It was a mad drive this morning through Italy – I honestly don’t know how Paul does it! It was the strangest thing when we got over the border to Italy, suddenly there were so many people about … in towns, walking about and many, many, many people on the roads. For most of the previous part of this trip it has been really quiet … especially driving through towns – we hardly saw people walking about in the Portuguese and Spanish towns, South of France got busier but not a patch on Italy … it is like they like to be out and about – there is a strong sense of community here but a bloody busy one !
Anyway, after the manic drive through San Remo this morning we reached Imperia. We only headed to this place because it was in the ACSI book and looked like it was not too far from the beach! (Most of the sites in the ACSI book stop giving discount any time from mid June to the first week of July, so we are kind of scraping the barrel a bit now! Hopefully we will get a few more ‘discount camps’ in before it all ends – that will be a rude awakening for us so I think we might have to start practicing our wild camping skills!!)
The chap in charge of the campsite here is a Bangladeshi but speaks perfect English and Italian … amazing ! (Oh, and he has really nice teeth ! Yes, this is Elaine writing this post !!). Here is the front of the campsite with the office and little bar .. (and dog on the balcony) …
We parked up (the van) and then parked our derrieres (or whatever they say in these parts!) on the loungers for an hour or so, whilst deliberating the next part of our journey. We hadn’t really expected to get to Italy (or Switzerland) so aren’t at all prepared!! We decided that we would do just what we normally do, ie, just turn up and see what happens!!
That decided we went for a little walk down to the beach, which was ‘100m’ away … not a lie as the crow flies, but not being birds we had to walk a little further!!
Here are all the beach brollies and sun loungers all set up …
There were some odd little beaches, all of which were being made use of! Here was one that we looked down on, but it looked a lot more like they were sunbathing on mud flats … !
This was the view down the end of the beach … not exactly sure if this is still Imperia or another town, but quite pretty to look at …
Some parts were not sooooo pretty …
It was a very ‘Italian’ type resort, ie, not at all set up for tourists, so it was interesting. We always love to see the old fellas sitting out, playing cards and ‘having a yarn’ – a very European thing …
We had a little drink in a cafe and then headed back to campl Here is yours truly plus Sammie and Bomobolicious on today’s prom …
When we got back we watched the end of the Switzerland / Argentina match and then it was getting late, so we had a pizza in the bar … very nice too !
Here is where we are currently …
Tomorrow we will head inland (I think)!!
Where we stayed:
Camping Di Wijnstok, Imperia, Italy.
Cute little campsite. Friendly staff. Nice facilities*, no pool. Fair walk to the beach – not a great walk along a busy road.
Wifi was available in 6 hour blocks for 5 Euros.
In ACSI book so was 18 Euros a night … *for that you also get a token (each!) for 4 minutes of hot water in the shower !!!
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