France 2015: Vento Forte - Taking the Long Way to Nice

Sanremo by the sea from the bus

Snow capped mountains from the train

I would have liked this post to be about my lovely day in Nice, France. However by the time I reached Nice, most of the day had past. This was due to the effects of Vento Forte. All night long in Genoa wicked winds howled through my balcony windows. Even my earplugs couldn't keep out the squeals and groans. I was happy to see a clear sky in the morning, but that feeling was short lived. I couldn't see my train stop on the main departure board when I got to the station. OK, often times my stop is just one of many along the train route, so I asked the info desk. I was told "big winds no train to Ventimiglia". "Cosa?" Well upon further explanation I found out there was a stretch of impassable tracks due to the winds over night so we would stop at an earlier station and then be bussed to another and then catch the train to Ventimiglia (then on to Nice on a different train). I was a bit nervous wondering if I would even make it to Nice tonight. Luckily the group of travelers sitting next to me were discussing the trains and I could tell (even with my non-existent Italian) non of them really knew what was happening. So about 2 hours into our trip we arrived at the end of the line. It was a mad rush to get on one of the buses, it didn't seem to matter if you spoke Italian or not. It felt like being shoved onto the Metro in Moscow at rush hour. I found a kind lady from Switzerland going to Nice and basically followed her everywhere. Needless to say her grammar school English was more proficient than my Italian or French. We communicated with smiles and me picking out any words I could understand.

Our bus took to the winding coastal roads like it was a Maserati. We found out it was going all the way to Ventimiglia and so we sat back and enjoyed the roller coaster ride stopping in Taggia and Sanremo to let off passengers. When I finally got to Nice I was only about 1 1/2 later than planned. Unfortunately, that was just enough time to miss all the things I wanted to do that evening. I checked into the Hotel Amaryllis and then set out for the sea. It was only about 10 minutes walk but the sun was setting quickly on the Cote d'Azur (yes that is a mini Statue of Liberty in front of the opera house.) Maybe I can get up early to see some things before my train to Nimes...