The Hills are Alive

Day 11 – Imperia

Annoyingly, I woke up at 2am and didn’t get back to sleep until gone 4. No rhyme or reason for it. The good thing is I’m enjoying my audiobook – Michelle Obama “Becoming”. Listening to it passed the time well.

Today was an exploration of the promenade/cycle path that stretches from Borgo Prino to San Remo – 24kilometers. It was originally a railway.

We toyed with the idea of renting bikes to cycle the route and were quite keen initially. We changed our minds when we saw the serious cyclists in all the gear intimidating the slower riders and then riding their bicycles on the pedestrian path as if walkers had no rights at all. As a pedestrian, this obviously annoyed me so I deliberately walked very close to the white line dividing cyclists from walkers which kept me entertained for quite a while.

Going through the old railway tunnels was very entertaining as they are lit up in different colours and music is played as you saunter/pedal along.

The route hugs the coast so you have a fabulous view of the sea. We drank it in until we actually needed a drink, and then we stopped for a refreshing cold beer. Shandy in my case and a very alcohol heavy beer for S – he hadn’t realised quite how strong it was (almost 8%) but on the plus side, after a swim in the sea he had a nice power snooze on the beach.

We headed back towards Imperia at this point as we wanted to check out a restaurant and explore the cycle route in the other direction.

The restaurant turned out to be hard to find but this was due to it being in disguise ie there was no restaurant name outside the premises. One of those places you need to be “in the know”. We decided not to make a reservation as the both the menu and the prices were a mystery too. Too many unknowns for my liking, so it was steak and baked potato at home instead.

Tomorrow we will probably explore the rest of the cycle/pedestrian route. Looks like it’s going to be another sunny day.