mama mia!
ended up next to a cemetery in Briaglio, Italy
It was a demanding day; driving-wise, parenting-wise, emotions-wise, new-country-wise. And it is exactly those first impressions that you need to capture before they become familiar. Things like not knowing how to use the gas station (turns out you pay your money, fill up and then get your change back!) Things like the momentary realisation that you have no words other than musical ones to speak, and neither crescendo nor fortissimo is going to cut it with the beggar who has just come up to you to ask for money. Things like the first few towns being rundown and full of rusting corrugated iron roofs…..even by the day’s end, this impression had been washed away by the beautiful paintings on buildings making flat surfaces look like three-dimensional altars and window frames. Speaking of altars, things like a myriad of roadside ones. Things like pedestrian crossings being painted red and white and almost everyone driving with their lights on. Things like everybody being dressed immaculately – all clothes look brand new, women’s shoes are either little strappy numbers or high heels (it has made us feel decidedly tatty after almost a year of wearing the same two sets of clothes!) Things like the couple sitting outside their front door – their chairs didn’t quite fit on the pavement and so their feet were hanging on the street, the main road through town that was so narrow we barely fit, let alone needing to swerve to avoid running them over! Things like Cuneo’s massive town square surrounded by buildings with a wide shade-trapping arched overhang; and the main street too…..roads onto the square cut under the archways. Shops filled with gelato and fancy pastries and lacoste and shiny black boots and CDs and sweets and truffles (not the chocolate ones, but the pighunted ones that cost thirteen euros eighty for a mere 30 grams!) Things like funeral notices glued to public boards and men who talk with their hands.
And let’s not forget the day’s beginning. Yesterday’s mountains were child’s play in comparison to today’s struggle. Not only did today’s road go up, but it snaked in hairpin bends, a few on the up and nineteen on the way down again. The view is likely to have been spectacular, but I was petrified of the drop away from the winding road and was tempted to squeeze my eyes tightly till it was all over. Instead, I sat hunched over the steering wheel, shoulders tense, foot flat to the floor, straining upwards. We pulled over in the hopes of not overheating. We pulled over again when The Bear Cave’s temperature gauge reached the fiery red warning stage. We called it lunchtime. It would have been nice to call it a day and stay put, to spend the afternoon wandering up the slopes, observing the wildlife (in our two short stops we saw a myriad of beautiful butterflies and enormous cicadas and so many dragonflies we lost count), but we were heading for Savona, 190km away, and as we had only traversed 30km by lunchtime, putting the brakes on so early in the piece would certainly not have got us any closer.
As it was, we did not get anywhere near Savona.
We pulled in to Cuneo just after 2pm. If we’d been in France, the shops would have been starting to open again after the midday closing. But this is Italy and they would remain closed for another hour and a half! So we waited. Keen to get another fancy stick doodad that will allow us internet access, there was no choice but to wait. Fortunately the wait was worthwhile (even if pricey – GULP – don’t ask how much), but it meant we were not hitting the road again until 5:30pm.
We are busy avoiding a toll road and unlike France, the alternative routes are not major roads – they are steep narrow winding under-maintained strips linking every small village on the map. Italians like to overtake on these roads, and when they perceive there to be not quite enough room for them to squeeze past they give you a toot to move you over. The Italians are zippy in their cars….the rule for roundabouts does not seem to be “give way to whatever is already there”, but “if there’s a little gap, try your hardest to fill it before someone else does”. Being bigger does not seem a deterrent at all – if anything they are extra-eager to make sure they get in front of us (possibly due in part to the comments about the roads above).
Such are initial impressions. I wonder how many will prove to be generally incorrect.
Time on the road: need to check Jboy13’s record!
Distance covered: 148km
Tags: 2008/09, postcard: Italy
rayres
AARGH! That last photo sums up the driving situation! Horrors. So, it’s too far to walk I guess 🙂
Actually Fiona, it’s not quite so bad – we think the barrier damage is due to avalanches rather than vehicles leaving the road! Good thing we’re here in summer. There *were* a few skid marks though, where someone woke up to the fact that they were perilously close to death!