The Italian Riviera
I just regret not going there before. Out of all the places we have visited while living in Switzerland, the Italian Riviera has been, so far, the most memorable one for me. The beaches. The food. The tiny village!!! I’m so glad it was here that we stayed at and not at Cinque Terre or at Portofino for that matter. Consider this; if you’re traveling with children and pet(s), then skip the beautiful and panoramic scenery of places such as Monterroso or Cinque Terre because kids just wanna have fun! Head out to the region of Liguria. We booked Laigueglia (a province of Savona) at the last minute and found an apartment where we stayed at for 5 days. Mind you, it was not a fancy place but rather a simple, local place to stay. It did have though exactly what we wanted; the open view of the Mediterranean Sea…was heaven!
If you’re coming from Switzerland like we did, make sure you make time for the Gotthard Pass. I’m not gonna go into details about this. Just google it. Maybe, by the time you decide to go (if you do, that is), the Gotthard Tunnel will be open! Don’t forget to include additional time at the border of Italy with Switzerland. Milano is the next major city destination. Believe me, you will hit traffic; if it’s not because of this, then it’s probably because of an accident. We hit both. Go figure. Upon arrival, we realized how crowded it was. I mean, cars were parked under passage ways nearby this piccola città. Luckily, we had reserved parking space at the place we stayed at.
We hung out by the beach, day in, day out. All the beaches have their own restaurants, lockers, bathrooms, showers and what not. The downfall is that YOU MUST PAY to have access to the beach. Really. The beach is not free. At least not here. We ended up in CAPO MELE. CAPO MELE is a great beach, plus you can bring your canine friend(s). It’s the one beach where you can have fun with them.
We paid 34 euros per day. For that price, we got 2 recliner chairs with umbrellas. It has a bar/restaurant, showers, lockers, bathrooms, outside showers, bowls for the dogs, and a shower room for them. They also offer massages.
We were also able to enjoy some great waves while in CAPO MELE. The beach itself is full of rocks. You do need to be careful about this, otherwise, once you go in it’s all good. The water is nice, cool and clean.
FYI:
You must have reservations prior to hitting the restaurants at night. Make sure you made them because they will send you away if you didn’t. Our first night, we were not aware of this and ended up catching whatever we could find. Actually, it ended up being something simple yet really good and plentiful, so no complaints there. The restaurants are all open in the morning for coffee, lunch at noon, and dinner at night. Normally, people head out to the restaurants later than usual. We made reservations for 7 ó clock the first night to only realize that it was too early. People were still at the beach at this time, you know. The second night we made them reservations and 9PM and worked perfectly. Besides, the stores were open until midnight. Funny, that’s when we did most of our shopping…late at night.
And as always, all great things must come to an end. We say… “A presto, Laigueglia!”, in hopes of coming back to visit it again. Who knows, right?
To learn more about visiting the Savona and its provinces located in the region of Liguria, Italy, go to http://www.comunelaigueglia.net