They say that every journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.
That's how my walk started this Wednesday.
At the train station in Nice, I stepped onto the platform into a carriage of a train bound for Ventimiglia, a small town on the border of France and Italy.
When the train stopped at the platform, I got out of the French composition and moved into the carriage Italian compositions by TrenItalia.
And in less than 20 minutes of driving, when the train stopped at the first station, I found myself in San Remo.
San Remo, although it is located on the same coast of the Mediterranean Sea as the French cities: Cannes, Nice, Monaco (cities that are the top destinations of the Cote d'Azur), is the first Italian city when you go east from France and it is not located on the Cote d'Azur (as the French call it), but on the western part of the Ligurian Riviera, which is called the Riviera dei Fiori, as the Italians call it.
At first it was not clear to me why the riviera of flowers was mentioned, but given the number of bird of paradise flowers (strelitzia reginae) that are found at every step, it became clear to me.
However, I didn't come to San Remo to see and smell the flowers.
Although I would have liked that too, if I had a little more time and the sky was a little less gray.
So, on a cloudy day, from the train station, we headed to the old part of the city.
The wide streets that make up the pedestrian zone of this carnival city.
Here I mean the music festival in San Remo, which is traditionally held in San Remo during February, and which served as the inspiration for the Eurovision song. It is interesting that at the festival in San Remo, which is the oldest and most prestigious music festival in Europe, well-known and lesser-known Italian singers participate who perform songs that have not participated in competitions until that moment, and the winner of the festival in San Remo goes to the Eurovision Song Contest as Italy's representative.
On those five evenings in February, these streets are in a festival mood, much more lively than they are this Wednesday, after the rain that wets the streets.
From the pedestrian zone, we head uphill towards the Concattedrale di San Siro, but as the cathedral is closed and we are slightly wet, we decide to shorten the walk and pay attention to these narrow streets with arches.
How narrow the streets are, in order to see their height, each of the photos had to be upright.
Hundreds of narrow passages, steep stone staircases, passages between buildings, as if through some tunnels, yes a lot of gates, marked my walk in the old part of San Remo.
It was much nicer to walk in the flat part of the city, when we went out to the promenade and reached the famous Russian Orthodox Church of Christ the Savior, St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Catherine.
In the courtyard of the church, two monuments of historical figures known to me, Vittorio Emanuele III and Elena di Montenegro.
Vittorio Emanuele III was the grandson of Vittorio Emanuele II (after whom the famous shopping center in Milan is named) and the last Italian king.
Not far from the Russian church is the Hotel de Paris, across the street, the Lolli Palace Hotel, as well as the famous Casino San Remo.
Lest we come to a city on the sea without seeing the sea, we went ashore, but there was nothing to see there. Cloudy, gray, not nice...
We continued to Forte di Santa Tecla, however, to my regret, the fortress is under reconstruction.
I went around her as much as possible, and we headed for the marina.
The marina is far "cheaper" than those in Monaco and Nice (with those luxurious, expensive yachts), but that's why the buildings across the street from the marina (the low ones where there are restaurants with seafood specialties) are phenomenal.
I can only imagine the contrast of their pastel facades against the blue sky.
Here, too, you can see some luxury cars on the streets, and the number of small scooters is fascinating.
There are them at every corner.
We didn't sit down for lunch, but on our way to a pastry shop where we wanted to eat ice cream, entered the Cathedral of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which had its doors open for visitors, and took a short break there.
As a reward for the many steps taken on this #wednesdaywalk, we treated ourselves to ice cream from the GROM patisserie, which I would recommend to anyone visiting San Remo.
Is it because I ate it in Italy that I liked this ice cream a lot. I regret not taking pictures of the combinations chosen by my companions on this walk, it would have made a nice pictorial post for #IceCreamCreations.
As it is, I only have pictures of my combination: hazelnut and strawberry.
After we ate ice cream and cooled down further, we headed to the train station, because we had to make a few more steps (or a few thousand steps), in Italy to the train, at the border to the platform, then again to the train, and from the platform to France.
