Ventimiglia

We are driving back to England. It took us just over 5 hours to drive from Chianti to Ventimiglia, which is just on the Italian side of the French/Italian Mediterranean border. We usually spend a night here. It is a slightly scruffy but colourful place. We are staying in an ancient palazzo in the middle of the old town, on top of the hill. The piano mobile has been converted into a spacious and elegant B&B. I'm sitting on the balcony above Via Garibaldi listening to noisy Italian conversation and smelling the pizza restaurant a couple of doors away. The sea mist has rolled on and off the coast all day. This photo looks across the beach where people were drying off from swimming in the sea towards France. The misty hills are just beyond Menton in France. The rocks in the middle ground (and cranes) are a marina, which has been being built for at least 5 years and is a long way from completion. It didn't help when Berlusconi announced that anyone with a yacht was probably evading tax and would be inspected as soon as possible - all Italian yacht owners emigrated...