Leaving Levanto. Day one Antibes

It was time to hit the road again and say goodbye to Levanto and the Cinque Terre area. Our recommendation would be that if you should ever get the chance this is a must see area. It is just as beautiful as the photos and a true experience of an exquisite part of Italy.
We said goodbye to the owner of the Villa Gentile B&B and set Jennifer the GPS for Antibes in France.
We had to meet the lady, who manages the apartment we will be staying at with the boys, at 3pm. However Jenifer is telling us that unless we take the toll roads it will take over 8hrs…. so that is not an option, and set our course to use the toll roads and the 3.5hr trip.
Along the way we came up on the large city of Genoa and decided to turn off for a quick look…..Big mistake….First it was a bit of a surprise to have to pay 6€ (NZ$12) for that part of the journey, and then very quickly found ourselves going round in circles and getting no where. We forget about seeing Genoa and get back on to the tolled highway as quickly as possible.
A bit further down the road it was time for a pee stop so pulled in to a service area. We bought a snack and before getting back to the car we saw the traffic on the highway was slowly grinding to a holt. Not good…. as now we were getting behind in our arrival time and it would cost us another 20€ for picking up the key after 4pm. Thank god the traffic started moving along again and we arrived at the exit of the Italian highway and the Italian border before entering into France….Toll cost for that leg was 17€ (NZ$34)
We entered France at about 15mins after 3pm and surprise surprise another 2 tolls and another 5.50€ (NZ$11). We arrived to pick up the key at 3:30pm and got the car unpacked.
Next was to pick up Andrew and Bex at the Nice airport. We managed this without a hitch with instructions from the lady that manages the apartment who also works at the airport. We saw Andrew and Bex at the pick up point and flashed our lights at them so they could see it was us. Next was the trip back to the apartment. Along the way we stopped at some lights and the car in front did not move on when they turned green, so we tooted him. They quickly moved on to the next set of red lights, when to our surprise the male passenger jumped out of his car and was frantically pointing to the front of our car and hurling abuse in angry French. I wound down my window and yelled at him ‘”English!!” in and attempt to let him know that we had no idea of what he was on about. The lights turned green and he was quickly back in his car and roared off. At this stage we where all laughing, amazed but none the wiser as to why this had just happened. Along the road a bit further and an on coming car flashes his lights at us…..at this point Bex says “are you sure there is nothing on the front of our car”, when the problem dawns on us, our lights are on full beam, this would have happened when I flashed Andrew and Bex at the airport. Now we were all really laughing uncontrollably at the realization that the road rage would have been about us beeping them, and then having our lights on full behind them with our red number plates that mean ‘Hire Car’. Loosely translated that means Wally tourists. We finally arrive safely at the apartment and get our selves settled in.
The next day Sheree and I are up first, so we go for a wonder to the local bakery and shop about 5mins away, and buy some bacon, eggs, bread and a long ciabatta bread that we thought was a baguette (language problem again). Then we wonder back on this beautiful morning with our fresh bread sticking out of the bag and feeling very French.
After breakfast we all go for a wonder around the streets and have a look at the marina with some of the most amazing boats (see pics). We also visit a market selling local produce and buy some nibbles for later.
That afternoon at 2:30, we all get in the car with Andrew driving and make an uneventful trip back to the nice airport, to pick up Chris. we all get back to the apartment and settle in on the sun deck with the local olives, cheese and salami from the market and wash it down with the quality ‘Patron’ Tequila Chris got duty free. It was a lovely afternoon in the 28 deg heat on the deck and all together.
The weather forecast for the week is all sunshine and 28deg, so tomorrow we all decide is beach day.