Day 9 – Monday 7 July

Menton to Finale Ligure

Campsite

Camping Park Mara Di Astigiano Mara (http://www.campingparkmara.it/)

Notes

A day without much climbing on the face of it but along the coast the road climbs over every possible headland. There were some cycle paths but it was still quite tiring. The camp site again was up a steep hill overlooking the coast. It had a reasonable restaurant where I indulged in an evening meal and breakfast the following morning. That night there was a thunder storm and a downpour that turned the shale camping terraces into a bit of a quagmire. It took some time in the morning to clean up the tent and groundsheet.

Tuesday 8 July

Finale Ligure had a railway station and I determined to take the train to Rome as otherwise I would not meet up with Liz and her friend who were flying to Rome for three days of sightseeing. I rode into the town and eventually found the train station and after an interesting dialogue in phrase book Italian managed to get a ticket with a bike pass from Finale Lugure to La Spezia. At La Spezia I was able to get a through ticket to Rome with the same bike pass but changing at Pisa.

Train tickets have to be validated on the platform and are then valid for six hours. Unfortunately I didn’t validate the first one but the guard said I was “special” and let it go. After that I made sure I validated everything. The first two trains had double decker coaches and I could put my bicycle just about anywhere, but the Pisa-Rome train had bike space in the front coach and I was told to move my bike there. The La Spezia and Pisa stations both had lifts to the platforms and at Rome there was a sloped walkway up to the exit.

I arrived in Rome at around ten o'clock at night and enquired at the first hotel I came to outside the station. They took one look at me and my bicycle and decided they were full. Back outside a funny little man asked if I needed a hotel. He ushered me into the marble lobby of what clearly had once been an apartment block but now had a different hotel on each floor. I anchored my bicycle to a metal balustrade under the watchful gaze of huge young security bloke who looked as though he wouldn’t stand any nonsense. The little man ushered me to the fourth floor where I was shown into a room with two twin iron bedsteads made up as a double and a shower cubicle poked into one corner. The toilet was down the corridor. His podgy wife charged me €50 but would only accept cash, so I went down a cash machine on the street. That completed I had a good hot shower, did some washing and hung it all up to dry along with things still wet from the previous night’s thunder storm.

I was serenaded to sleep by Rome’s rowdy street-cafè night-life, four floors down.

Wednesday 9 July

Camping Village Roma (http://www.camping.it/english/lazio/romacamping/)

Getting to the campsite across Rome was interesting, using my satnav to navigate finding myself at one point at the top of the Spanish Steps. I arrived at the campsite at about twelve o’clock and set up under a shady tree on a small plot with one other backpacking tent on it. There had been grass there once but little left now. The site appeared to be an international youth camp with cabins full of Americans. There were lots of gravel plots occupied mostly by caravans and motor-homes and just a few family tents.

I went into Rome by the camp shuttle-bus, found St Peter’s and not far from there Liz’s intended hotel. Back at the site I bought a three day travel pass for €16, and remembered to validate it the following morning.