The Italian Riviera

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We were a bit fed up of seeing beautiful Italian hillside towns, pretty as they maybe. There was just one particular one that people had recommended and that was Lucca, just inland of the Ligurian sea. We chose Il Particcia Campsite at Massa, advertised as 65 meters from a free beach (somewhat of a rarity in Italy).

We were almost greeted with a smile from the reception man who took us on his bike to the far end of the campsite where there were about 20 fellow travellers in a field; he pointed to a pitch and left. The rest of the site was made up of semi residential Italian caravans with the usual great extensions of polythene etc. The toilets were dirty and shabby, €1 for a shower and the wifi ("covers 80% of the site") was useless if you were outside the 80% as all the travellers were. However, the beach was free as promised and good.

We went to Lucca but were disappointed, not up to the standard we were used to (but maybe we were culturally punch drunk by then). However, it was a pleasant enough town and prices were lower than what we had got used to lately.

Why did we stay at this campsite a week? You may well ask but if you stayed for 7 days then the last one was free. That always interests Terry.



We moved on to Baciccia Campsite near Ceriale just before the border with France. It was recommended by a German guy we met, this site was about 500 meters from a not very nice, free beach. Here the Internet was €5 for 10 hours but in a week we had not used our 10 hours as it rarely worked at all. The pitches were small and compact and we at first wondered why we were staying there. To make it worse there were a family of 7 with two dogs and a crying toddler all staying in a caravan opposite us. However, over time the site grew on us, the toilets were always clean, there was a great pool with lots of sunbeds and the staff were as friendly as could be. They tried hard and one night had an Italian buffet evening which cost €9 each, started with a pint of beer or large wine and the food kept coming all night.

When we used to live in France we were told of a big market in Italy near the French border called Ventimiglia, where the French go every week by the busload. Terry had always wanted to see it so off we went. It took us a long time to get there but it was probably the biggest market we have seen. It was like most other markets in the world though and sold the same stuff. However, the language spoken was French as that was the nationality of most customers, so things have not changed in 15 years!



Most things are cheap in Italy except fuel and toll roads. The cheapest diesel we found was about £1.40 per litre (petrol much more) and we spent €150 on tolls just in Northern Italy.



We do love Italy though.

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Photos

The old Roman Amphitheatre at Lucca.
Now converted into a Piazza