Rapallo (out of our comfort zone)

A fine example of tromp de l’oeil (see Saturday below)

As we were at possibly the second worst camp site in the world on Thursday night we quickly packed up and set off on Friday morning.  We had expected a heavy dew over the tent as the other two nights that we had camped next to water we awoke to a wet covering.  It seems that our theory was wrong as, even though we were next to the Med, the tent was bone dry and our towels that we had left out had also dried.  We now think the previous two occasions when dew had formed were because we were camped by salt water lakes.

The old Genova to Ventimiglia railway line running through the campsite (built in the 1860s - the last time the camp site was renovated 😉)

I suppose we were lucky the railway line has been rebuilt this century otherwise we would have had noise from trains to contend with too!  The new railway line is another engineering marvel but not so good for the tourists.  The old line used to hug the coast, corniche style, and was in the open for much of its length.  The new line is nearly all in tunnels.  For example, the tunnel through San Remo is 13km long and has the new San Remo station in the middle.

Our tent can just be seen - four terraces up, two terraces above bare-chested guy

We managed to travel our 1,000 miles through France without going on any motorways but accepted that we would at the top end of Italy.  This was because we have had three days driving on the trot and it was unfair on Buddy, let alone us, so we decided to get to our next stop as quickly as possible; hence using the autostrada.

I love driving through this part of the French/Italian riviera as the journey (on either main roads or motorways) constantly changes.  One minute you are on a high viaduct and the next going through a tunnel to come out the other side onto another viaduct and so on.  There are dozens of tunnels and viaducts on the A10 between the French border and Genova and we soon lost count.

One of the tunnel entrances on the Autostrada dei Fiori (motorway of flowers)…

…and a viaduct

As most people will know, one of the viaducts collapsed at Genova recently so there is a diversion through the city and it was a nightmare.  Not only are there the hundreds of scooters that the Italians love but also lost lorry drivers and tourists creating additional driving hazards.

Motorway closed – diversion is through the city

It’s strange why we Brits call the city Genoa as it’s probably more difficult to say than Genova 😉

Going past the collapsed bridge – the crash barrier is in the way, but you can just see the road comes to end in mid-air just left of centre

We found a camp site north of Portofino outside a town called Rapallo.  As with all the other camp sites in Italy (apart from the nightmare of Cevio) it was practically full.  On the other hand, this was small, clean and quiet and we soon settled in.  The only drawback being the number of cats roaming around which means Buddy has to be kept tightly tied up.  Saying it is quiet doesn’t mean it hasn’t been packed but for some reason everyone seems to be peaceful here.

Dried up river next to the camp site – probably quite a sight when it’s full of Alpine snow melt in the spring

The rivers are rather disconcerting as they are shown on our road maps as thick blue lines but when we arrive most are bone dry so we sometimes lose our bearings.

Quaint packhorse bridge back to the site

It was still a little cloudy, but we were glad the pitches were all in the shade.  We decided to take electricity for the first time on this trip as it is getting increasingly difficult to keep fresh meat and other produce cool.

Our new view

Local water melons

Having moved on the last three days we took it easy on Saturday – that meant having breakfast at midday before going out.  We went down to the port of Rapallo to have a look around.  We are on a large square shaped peninsular with four towns along its east facing coast: Rapallo (where we are), Santa Margherita Ligure, Paraggi and at the far south, the most well-known, Portofino.

An information board at the port puts it all in perspective (we are camped in the far right)

We each use different weather forecasting apps and Karen’s, which is Italian, was forecasting a high chance of thunderstorms during the afternoon.  Although we kept seeing dark clouds rolling off the mountains we didn’t get a drop of rain all day.  In a way it would have been good as it would have relieved some of the constant stickiness in the atmosphere.

Storm clouds behind a rather pleasingly coloured building in Rapallo

There are very large villas along the harbour front, some in a good state of repair and others, sadly, not so:

The top storey of the villa on the left is not good at all with missing windows and area of roof tiles as well as shrubs growing through the roof

The facades of many of the houses in this area are painted in the style known as ‘trompe l’oeil’ (trick of the eye, or literally deceives the eye), which makes flat surfaces looks three dimensional.

The design at the top and the window surrounds have all been painted as well as the shutters on the right

The colonnades and the cornerstones are not real on this house

Another good example where the only ‘real’ things are the green shutters and shutter stops (oh, and the balconies of course 😉)

We walked around the harbour and came to Rapallo castle.  This was built in 1551 following an attack by Turkish pirates in 1549 when dozens of local women and children were apparently taken as slaves.

Rapallo castle

The beaches around the harbour were packed with sunbathers and the sea full of swimmers.  We had left our swimming gear back at the tent which was a great shame as the sea looked so inviting and cooling,

Looking back across Rapallo bay

Talking about swimming gear I am paying for not letting Karen check what I had packed for our holiday.  I had misjudged the weather totally and only brought a few tee shirts, everything else is either hippy, polo or rugby style tops – far too warm for the weather we have had ☹  Still, camping on the way back to the boat will be different as it will be at the end of October so I suspect I will be glad I packed the warmer gear.

The reason I said we were feeling out of our comfort zone is because neither us know any Italian other than the standard ciao and boungiorno.; at least we can get by in France with our (improving) 'O' level French.  Karen was in a grocer shop today whilst I stayed outside with Buddy and had several conversations with locals where neither of us knew what the other was saying other than Buddy was used as the focal point.  One old guy even shook my hand on the way into the shop and again on the way out saying, ‘Buonasera’ which I at least could respond to 😊

We will stay a third night at Rapallo, visit Portofino on Sunday and then head off south to find a camp site around Lucca for our final stop before driving on further to the place we have booked in the hills above Seggiano in the far south of Tuscany on Wednesday.

Our approximate route to our ninth camp site at Rapallo