12Oct12 Cuneo
Day trip to Monte Carlo. We decided to have a look at Monte Carlo and thought the train trip might be interesting. There was a heavy fog so there was no way we could walk in the mountains. The train trip showed that this was incorrect. We were delayed by 40 minutes due to the french train control before heading on from Limone. The mountains revealed themselves a little past Limone and were dramatic. There were really interesting picturesque mountain villages and churches along the way and we wanted to stop and look around but time was pressing. I am quite sure that there were some ancient Romanesque churches along the way and this is a journey I would definitely recommend. It would even merit hiring a car or a small van but you would need nerves of steel as the mountain roads were extremely narrow and windy and seemed to hug the mountain curves and a times hang over the edge.
Ventimiglia was the border train station and it was chaos. It was chaos last time we visited and nothing has changed. We again witnessed the rudeness of people when someone ignored the ticket queue and walk directly to the ticket seller. Why they were not sent to the end of the line is beyond me. Not only did they queue jump but they then took their time to hog the window while the numbers lined up waiting. Imagine if they tried that in Australia! Someone would probably have grabbed them and thrown them out of the way.
We eventually purchase our return tickets to Monte Carlo and our ticket back to Cuneo. This turned out to be a very smart move. The train system in France is more expensive and much busier than Italy. The difference in dress is immediately apparent. The Italians are well dressed and the french are a little more relaxed.
Monte Carlo train station is interesting as you use an elevator to get down to the streets. We wandered down to the water front and found a supermarket and had a chicken and salad for lunch before walking around to the lookout point where police divers were endurance swimming in the ocean. There was plenty of showing off with the power boats, cars and buildings but I didn't really like the place. We were pressed for time so headed back towards the train station eventually finding it after losing the signs. The trick is to keep on riding up elevators until you arrive. We caught the train back to Ventimiglia and the area in between is much nicer than monte carlo in my opinion anyway. It again was chaos at Ventimiglia and our interconnection back to Cuneo gave us only a couple of minutes to get the ticket validated and get on the next train. Someone crashed into Vanessa while checking out a women's bum then complained that it was her fault. I growled at him and with a clenched fist but nothing came of it.
It was a long trip back and we only arrived at 7pm. It certainly was worth it for the scenic train trip along the way but not for Monarco. Now I would like to return and visit the Vallée des Merveilles in France where the second largest number of petroglyphs in europe are located - the first is actually in northern Italy. I found this out after we had visited and wasn't keen to return North for a third time .
