Ventimiglia, September 2

It’s like Christmas has arrived early!

What was lost has now been found: my luggage arrived at my hotel in Ventimiglia toward the end of the afternoon.  I celebrated by changing clothes after a good shower and by plugging in my electronics with my recovered travel adaptors. (Life does become very simple when one is doing a pilgrimage, in effect.)

I had reason to expect this would happen since I was able to confirm via Internet this morning (when I was still at the hostel in Nice) that the luggage had indeed been delivered to Nice, such that it would likely be delivered to Ventimiglia at the end of the afternoon.  While waiting for this to happen, my day of walking and errands unfolded as planned.  I took the train from Nice to Menton-Garavan station and immediately headed for the border — which I crossed without incident — and toward Ventimiglia.

The weather was unstable and you could see big grey clouds on the horizon — accompanied on a number of occasions by thunder coming down from the mountains to the north. I got to experience a lot of raindrops, but the track never got completely wet and the fairly constant wind meant that I was drying off as fast as I was getting wet from the rain. (In effect, especially given that I had no ranger with me — it was in my luggage, of course — I was lucky: my day had barely ended and a storm hit when I was safely ensconced back in the guest house.)

In spite of a few climbs and descents along the “Sentiero Liguria” that seemed to form the central spine of the Via Aurelia/Via della Costa, including a climb to get to the centre of the old town of Ventimiglia (and its cathedral) on a rock outcropping, I got to Ventimiglia fairly early — towards 11 (well before the scheduled check-in time at the guest house). So I took advantage of the fact that I was able to buy an Italian SIM card more or less across the street. (Note that a lot of businesses in Italy seem to close at noon on Saturday and stay closed through to Monday at the earliest.) Once assured that my phone was working, I went to find the train station, where I had a good mushroom risotto with a bottle of water (San Pellegrino once again). Knowing that my luggage wouldn’t arrive all that early and that I had no other errands to run, I decided to continue my walk up to Bordighera (as planned the night before) — especially since it would take only an hour or so — and to take the train back to Ventimiglia (for a 1.90 euro fare). I walked on the main route of what was, from Ventimiglia onward, a more or less continuous urban area all the way to Bordighera. (It’s probable that this will be the case tomorrow as well, between Bordighera and Taggia.)

After delivery of my bag, I made my own meal in the guest house that evening (which I will do again tomorrow night) after having done some grocery shopping in the late afternoon: fresh pasta with walnut pesto and red peppers — and to drink, more water (fizzy this time). I write these words well contented.

Table of contents

Next: From cape to cape

Distance covered (cumulative) : 14.8 km (26.1 km)
Steps (cumulative) : 32,100 (50,800)
Altitude lost (gained) : 362m (353m)

Menton-Ventimiglia:

Ventimiglia-Bordighera:

Cartes / Maps:  Menton-Ventimiglia  Ventimiglia-Bordighera