To Albegna

October 23, 2021

We’re there at first call for breakfast and continue to be impressed by our Best Western, probably the most agreeable BW we’ve stayed at before. I know they’re just playing to their base here, but I like the message we’re greeted with when we step into the dining hall and sit down to our window table in the warm sun:

The sky is blue and it’s in the warm, comfortable sixties already when we leave our room at about ten. It’s fine enough that if would have felt balmy leaving at the crack of dawn really but we have a short ride to Albegna today, all along this beautiful coastline, so we’re in no real hurry to get started. I’m sure that this too will tire in time - say after a year or so - but for now we’re happy to go with it.

The ride begins with the last few eastbound miles of the Riviera Cycleway, ending with the nearly mile long tunnel beneath the headland between San Stefano and San Lorenzo. After the Cycleway ends we have an unpleasant stretch where the only option is sharing narrow, shoulderless two lane SS1 with its fast moving traffic. It’s only two miles but feels like longer. It’s a poor but unavoidable situation at the moment, unless you decided to take a short train hop to avoid it - easy enough to do, but it’s not so bad that it makes sense to us. We’re not alone this Saturday morning, and we pass many westbound cyclists as we grind it out.

We knew it was coming of course because we rode it the other direction yesterday. Today we’re on the sea side though, and I can see something I read of last night but didn’t notice yesterday. The work to close the gap and extend the Riviera Cycleway all the way into Imperia is well underway. The trail bed is complete for the entire distance and well surfaced but unpaved still. It really feels like it could be completed any month now, maybe by next spring even. I do some research to see if there’s any report on the construction status, but all I can find is a blurb by a real estate agency urging you to buy now because it’s coming! All work is expected to be completed by sometime next year.

There’s almost no spot to stop and pull off the SS1 through here, but when we finally come to one I take it so I can look down on the incomplete new extension to the cycleway.

The work crew is at it this Saturday morning on the short bridge approaching Porto Maurizio. It looks like completion is a ways off yet. Retaining walls would be appropriate here in addition to some pavement.

Approaching Imperia from the west. Even more striking from this direction.

As soon as we enter Porto Maurizio we drop off SS1 and work our way through the village and along its colorful waterfront. And we stay off it as long as possible, even once again treading through the delightful but narrow seaside promenade, the Passeggiata degli Innamorati (the Lovers Walk). Beautiful, narrow enough that walking is frequently called for to give pedestrians with their dogs and children priority, but worth slowing down for.

On the short but very sweet Passeggiata degli Innamorati.

Imperia, the largest seaside town around, is just a bit of a mess to make your way through. As long as we’re slowed down here any way, we take a few more minutes to raid a grocery store and ATM but are happy to be out of town and by the sea again.

In Imperia. It’s busy, but it does have its attractive spots.

The remaining miles to Albegna are as scenic as those along the Riviera Cycleway, as we pass through once striking village after another. I imagine that everywhere along here must be a madhouse in high season, but at this relatively quiet time of year every one of these villages looks like a fine spot to pass the time.

Cervo and Laigueglia look particularly enticing. We pass through beautiful Cervo with its hill crowned with a striking church and I announce that we should come back again and stay here next time. Two miles later we come to Laigueglia, squeeze our way through its narrow street lined with one arch after another, and decide that we should stay here instead.

Leaving Imperia, we enjoy the attractive pedestrianized old road around the cape to its east.

Looking back past Imperia to the headlands beyond.

Approaching Laigueglia, the next village east. Waves, I yell ahead to Rachael, pointing out the whitecaps blowing in from the 20 mph headwinds we’ve been biking into. She thinks that for some daft reason I’m asking her to wave, chooses to ignore me, and doesn’t notice.

Oh, wait. Let’s stay in Laigueglia instead.

The last few miles to Albegna are a bit more work. For one, there’s the 20 mph headwind we’ve been pushing into for the last hour. Then there are a pair of headlands to be overcome, with no tunnel to spare us from a bit of labor. And then we’re mostly back on the busy SS1 again. There’s a quiet side road I’ve mapped that climbs up into the hills, but not long after we’re on it we come to a barricade - the road’s out for some reason - and annoyingly find that we can’t get back on the SS1 from here without either backtracking or crawling under a railway crossing barrier.

Rounding the last headland before dropping into Albegna we experience a tense moment when we apparently miss a traffic signal to enforce one way traffic through a stretch of the highway where one lane is out. We get part way in on what looks like an empty road when a long string of vehicles comes our way. We make ourselves as thin as possible against the concrete barrier and I’m wondering if it’s all going to end up right here with us smeared across the face of it by this huge, wide van coming our way, but he just squeezes by. As soon as the stream passes we bolt through to safety out the other side and then enjoy a breezy descent into Albegna.

Video sound track: Patricia, by Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban

And then there’s one last bit of drama as we pull up at our lodging. I get off my bike and lean it against the wall when I hear a crash behind me and an alarm go off. Rachael has swerved to avoid a pedestrian, slipped on some irregularity in the cobblestone street, and fallen. She’s halfway down, far enough that her knee hits the ground and she ends up with a painful bump; but she’s half up too, because the pedestrian has caught her and is apologetically trying to help right her again.

It’s alarming, and she sits down for a few minutes while we see if she’s OK. It looks like she’s fine fortunately, so let’s pause here for another plug for our great new Garmins. Using a feature I didn’t know it had, it has detected the accident and begun loudly and repeatedly sounding an alarm. And, it’s fired off a text message to my phone to alert me of the incident, which I’m notified of on my own Garmin.

Really a great feature. It even includes the coordinates of her location.

This is our third time staying in Albegna. The first time, thirty years ago on our first tour of Europe, I didn’t really care for it. We’d been biking too long, arrived late in the day, and just stayed at the first seaside lodging that we came to. We never made it into the historical center which is just back from the water, and didn’t even know it existed.

The second time was three years ago on our ride from Dubrovnik to Barcelona. That time we did stay in the historical center and discovered what an amazing place it is. We’ll come back for a look at it in a separate post. For now though, let’s mention our lodging for the night, the elegant sixteenth century Lengueglia Palace.

Our home in Albegna. We always stay here now.

The palace sits on the Duomo piazza, at the opposite end from the cathedral. Views from inside of the square, the cathedral, and the three soaring brick towers surrounding it are fantastic. What a place to live!

We stayed in this palace also three years ago. It was an exceptionally memorable visit for us, and we were charmed by the palace but especially by our host Josepha, a most remarkable woman. We especially have carried the memory of her showing us her bicycle -a unique pre-World War II model that she inherited from her mother. It’s in the link, as well as photos of Josepha and the inside of the palace, but let’s make sure you don’t miss the bicycle itself:

Isn’t this a beauty! And zoom in on the reverse mounted hand breaks - I’ve never seen ones like these. A pre-WWII antique that she still rides to the market, she inherited it from her mother. She said that her mother insisted that her husband buy one for her when the war started because they wouldn’t be able to get petrol for the car.

Josepha is joined by her son Vittorio who stays around long enough for an extended visit. Like his mother, Vittorio is exceptional. A very trim man in perhaps his mid-fifties, he is also a cyclist. And he’s in recovery. He suffered a very serious cycling accident just last autumn when mountain biking (by himself, because of Covid) and crashed when he went down on rocks he couldn’t see beneath the fallen leaves. He fractured his pelvis and lower back, and spent the next four months on his back being attended to by his Sicilian wife. He’s made a remarkable recovery, swims regularly, appears completely normal when he walks, and informed us that he recently took a 105 kilometer ride on his bike. “I’m back”, he proudly and happily declares.

Vittorio is intrigued to hear that we have sold our homes and gone vagabond. Rachael tells him of how we met and that I bought her a bicycle before we got married. I jokingly tell him it was as a test that she easily passed, and he says he did the same thing with his wife. His passion is sailing, and as his test he took his prospective bride on a ten day sailing trip to Corsica which she also successfully passed. Tough test!

Before he rushes off, Vittorio takes a photo of Rachael and me together, and says he already has taken a photo of our bicycles in the entryway below. I’ve been berating myself ever since for not thinking to take one of him and his mother as well.

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Ride stats today: 27 miles, 1,100’; for the tour: 2,346 miles, 83,300‘

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 2,346 miles (3,776 km)

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Susan CarpenterI hope Rachael’s knee is okay this morning.
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3 years ago

Rachael AndersonTo Susan CarpenterIt’s doing fine. It was like hitting your funny bone. It really hurts when it happens but feels okay later. I have a little scrape but it doesn’t bother me.
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3 years ago

Suzanne GibsonGlad to read that no serious damage was done, Rachael! Any crash is kind of a shock, though.
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3 years ago