May 29, 2015
Ligurian cruising.
A long time ago I set myself a ‘must-do’ for the next time I’m in Southern France/Northern Italy by the sea. I’d just completed a night drive from Nice to Genoa along the E80. That drive was fantastic. Like Crockett’s night-time speeding along empty Miami streets of a night: no cars, great road, great car, great music… but no views due to the lack of sunlight.
The road skirts the northern edges of a sea – not the Mediterranean – the Ligurian. Never heard of it? You’re not the only one.
Anyway, years passed, but my must-do remained. Now, finally, at last, that must-do has turned into a ‘had to, and did do’, and a very satisfactory one at that.
What a road. Smooth as a baby’s bottom, not much traffic, nice bridges and tunnels, plus good drivers who know their highway code and observe lane discipline. The main thing though: the views. To the right – Ligurian loveliness. To the left – impossible Italian impressiveness. Rolling hills, the sea, the cute villages, the castles atop peaks and along the coast.
All around everything is so breathtaking it can get actually quite dangerous. It’s easy to get distracted looking this way and that at the super scenery. Best bet would be to swap drivers every so often so each can have a stint at uninterrupted gawping. Problem is – hardly any parking areas along the whole route! Now that’s just not on.
Accordingly, all the pics here were taken from inside the (fast!) moving car. Apologies for the resulting poor quality.
In all, a must-drive, if ever there was one. Put it on your long-term must-do list :).
Monaco coming into view from the road
Pip, pip folks. Back soon!…
