Italy 2: Into Alassio

Alassio was the nearest town to the campground we where staying in. In the early afternoon we made the trip down the mountain from our campground to the main office to buy a bus ticket because if you bought them ahead of time the ticket was half the price. When we arrived at the office then attendant told us that the bus to Alassio was ‘finished’ for the day. This seemed very odd and we were quite disappointed by this fact and mused about what to do. As we were trying to figure out an action plan we say a bus go by headed to Alassio. We decided that we did not trust the attendant, so we would just ‘buy a ticket for tomorrow’ and then wait for the next bus heading into Alassio. Leona went to buy the ticket and the attendant told her that the tickets for tomorrow we also ‘finished’. We then realized that the attendant was using the word ‘finished’ to mean ‘sold out’. So we went and waited at the bus stop and paid the cash price. Good thing we did not walk up the mountain back to the campground.

The bus stop is on the main road, when I say on the road that is exactly what I mean. You are standing on the shoulder of the highway just enough space to make sure that your toes do not get run over. I do not think there is more than 50 cms between the wall and the white line. The bus came quickly enough and we made the short trip into the city. The economy of the town seemed to be dependant on tourism, but it appeared that most of the tourist who were there were Italian. We walked around the main sections of the city and along the way stopped off at a tourism office. Overall there was not too much historical artifacts to see in the city, but Rome was the next stop so that did not trouble us too much. We had supper at one of the restaurants along the water. It was nice. I had pizza and Leona had bruschetta. The crust of the pizza was crisp on the edges but doughy in the centre. The cheese was what really made the pizza good. We then caught the bus back to the campground. I was a little worried about getting the right stop as the highway was quite dark and did not want to end up in Albenga (the next city) so we sat at the front of the bus. We successfully got off on the right stop and made trek up the mountain.

Next post: Rome