Dolceacqua

We had just got off the bus and am now walking over to the bridge that will take us to old town Dolceacqua. I think we had lunch first, we were hungry, the last time we ate was nibbling something on the train coming from Camogli and after checking in at our hotel in Ventimiglia, we rushed out to take the bus and have just now arrived in Dolceacqua. This is hard work when you're trying to squeeze in as many things to see as possible. Time and money are such valuable commodities these days. I envy the Europeans, all these are just in their backyards. We have to cross oceans and continents to get here.

The bridge that links the old with the new. The old is perched against the mountain.

The medieval castle built by the Knights Templars is seen right at the top. It is now a ruin.

We are now getting closer to the bridge and am about to walk on it.

The view of the new village from the bridge as we looked back.

We headed up the Italian coast to Ventimiglia this morning 9/18/2008 on a milk train, it stopped at every village that dot the Italian Rivera. We are moving right along on our trip. Each day brought us closer to the end of the trip and closer to going home. I feel I can do this forever, just keep going till the railway tracks in the world run out. Oh well, I have to go home to make some more money and come back out again.

We arrived at around 12.30pm, followed the signs that pointed to our hotel. By 1.30 pm we had already dropped off our bags and was on the bus heading for Dolceacqua. It's just a 20 minute bus ride away.

There's a ruined castle built by the Knights Templars and around it, carved into the rocks of the mountain, lies a village. The village is carved deep into the rocks and are similar to cave dwellings, there are dark, narrow and steep passage ways that join up to form a maze of connections. The houses extend upwards and the whole place is experiencing a revival with tourists visiting the area. We saw lots of busloads of visitors from Europe. Everyone seems to have their own transportation to get there. Being an independent traveler, sometimes I'm envious. I have to find out how to get there on my own, find my way there and visit on my own. A lot of the houses are being renovated and lived in or turned into art galleries. It is really pretty and worthwhile seeing.

The bus services to and from Dolceacqua is rather sparse. During the school year, a 1 pm bus goes from Ventimiglia to Apricale stopping also at Dolceacqua, taking school kids home. Then to come back, there's the 6pm bus and nothing in between, so time your visit.

We came back at 7pm and rushed over to Ventimiglia Alta, the old part of Ventimiglia, high on a hill with it's maze of steep and narrow passage ways that join all the high rise buildings, perched on top of the hill. I must credit Carolyn McKenzie, author of the book 'Portraits of the Rivera' with informing me of the existence of Dolceacqua. Carolyn lives in Ventimiglia Alta. I emailed her thinking we could meet while we were in Ventimiglia but I got no reply from her. Dolceacqua and a few other places which we also visited were mentioned in her book. Thanks, Carolyn. It's by reading, or watching TV that I find out about interesting places to visit. I'm always bookmarking these places and with each trip try to see some of them. I've always been a curious person.

Ventimiglia is a typical border town, a work-a-day town, just miles from the French border. Both French and Italian is spoken here. It is a good base to visit all the quaint places in the area.