First off “how we got here” a fable. Picking up our pleasantly scraped and dented 9 passenger van in Turin, we set out for the town of St Etienne Di Tiber. A scenic 3 or 4 hr drive depending on stops. For some reason (foreshadowing) my phone wouldn’t let me plot the course I wanted to take so we aimed for Oulx where I planned to replot our course.
Lovely drive. Big roads, gorgeous mountains. Passing through Oulx I asked Ty to replot towards St. Etienne. Kylie doubled checked from the back.
Driving time under 3 hours! We were ahead of schedule. Then we reached a toll station where the toll was 74€ to drive through a tunnel under Mont Blanc. This should have been a clue…
After 2 hours of driving on a huge highway with a speed limit of 130 I pulled over to check our progress after a tollbooth (only 6.8€).
Hmmm new time to destination 5 hours… turns out St Etienne and St Etienne di Tinnee are 2 different towns both roughly the same distance from Oulx.
After a bit of grumpiness we changed course to Grenoble rather than drive into 2am and booked a last minute apartment and had a delicious burger and shawarma dinner.
The second hint we were going the wrong way. Missed it…
The next morning we set out to cross several mountain passes onto our true destination.
Very quickly I was entranced by the drive. We passed a few signs in French saying something was closed for some amount of time but we kept seeing oncoming vehicles so we persevered and climbed higher and higher.
It paid off! This was a wonderful road trip day, with multiple hikes, boot skiing and a delicious lunch at 2058m in the sunshine.
After lunch we set out to explore the snowfields. I saw a few late season ski tours and there were some lovely figure 8s on the spring snow.
A good time was had by all.
After changing into dry clothes we continued our journey.
Another stop on a local climbing rock.
Another stop on a crazy Mtn pass.
Almost at the top we found an abandoned military garrison and the kids enjoyed exploring and throwing snowballs. Some moderately sketchy rooms full of detritus but the structure seemed solid!
And making a snow man.
Crazy road. Not wide enough for two cars through most of it. Even passing motorbikes was a scary proposition with no shoulder and some steep dropoffs. And so many hairpin switchbacks!
I think the top of this pass was 2800m. Cold.
Our trusty touring van making most of the corners without having to 3 point.
Amazing day. A lot of views, some fun walks and delicious food. However we were happy to finally roll into our initial destination of St Etienne di Tinee! If we hadn’t taken a wrong turn, we wouldn’t have had such an amazing day. And we certainly would not have had daylight to do all these adventures. Also that final pass would have been awful in the dark. It was scary enough in broad daylight!! Trying to spin it positive. Seems to be working. Bon journe!
The last half of our time in Imperia was quite a bit warmer and we ventured to the beach for at least a part of each afternoon.
More burying. This time involved packing the sand tight. Mikaya actually took some extracting. Note the lady behind the kids who seemed quite happy to be in our pictures. Another family on the beach. Fun to watch them. I suppose they were also watching us.
On the weekend there were way more teens and 20s kids on the scene. Interesting to get a window into the culture. Definitely more PDA than Canada! Kids were a bit wide eyed.
Beach is heating up! We had a shade umbrella at our place which absolutely helped Kylie stay longer.
This is the piazza one level below our place. A common meeting place and hang out zone.
As part of our Italian education Kylie insisted we go to the olive oil museum and it was actually extremely interesting. Liguria is the world epicentre for olive oil and at one point grew, processed and supplied the whole civilized world via trade routes across the Mediterranean. Above are some 900 year old amphora.
An example of an olive crusher machine. They could be driven by a water wheel or a donkey or a person. Amazing to see the ancient gearing.
Old ground working tools.
More bottles. Lots of bottles.
Fancy oil dispensers for royalty at parties.
Ty making friends.
Mikaya happily in olive processing jail.
A cross section of the ancient terracing that is all over this part of Italy. Crazy to think of entire mountainsides being put to work with hand labour.
These walls are everywhere around here. Some 1000 years old. Some still functional today.
900 year old shears that are almost identical in construction to a pair in our garage.
Thanks muse d’olio!
After the Museum we wandered Oneglia again. We didn’t spend much time on this side of town so it was fun to explore.
More churches. Our children are quiet in churches.
We found a fancy cafe and had some fancy baking and …. Cappuccino. Who coulda guessed.
Zeke and I ran home and the rest of the family fit into 1 cab. We tried waiting for the bus but the kids couldn’t stand still long enough. Nice tour of the seaside.
After that it was back to the beach!
So much to explore. I could stay here all summer and not get bored.
Mikaya doing her influencer posing imitation.
And a more classic pose.
Ty and Levi dug a hole to seawater. We had to flag it for safety.
This is still early on…
Lovely spot for a drink.
Italians definitely love the beach! Lots of volleyball and soccer. No frisbees or floaties. Maybe one or two stand up paddle boards. Lots of tanning.
Nobody in the old town has yards but many still care for their spaces and beautify the neighbourhood.
Last night at the taverna. Levi says papa will be proud of his plate. Can’t even tell it was spaghetti pesto. So tasty. It’s absolutely better here.
Mikaya’s burger and fries was actually literally one burger patty and fries. 
Bye bye Imperia!! We will be back! Here is the train coming into the station about to whisk us out of Liguria and on to the French alps.