The congestion on the site here is now much less – loads of people left on Monday so it doesn’t seem as crowded. We think they had hung on to see the air show and then moved on the next day. Good. The afternoons are very entertaining with quite a few new arrivals but most of them are only here for one night. Good.

We have really warmed to San Remo, known as the tourist centre of the Riviera dei Fiori, Riviera of Flowers. Went for a long walk, into the town centre along the seaside, all round the sea-front area, into the vast marina and out the other side. The part of the town centre just back from the sea front is not particularly large and is dominated by the Casino, churches (including a Russian Orthodox) and about four or five large hotels on the western side, where the caravan site is, and two huge marinas housing about eight hundred boats on the eastern side. There is also a permanent covered fruit and veg market in the centre with a twice weekly peddlers’ market. The town centre proper has some lovely streets lined with quaint shops, cafes and restaurants, with designer boutiques mixed in. The Casino also hosts various events in art, culture, theatre and exhibitions.

When we walked into the little central railway station building by the seafront and walked through onto where the platform should have been we were surprised to find another road and no tracks! Apparently, the railway line has been moved up behind the town into a tunnel and the old railway track is in the process of being made into a walking/cycling path. The area going out of town heading east has already been completed and they are in the throws of doing the rest. When finished it will be a super facility – about 15k trail along the old railway line route, covered in tarmac, for walking and cycling along the coast. We’ll have to come back with bikes one day. 

 The rocky shoreline gives way to beaches fronting the town which all seem to be private. At the marina end there is a huge sandy beach which is only accessible by going through manned barriers, or cafes – and paying! At our end of the town there is a succession of private beaches run by the cafes they are joined to. At the caravan site there is a lovely pool area and the seaside rocky beach area and, as the weather has been mixed, we tended to stay here for swimming. Apart from the first couple of days which were cloudy, we have usually had a clear blue sky in the mornings then cloudier from mid afternoon – but it’s always been warm.

The old town Medieval area, or the Pigna (pine cone), clings to the steep hillside away from the sea front area and is a maze of very old buildings very close together – lots of narrow alleyways, with long flights of steps - it was built this way to deter marauding pirates. We spent a lot of time getting lost in them but found lovely tiny little cafes - more like someone’s front room – small sunny squares, ancient churches, artist workshops and very inviting restaurants - we have chosen a restaurant to go back and eat in next week.

Had a drive west along the coast road through some lovely little towns – Ospedalettti in particular – very scenic drive, mostly high up above the sea with the road sweeping down into the town centres at sea level.

There has been great excitement in the town at the end of this week as San Remo has been hosting a leg of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge for S2000, Groups N, A and A7 cars if that means anything to anyone. We saw lots of dressed up Peugeot 207s, Polos, Clios and apparently the cars cost anything up to 200,000€ each. This event takes place from April to November in 10 locations round the world starting in Turkey and ending in China. Judging by the number of teams, car manufacturers and sponsors there is a serious amount of money involved in this. Over three days the Rally Cars zoom off on timed runs round different routes of the local area – starting and ending right in the town centre. The roads in town were not closed to normal traffic and it was very amusing to see the Rally cars coming back - weaving in and out of busses taxis and normal cars through the town to get to the finish line. The Italians all drive as if they are racing anyway so it all seemed to work fine. A large area of the sea-front was designated as The Service Park where the teams’ mechanics etc were set up. There was no crowd control here and we could just wander amongst it all. The officials had whistles which they blew whenever a car was approaching – at speed! We found it very entertaining walking round and seeing it all, never having been to anything like it before.

Have enjoyed a couple of hot sunny days round the pool here – it has never been crowded and at one end you can lie and enjoy super views out over the ocean. Very relaxing.

Sunday 28^th September – Nina, James and Hector move to their new house near Purley, Surrey, today. We wish them every happiness in their new home and can’t wait to visit them there.

We are staying here for another week and plan to explore east along the coast and some of the inland villages.

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