "all the way" to San Remo and dropped by for an hour in Monaco. The coastline is absolutely amazing either if you go by train or drive on one of the three different height levels by car. The highway is not recommendable if you want to see much though, because it mainly goes through long tunnels high above the sea. However, a cool thing about the highway is that you get the feeling of travelling on a "highway to heaven" because you see the cities and the water so deep down, somewhere below the highway.