Scenic Driving On the Italian Riviera

It was to be a day or two of scenic driving, from San Remo through Imperia, Savona, Genova, Rapallo, Chiavari, and dozens of others, then up in the mountains, and then down to La Spezia. And it was. We stopped rarely. For the first 50-75 miles the towns are nearly contiguous, all with 30 MPH speed limits, traffic signals, pedestrians, double- and triple-parked vehicles. One spends a great deal of time simply stopped. We thought of it as slow mobile people watching, like in a cafe, except with us passing by and not the people. The first night we stayed in a campground in Ceriale, did the wash, then got a late start the next day. The towns thinned out a bit, and then we came to Genoa. Vicki wondered aloud whether Tom, our crack SatNav, would take us right into and through Genoa. Of course he did! Right on the two-/sometimes 4-lane main coastal drag. Genoa seemed like a 50 mile-long port. We got lost only once, and that afforded us the opportunity to see the Centro Storico and its buildings. From San Remo on, the dominant architectural feature was the trompe l'oeil painting on buildings, even the plainest of buildings, some of it quite impressive. In addition, there was a bit of Art Nuveau here and there. After Genoa, the driving became a bit tougher, first high on mountainsides and the hill-top towns, then down to the sea and the seaside towns. And again. And again. Vicki took pretty much all the pix these two days. It was nice to get a sense of Genoa, but we would have done better to have taken the autostrada. Also through the mountains inland from the Cinque Terre. (We've driven the autostrada in these parts before and don't care for the endless tunnels and high bridges). We were glad to have seen all the things we saw, particularly the coast itself, and particularly glad to reach the free sosta in La Spezia as darkness fell.

At the beginning

Pretty castle and town

In Genoa, scooters lined up to beat the traffic

After Genoa, climbing...

Ditto

Another beautiful seaside town

In Rapallo, I think, a tour bus makes an impossible turn

Old tower on the water; many of these

The charm of the autostrada, high above

Typical

And now in the hills

Cemeterio