Siamo Qui!

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That's Italian for "We're here!"

We had a mixed train ride here--from Nice to Ventemiglia, we were packed in like sardines, unable to move, standing all the way, then from Ventemiglia to San Remo, we had the train to ourselves, but all in all, it was a smooth trip. We had a two hour layover in Ventimiglia, where we went for lunch---pasta and a glass of wine. An interesting woman, who spoke Italian and some French, cooked the pasta just for us. An Indian (from Calcutta) street vendor tried to sell me sunglasses for 15 Euros. I got him down to 8 and bought them. A friend of the waitress asked where we were from. When I said Alaska, he asked if I was from Nim. It took me a minute figure out he meant Nome. It appears that Nome is the city that Europeans associate with Alaska.

Our hotel faces out over the beach. Anita and Mel stayed here before so she knew it was a good place.

We're resting now and will add more later.

Later:

After our rest, we went for a passeggiata, an Italian custom of talking a walk along a street that is blocked off from traffic, sometimes a city street, sometimes along the beach. Usually, the stores are open for shopping or just window shopping. We dropped into a book store and wandered our way to an outdoor restaurant, had an eggplant pizza and some deep fried zucchini flowers with wine, and a chocolate dessert afterward with coffee. We walked back to the hotel in a very, very light rain.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we're headed via bus for a day trip to Dolce Aqua.

Buona notte. (Good night.)

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Photos

Stylish Italians
Even the men coordinate their shoe color with their shorts.