It was then a simple case of collecting the hire car from Nice Airport, however simple it wasn't. First we had to make our way to Terminal 2 from 1, which we did on foot after seeing the queue for the shuttle bus however it wasn't quite the short hop we'd anticipated. And having arrived, it seemed obvious that we would need to join the throng making their way to the car hire centre. Wrong again!
There was no sign of the obscure car hire company (Firefly) with which I'd booked the car. I had a faint recollection (more like an imagined thought as it turned out) that it was a budget subsidiary of Hertz so joined the Hertz queue. After queuing for a considerable time and making very little progress, I went back to the terminal building and was advised by a helpful helper person (they have them in Nice as well) that the Firefly desk was located in the teminal itself. Once I found it, I was delighted to find that the queue consisted of one other person, which would have been fine had I not been carrying Rachel's passport So, back to the car rental centre from hell to collect the baggage (and luggage!) and we were off.
First stop, where else but, Le Clerc to pick up some lunch. In the end we opted for Flunch, which is pretty reasonable in all respects. Finally, we left Nice and headed off along the coast, which is rocky and spectacular, stopping once at an aire de repos located on the cliff top. This afforded a great view along the coast and down to a smart looking 'town' below. It was only afterwards that we realised this was Monte Carlo!
Eventually the route took us inland and into the foothills. I quickly found that an Opel Corsa with 3 grown ups plus luggage is not quite up to the task of climbing inclines! Still, it'll do for a couple of weeks.
The drive towards the Alps that followed for the next couple of hours was glorious. And the sun shone for most of the journey. We passed by the mediaeval village of Tende before queuing for sometime to pass through its namesake tunnel, which is currently only open to one-way traffic.
We're now staying in a wonderful and very authentic b and b near Cueno. The welcome was fantastic and we quickly realised that the few words of Italian we know weren't going to be enough. But we got by with the help of a relative of the owner and some French. You can communicate if you make an effort, smile and exercise some patience. Hand gestures also come in useful.
We headed off into the local town this evening and had a fab meal at the trattoria and pizzeria located in the square. It was local, friendly and very reasonable. It also served to demonstrate once again how much you can do with a few words (please, thank you, beer, coffee or tea, some numbers, the bill or menu, and feather).
After breakfast tomorrow, we depart for our first house via Torino Airport to collect Chris who will be flying in from Stansted. The Corsa will love that!
Just to finish: our hosts have told us that Northern Italy is experiencing its worse summer in more than 50 years. That's probably because we're having their weather back in the UK. Let's hope it improves.
No comments:
Post a Comment