San Remo is just over an hour’s train ridefrom Nice, and so one Saturday, Thomas, Joan, Johan and I hopped aboard aCorail and got another taste of the Italian Riviera. Just like on the way toVintimille, the view from the train of the coastline was utterly gorgeous, withcolourful little towns huddled around the shore. It was even more beautiful,because we’d just entered the month of December yet the weather was stillgloriously sunny!! We were visiting the city with no preconceptions – we’dheard it was a beautiful place with a good market on Saturdays, but we’d notdone any research beyond train times – we didn’t even have a map! However, thecity is very small, and simply by wandering around, we managed to get a realfeel for the place and saw most of what San Remo had to offer.
Walking down one of the main streets, at firstwe believed the shopping in San Remo to be rather good – in comparisonwith Vintimille’s booze and pasta shops, the fact that you could buy shoes andclothes seemed promising. However, as we passed our third lingerie store, ourfourth belt and watch store and our fifth shoe store in 5mins, we realised thatit’s maybe not a great shopping town after all…
Was very pleasant strolling around, as it wasthe 1st of December, and I was wearing a sweater and sunglasses! Wewalked along the ‘Maria Alexandrovna Promenade’ and saw all the boats out enjoyingthe water. After a few minutes of soaking up some much welcome sun andbreathing in the sea air, hunger got the better of us and we went in search offood. A few pizzas later (including a French fries pizza…!) we were outexploring the shopping district. Sadly we didn’t get to the market square intime for the famous market, however I still got my parmigiano fix J
Via Palazzo, the main shopping street, was verybusy as it was a Saturday in December. Quite narrow and filled with smallshops, the shopping was an interesting mix of upmarket, expensive boutiqueswith everyday stores. There was a startling absence of high street storesthough, with the only names we recognised all day being the supermarkets whichwere a little way away from the main shops.
Quite surprising was the discovery that thereis a Russian Church here, like in Nice. Also built in1912, the Russian Orthodox church of San Basilio was given to the town by theRussian community, showing the importance of Russians in the towns history.Sadly the church looks a lot less loved than the one in Nice, with all thecolours faded, the building looking a bit worn and a general ‘closed down’feeling settled over the place. Shame, because with a little tlc it could lookjust as impressive as its nicoise cousin. With energy levels flagging, we thenenjoyed indulging in the Italian faux-pas of having a cappuccino after 11am, and nibbled on tiny portions oftiramisu while writing a very international postcard home to Joan…wonder if itwill actually get delivered…
We then immersed ourselves in the old town, awalled village called La Pigna that was first constructed in the Middle Ages.Here, we found ourselves walking up twisty turney alleys, with many many sidestreets, similar in that sense to Eze Village. The old town is just one bigmaze, with so many different routes and surprises around every corner! La Pignais very similar to that in Vintimiglia – narrow, cobbled/paved paths, lots oftunnels and archways, the odd cat or two milling around, mopeds parkedhaphazardly along the path edge, the occasional door hanging open, randomcourtyards encircling a central fountain…I love it!! A little less clean thanNice, with a little less life, but with perhaps more history. Walking aroundthere enables you to step back in time, with few shops and tourists to bringyou back to the present. The Piazza del Capitolo, one of the many smallcourtyards we stumbled upon, is actually the origin of San Remo, with one side of the squarehosting the first public building of the town where the family heads used tomeet to discuss. The fountain here even pertained to the construction of the town’swater system in 1828.
Admittedly, I would be less than keen if I waswalking around after dark, as even at 5pm a lot of the alleys were dark andkinda creepy looking. What I did like however, was the lack of tourists there.We saw very few people walking around there, and other than a small corner shopand a dubious looking B&B, the area was completely residential. It evenlooked a little derelict at times, a little uncared for. I suppose thats what alack of tourists does. At the top of Pigna Hill that the old town is builtaround, was of course a church. Saint Siro’s Basilica was pretty much your standardchurch from this region, however right behind it was a surprising number of apartmentblocks and houses. Although not particularly ugly, it was strange to see housesbehind a church rather than gardens or a cemetery. The main reason to keepclimbing up however was to take in the amazing view that was on offer. We timedit well, to see the sun setting and to hear the church bells chiming.
After perusing the food products on offer in acovered market back in the main town, and buying myself a Canoli (yummy bakeryproduct I adored in New York) we returned to the train station.Lucky we went so early, as in stereotypical Italian fashion, the ticket queuedid not move!! It gave us chance however to admire the new modes of transportthe Italian Police form appear to have adopted – a golf cart and a segway!!Fantastic!!
