A sunny day at Villaggi dei Fiori, Sanremo & a nightmare journey to Nice Airport - 25th Oct ‘1

You will remember Jim Bowen on the 70s/80s quiz show Bullseye, when the couple in the final failed to win the star prize, they would pull back the curtains to reveal a brand new Austin Ambassador or a speedboat and Jim would say with utter delight ... “let’s have a look at what you COULD have won”.

Today was our Jim Bowen moment, as on our penultimate day in Italy, normal service was resumed with the Italian Riviera weather and the sun came out!

As it was Bobby’s last day he wanted to get as much time in the sun as possible so we decided to have a lazy day staying local until it was time to take him to the airport. And, it is fair to say, in footballing cliche terms, today was definitely a day of 2 halves!

Pre 5 pm was very relaxed. Bobby and I managed 2 swims in a very calm sea.

We strolled along to get a very nice coffee, cake and slice of Pizza. French food has definitely disappointed, Italian food has been better but some elements disappointed, what has way over performed in our expectations has been the Italian coffee!

Finally we made a gorgeous Vegetable paella on the Cadac. When I say “we” ... Kim did the preparation and detailed instruction, I did the “5 year old in a kitchen” stuff of adding stuff in and stirring stuff around. I have to say we both carried out our individual duties very well! We accompanied this with some bread and the local olive oil and some local balsamic vinegar we purchased at the local supermarket - there’s something else for the list of what the Italians do well.

The non-relaxing 2nd half started soon after 5 as we headed out for Nice airport to get Bobby on his 8pm flight in plenty of time. 3 hours to do 40 miles - what could go wrong???

We decided to follow Percy (the Sat Nav) so we went on the best route up the mountain to the motorway junction. All was going well until I missed a right turn. No worries, Percy quickly and efficiently found an alternative route up the mountain. Unbeknown to us we were now set on a voyager of adventure. The narrow lanes with no passing places, the long stretches of 25% inclines and the sheer drops with no barriers were just the entree for the main meal that was to follow.

As we were approaching the end of our unexpected adventure we came across another mind blowing my steep hill but this one had houses either side rather than walls or Olive growing buildings. There was an old Italian women at the top who, considering the speed I was needing to build up to get up the hill, was worryingly slow in shifting out the way. The she held her hands up in a very dramatic fashion and made it quite clear with hand gestures that there was no way we were going to get through the gap. Kim then noticed a sign saying 1.6m - well the XC60 is over 1.9 m so the laws of physics demand only one next action .... backing down the steep hill, through this narrowing gap in the houses to find a drive to turn around in.

Bobby got out to hand signal and move stuff, that could be moved, out my way. It needed a couple of attempts and by the time I had succeeded we had quite an audience. The old woman was joined by a guy on a scooter and 3 drivers in tiny Italian cars / vans trying to get through. No one seemed very amused or empathetic- just ambivalent and slightly annoyed. And what of Kim ... well as well as the Volvo’ front, rear and side beepers going off constantly, I could hear the occasional whimper coming from the back seat - like a puppy on its way to the vets. Anyway we turned round and the journey down to the main road seemed quite tame!

Given the delay caused by this and the deadline of a plane taking off, the last thing we wanted was motorway queues .... well we got ‘em! Turns out Friday rush hour around in one of the biggest cities in France is quite congested ... who would have thought it?? Then, school boy error, we dropped him off at the wrong terminal and had to pick him back up and take him to the right one! Good news though, he got the flight! Well actually bad news, we going to miss Bobby for the last few days of our Italian adventure ... it’s been great.

The journey home was fairly uneventful save for Kim having to get out the car and helping a little old Italian  gentlemen driving a little old Italian car get through a knackered toll barrier as it clearly wasn’t taking his money and he seemed to have run out of both Euros and ideas!

By the time we got home to Brunnehilda we just wanted an easy life ... so we watched a DVD - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Skin Pie Society. Mrs Pitts, ace film reviewer, summed it up rather well in one word ... “harmless!”. After today’s fun and games, there is nothing wrong with “harmless”!!

Picking up Bobby from Nice Airport, then a day and night in Sanremo- 22nd Oct ‘19

French and Italian sites seem much more laid back about how you use your allocated pitch space. Every UK club site (not CL site) has put forward a preferred set up. Some (Weymouth) being very specific, so much so that we had to put her in facing a hedge. Some (Cromer) have had neighbours that were clearly not pleased with the way we were set up. Contrast that to F and I where none of the 3 sites have even offered a set up suggestion, people do their own thing and it just seems to work. My theory still remains - it’s not just the UKs love of rules, it’s an ‘ism about things that are different. #bolloxtobrexit

No such problem this week ... on 2 of the 3 sites the nearest vans have been fellow Knaus vehicles and 8 out of 10 vehicles are Italian or German - no discrimination against English vans though - funny that eh? Rant over.

Woke up to a sunny but windy day. Set off to pick up Bobby from Nice airport at 11am. So we breakfasted early.

We planned to go via a camping shop in Nice. Problem was what the Sat Nav didn’t tell us that it was in the middle of a shopping centre in the middle of the City. So we drove in and out of Central Nice without stopping arriving at the airport about 5 mins before Bobby’s flight landed. French drivers, like Italians seem a lot more relaxed than UK city drivers - with the exception of French bus drivers who must pass a test in being obnoxiously rude and unhelpful.

By 1.30pm we had picked Bobby up and we’re heading home . The fabulous views were a little more enjoyable now we haven’t got Brunnehilda in tow and we’ve got over the surprise of the sheer drops!

We called in at another Carrefour to stock up and then on to Brunnehilda. After a bit of a snack Bobby and I went for a swim. We were trying to work out the last time I swam in the Med? We guessed it to be about 40 years ago! Whenever the last time was, this time was bloody gorgeous! Not too cold, certainly not warm ... just right.

The nice warm day had turned into a nice warm evening so we headed out for the 30 minute walk along the old railway line into the centre of Sanremo. We ended up at the port side at a restaurant called Clapsy! http://www.clapsy.it/ Considering it sounds like an STD it wasn’t a bad bit of grub. A bit overpriced and not a great lot of choice for Veggie / Vegan but it was a very pleasant evening / meal. Including another nice Italian coffee and a refreshing gelato ice cream walking home.

The walk home through town was very atmospheric and then very long as we all started to flag after a  long day. We made it back at about 10pm to crash out in front of iPhones!