To San Stefano al Mare

October 22, 2021

Our train for the coast leaves at 8:12, and we don’t want to miss it. Rachael sets the alarm for 5:30, but I wake up well before that and lie in the dark thinking of all the ways that a train connection can go south (which of course in this instance is just what we want). It’s just past dawn and cold as we bike the short five blocks to the train station. We arrive in plenty of time, allowing me the chance to look around and note that the sky is finally clear today, the first time since we came to the region. My one regret of our stay here is that we never really got to see the mountains.

At the Cuneo train station. Now we can see the mountains!

Our train arrives at 8:11 and departs at 8:12, on time to the minute. We feel good about our performance, quickly finding the correct car and loading the bikes and our gear onto the train in the brief time we have before it leaves again.

But it’s a two train journey today. There is a direct run south from Cuneo through the mountains to the coast ending at Ventimiglia (or Nice, if you transfer midway), but it’s been out of service for months for some reason - perhaps a repair from a slide? Instead we’re riding east to Fossano and transferring there to the line that tunnels south through the mountains to Savona before following the coast west.

We arrive in Fossano in plenty of time and after staying as warm as possible in the drafty waiting room spend the last five minutes before our train arrives standing on the platform in a chilling wind, preparing to spot the bicycle car and dash on. We feel confident after our last experience, but this time is nothing like that one. It’s a very long train, it races past and we see we’re at the wrong end and we quick step down the platform to where we think our car must be. We very nearly don’t make it, and hop on the closest car we’re next to just as the doors are starting to close. We’re lucky that a man on the other side is there to help us lift our loaded bikes up and on the train as fast as we can. For a tense moment there’s the fear that I might be left on the platform watching Rachael ride off.

It’s almost a three hour ride to our stop at Imperia. The first half of the ride is through the mountains as the train passes through one tunnel after another. There must be twenty or thirty of them, and it seems like we spend more time underground than on the surface. Then, suddenly we’ve come through and are at the coast. We got off the train and bike a couple of miles to a cafe on the water for a snack and loo break.

How different does it feel to suddenly be on the Levantine coast after our cool, sometimes grey days in the interior? Well, it’s sunny! And warm! And gorgeous! And colorful! And undoubtedly fragrant too with all the flowers still in bloom. In a word, it’s brilliant.

Another perspective on the situation we suddenly find ourselves in. Quite different from our recent experience.

Our ride today is mostly an out and back, heading west to San Stefano al Mare, about ten miles to the west and our stop for the night. From there we’ll continue west to Ospedaletti before turning back. It sounds like an odd spot to have booked a room, but we made this booking before learning that the train from Cuneo to Ventimiglia was out of service. The original plan was to catch that train and bike east to our hotel.

Porto Maurizio. This is the town we stayed at when we biked through here three years ago.

This plan is really better though. After about six miles we come to the eastern end of the Riviera Cycleway. We’ll ride it all the way to its end at Ospedaletti before doubling back to our hotel. Better this way because we’ll get to ride the complete fifteen mile long Rivier Cycleway in both directions.

The Riviera Cycleway is a fifteen mile long rail to trail conversion. If there’s a more pleasurable cycle path anywhere worldwide, I want to hear about it. For mile after mile you alternate cycling past the brilliant blue sea, passing through villages and seaside resorts, and tunneling beneath every headland between San Lorenzo and Ospedaletti.

An experience not to be missed. If you’ve never experienced this ride, start making a plan.

On the Riviera Cycleway, surely one of the finest cycle paths in Europe.

Today’s ride is remarkable for the tunnels. We burrow our way beneath one headland after another. Probably five miles of today’s short ride were spent underground.

Here we’re biking through the long tunnel between San Lorenzo and San Stefano.

Video sound track: A Heart Rocks, by Ralf Illenberfer

Looking north into the interior along the Fora di Taggia.

Along the Riviera Cycleway. Ahead is San Remo, and beyond it massive Capo Nero. The cycleway ends just past that cape at Ospedaletti, after tunneling through the mountain.

In the Capo Nero Tunnel, another long one.

In Ospedaletti, our turn back point today. You can of course just keep going west - the French border and Menton are only fifteen miles further on - but the cycle path ends here.

The great thing about today’s ride is that we get to enjoy it both ways. Here we are in the Capo Nero Tunnel again, experiencing its unique history lesson.

The tunnel honors participants and recalls highlights from the Milan-to-San Remo bicycle race, a one day event that covers almost 300 kilometers - it’s the longest one day race on the professional circuit. Held annually in mid-March for the past 112 years, it is the earliest of the major European cycling events. It’s been run annually since 1907 - even last year during Covid, although it was postponed until August and followed a different course.

We’re back on the Levante, and have to relearn its flowers again.

You wouldn’t think I’d forget what this was in only three years, would you?

Riding through an alley in San Stefano al Mare to our hotel, which is just around the corner.

Video sound track: Bodas de Oro, by Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban

We’re staying here in San Stefano at an unlikely spot, a Best Western. Unlikely because you don’t expect Best Westerns to brand themselves so prominently as bicycle hotels, but bike tourism is undoubtedly very big here.

After settling in, we walk a short two or three blocks to the waterfront and then follow it to the first seaside restaurant we come to and sit down for a fish dinner and a carafe of regional white wine. The sun has just set, lights are coming out on the headland to the west. It’s 65 degrees still - nearly twenty degrees warmer than our evenings of late have been. Aah!

We’re staying at the Best Western, which surprisingly has branded itself as a bike hotel. It has bikes to rent and even sells bike jerseys. There’s a bar to lock bikes outside of each room (but we still brought ours indoors), and our room backs right against the cycleway.

Walking along the seaway in San Stefano at sundown, on the hunt for a meal.

In San Stefano. I love that green! The colors in the Levante are spectacular.

The view from our seaside table. Such an astonishing change of pace from our chilly evenings and indoor meals of the last several weeks. It must be fifteen degrees warmer at night here.

Heart

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Ride stats today: 35 miles, 800’; for the tour: 2,319 miles, 82,200‘

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 2,319 miles (3,732 km)

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Suzanne GibsonLooks like you hit the jackpot! Wonderful that you are getting sun again! Cuneo looked too chilly for us, too. Hardly warmer than Gauting in the coming weeks.
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3 years ago

Tricia GrahamThat part of the Italian coast is wonderful. When we did it it was mid summer, completely overcrowded and hugely expensive but with such a wonderful joyous feeling that you had to feel happy As for that cycleway everyone needs to do it. Have a lovely last two weeks and store up those summer memories
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3 years ago

Susan CarpenterBlue skies smilin’ at you - oh happy days!
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3 years ago

marilyn swettLove the pics of that incredible bike trail and a bike hotel as well! Might have to figure out how to get the tandem to Italy someday.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo marilyn swettHacksaw, a few suitcases. No problem!
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Tricia GrahamI’ll bet it was a madhouse here in the summer! You should come back in the early spring or late autumn. So should we.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI almost said something again about Cuneo and how chilly it was getting, but I knew you’d figure out what was best for you. It does seem like we’ve won the lottery on this tour though. The skies ahead just keep opening up for us.
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3 years ago

Kelly IniguezGenerally speaking, while in Europe, where do your bikes go at different lodging places? Allison has toured extensively and she said, in her experience, bikes *never* go in the rooms. She also said lodging is generally upstairs, which would be a problem for my long bike, if it were allowed . . . .

I think 2023 is our year for Europe - I'm trying to get my mind settled on how things will work. I'm the plan ahead type, preferring no/few surprises!

I'm glad you both made the train!

Kelly
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezI wouldn’t worry about it, but keep it in mind when you book places. In our experience, lodging in Europe has nearly always made provision for our bicycles - although a longer bike like yours might pose different problems. I can only think of a handful of places that have ever failed to provide a place for them. On this three month tour, I think there was only one place that required us to park them outdoors. And I think the 2nd floor apartment in Cuneo was the only one with a significant stair issue.

It might help that we’re traveling in low season and they’re hungrier for business. Also, we think about it more now when we pick bookings. If it’s a place with no parking, particularly in a city, we’ll ask them in advance when we book.
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3 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Kelly IniguezHi Kelly

I always ask when I'm making the booking. I prebooked almost all of our accommodations for next year's trip to Italy (May-June so not exactly low season) and only one place said they couldn't accommodate,our bikes. I cancelled that one and chose another.

I've carried my (unloaded) bike up and down stairs, crammed it into tiny elevators, but I can't ever remember having bikes in the room anywhere in Europe. I always lock it, though, even if it's in the hotel basement. Better safe than sorry.

With respect to elevators: can you hold your bike vertically and roll it on the rear wheel? I often wish I could but my full coverage fenders prevent this. It would make tiny elevators and tight corners so much easier.
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3 years ago