Blogs from Ventimiglia, Liguria, Italy, Europe

The railway station is in the new town of Ventimiglia, which was characteristically regular, orderly and grid-like. A short walk brings you to a foot bridge across the fast flowing River Roia which surges into the sea at this location. Across the bridge you are into the precincts of the old town that sits about 200 m above the new town area but has none of its regimented order. After Nice and Monte Carlo the Old Town of Ventimiglia makes a bold contrast. It is evidently retaining its traditional identity and is obviously winning the battle against gentrification. To some extent, it presents as an Anti-Eze. There is nothing particularly scrubbed or manicured for tourist consumption in his town. In comparison, this is a place that people actually live; where locals nurse coffees outside small cafés, ... read more

Italy in a Day - Ventimiglia We left the French Riviera, where super rich moor their luxury yachts, film stars ponce around hoping someone might notice, and ‘would be if they could be’ camp followers take selfies on crappy stony beaches while faking a big happy smile and holding mocktail they can’t afford, with spectacular cliffs of the Cote d’Azur in the background. Streets on the French side are filled with fashionably attired gents and ladies promenading on boulevards lined with exotic sports sedans and cabriolets wearing expensive marques. A panoramic backdrop of townhouses and apartment buildings tucked in against each other reach up the hillsides, and are set at random angles to each other utilise every bit of available space. Lively paintwork and bloomy adornments complete the vista and to me, it looks as if ... read more

Decided at breakfast to pop over to Italy for the day and see the Ventimiglia markets. They stretched for miles along the waterfront. We stopped off at Monaco - Monte Carlo on the way back for a quick look round. Far prefer Cannes as a place to visit. Still very hot days. May do some trips into the mountain villages over the weekend.... read more

We were surprised to find a place called Hanbury Botanic Gardens in the town of Ventimiglia Italy but were attracted to it as it was voted No 1 attraction in the town on Trip Advisor. The gardens occupy 45 acres of land and were constructed by a very wealthy Englishman called Thomas Hanbury in the 1870s. They were sold to the Italian State in 1960 by Hanbury’s daughter-in-law, then in 1987 they were entrusted to the University of Genoa who continue to manage them. A magnificent Palazzo on the property was originally built in the 11thCentury but has been modified and added to over the years. It is only one of many beautiful structures on the property including temples, fountains, statues, covered archways and family memorials. The gardens which were terraced down to the Mediterranean Sea, ... read more

Farewell to Nyons where we have spent the last four weeks – we can thoroughly recommend this beautiful town as a great place to visit. Our drive to Ventimiglia was relatively uneventful except when we decided to stop for lunch in Aix-en-Provence. It was a much bigger town than we expected and the usual problems of getting into the town and finding parking were multiplied. We eventually found a parking station and headed for the town centre where we found a nice place to eat then had a quick look around a couple of streets before heading off again. Aix is another lovely Provencal town with narrow streets, heaps of shops and pretty buildings. It was filled with locals and with people like us, so no point in complaining about too many tourists when we were ... read more