April 11 - Italian Riviera

The skies are overcast this morning but we are off anyway.  Our tour is taking us to just inside Italy to the Italian Riviera.

First stop was the town of Bordighera.  They claim to have the longest open air market somewhere (we assume along the Mediterranean coast).  And it was quite long.  Most of the shops were clothing, shoes, purses and household goods.  There were a few toy shops and some produce and fish markets.  We had two hours here…45 minutes would have been more than enough.

From there we drove into the mountains to the small town of Dolceacqua.  This is a charming village nestled in the mountains and along a river.  

We got there just about lunch time so had lunch on the plaza by the Church of Saint Antonio Abate.  We ate outside in a tent with heaters and walls of plastic sheeting…good thing it was covered as it was raining a bit. 

Then we visited the church before heading out to the rest of the town.

We found a narrow alleyway that was an entrance into the old section of the village.  The streets were very narrow and very steep.

We made it up to Castle Doria.  Unfortunately it was closed for lunch.  

One alleyway was particularly interesting in that it had white umbrellas suspended along most of its length.

There were some very interesting doors in some of the homes.

After wandering some more we headed down through other parts of the old town to the plaza.  As the tour wouldn't be leaving for a while we found a small coffee shop and enjoyed something to drink.

There was a very picturesque arched bridge over the river.  

And there was a sign posted along the river at the spot where Claude Monet, the great impressionist painter, painted the bridge, town and castle.  The name of the piece he painted was “The Castle at Dolceacqua”.  The sign had a photo of his work. 

We made it back to Nice late afternoon and since it was rather cold and damp out we decided to eat at the bar in the hotel…limited menu but what they do have they do well.