Divider

Saturday 1 January 2000

(New Years Day)

A fresh, but stunning day.  Blue sky and brilliant sunshine bouncing off gleaming snow.  We set off out of Briancon towards the winding road leading to the Col de Montgenevre and the Italian border.  Fabulous views and a great deal of snow.  We crossed the French part fo the border well before we saw the Italian part – there must be quite an area of no-mans land.  The town of Montgenvre was there to ski and everyone and his dog was out celebrating the new year on skis.  We were tempted to take a lesson or two but in the end decided that we really didn’t have the gear and continued on.  It would appear that the Italians are into Motorhoming in a big way.  Every parking space in the ski resort that did not have a height restriction was occupied by one. 

We continued to wind our way down and out of the mountains.  Stunning scenary once again, although there was noticeable less snow on this side of the mountains.  We became stuck behind a convoy of firemen – a Fire Engine, Fire Discovery and a very smelly Fire Minibus.  There was so much smoke that the fire engine following the minibus probably kept wanting to extinguish the fire.  We had soon left the mountains as a backdrop behind us and were travelling through flat plains of soft fruits (apricots or peaches perhaps?) towards the Mediterranean coast.  The mountains looked fantastic in the hazy background.  We passed through wide streeted towns with old Italian houses, adorned with drying washing. 

We stopped for lunch at Cuneo before heading up into the coastal mountains and once more beautiful views.  We passed over the Col di Mologno (an old fortified village) before dropping down to the tacky but winterified Med. Coast.  The scenary of terraced olive groves and steep sided valleys to the sea more than made up for the holiday towns.  One thing to note is that the Italians do not believe in parking places.  Except in towns and then they are always full or have a height restriction.  However, as all of the campsites are shut for winter, the people with Motorhomes just seem to stop anywhere reasonably safe and stay for the night.  There also seems to be safety in numbers as they tend to cluster.

 

Divider

Yesterday
Yesterday

Todays map
Top of Page Home Contact Us
Todays Photos
Tomorrow
Tomorrow

Pebbles divider

View Diary

View Maps

View Photos

Website created by Jo Peters
Page last updated 06 January 2000 by Jo Peters
Disclaimer

Copyright © 1999 Jo Peters.  All rights reserved.