The Mediterranean Sea

This is a late posting of our entry two days ago. We have been without internet connection for three days. Also, no pictures for now since we are sitting outside of a tourist information site pirating our internet. We'll do better when we can. Huge hugs to everyone.

We are looking over the Mediterranean Sea from a Bed a Breakfast on a mountainside right on the border of Italy and France. From our room we are looking East along the coast of Italy and on the other side of the street for dinner we will be looking out along the coast of France to the West. Our place is about fifty feet short of the end of the road. At the very end is a church overlooking the Mediterranean and next to that is a Restaurante’ where we will have dinner. The drive up the hill was epic, with a cliff on one side most of the time and occasionally on both sides. Jamie says that it was the scariest drive she ever took. I’m not sure how she knows that since she had her hands over her eyes for most of it. The road was one car wide for most of the way with an occasional pull out to allow for on coming traffic.

We knew that we would be early in the year. The vineyards have not bloomed out yet but it was a beautiful drive over to the coast. They have toll roads across country which rally lose a lot of the character but allow you to get there in a much shorter time. We could never have come this far in a day on the back roads but I would much rather be traveling more slowly on the back roads. The cost of the roads is high totaling about thirty dollars to get to the coast. We were told that the roads would be clear of traffic and they were. Now we know why.

It was very exciting to see the Mediterranean when we came over the hill for the first time. The towns and villages are very ………..Mediterranean looking. It is almost exclusively red tile roofs and light beige and pastel colors on the buildings. Almost every square inch of the hills that do not have buildings are covered with grape vines or olive trees. They build on every level of the mountain sides and have a very high incidence of church towers When you are not on the toll roads, the roadways are impossibly narrow and twisty. The cars are mostly small and I think they have to be to fit through some of the roads.

The Italian drivers are in a league all their own. Jamie says that I’m clearly not crazy enough to compete. I actually become a traffic hazard by driving only 20 or 30 Kilometers over the speed limit. I get passed regularly and have found that they speed up to my bumper then ease around as closely as possible without actually leaving my lane entirely. Driving is an adventure. We have renamed the Bitch. She is now “Sweet Susie”. I don’t think I would want to drive in Europe without a GPS. It has been wonderful in otherwise very confusing situations.