France/Italy roadtrip – driving into Italy | alison richards

I left my last campsite in France for a while and headed to Italy. It was weird driving to Italy, because you were obviously driving into another country because the road signs changed, but there was no fanfare, no police or passports. I'd driven to another country before (France from GB) but that made sense to me as an Aussie - you crossed water, you got your passport out, etc. This just seemed too easy!

I crossed into Italy through Menton as I was heading for Ventimiglia. I wish I had stopped in Menton, as by all accounts it is a lovely place. It certainly looked like it from the road. But I was a little stressed with the whole "driving in yet another country" thing and my GPS was already programmed for my next destination: Hanbury Botanical Gardens.

These gardens are less than 15 mins from Menton, which is the last French town before Italy, so its very close to the border. They didn't open until 9:30 and I'd arrived early but there was a reason for that - I'd read that parking for the gardens was quite difficult, and they weren't wrong! There was nothing available outside the gates, so I drove further down a steep road to try get a park with the least amount of walking uphill! I managed to find a decent one, albeit I had to park half on/half off the footpath (like the other cars, I wasn't being difficult). I walked up to the gardens, then spotted a path that went up into the little alleys between old houses nearby. It was really nice to wander around there, the houses were really nice, and there was even a little church hidden among them.

This little church was tucked away among alleyways and houses

Not sure what on earth this was doing just sitting there….

The gardens opened at 9:30, and of course I was the first person in that morning. I was really impressed by the ladies at the door - they could speak French, Italian, English and one could speak German. Ohhhhh to be even bilingual, let alone multilingual! I bought a ticket then set about heading downhill through the garden.

It was an interesting botanic garden - a little bit messy, disorganised, but it was quite Italian in this, I think. I don't think they have quite the formality about their gardens as do the French. There was also some really fascinating plants, as it was all very Mediterranean, and featured some trees in particular that I'd never seen (and actually didn't see since.... ).

This tree with the yellow leaves looked like something from the time of the dinosaurs

The garden slowly made its way down to the ocean, past quite a few little decorative shelters. It was a nice walk downhill but starting to get warm.

Lovely tiles in one of the shelters in the garden

I'd made it to the bottom of the garden, but the journey back up to the top was not looking very appealing so I just hung out under the lemon trees at the bottom, looking out at the ocean. I finally mustered up the energy to walk back up, heading for the big house on the property, Villa Hanbury, or Palazzo Orengo. It was a beautiful peach-coloured house situated in more formal gardens.

I watched these two clamber around on the rocks. It didn’t look very comfortable

The view on the way back to the car. Seriously how is the water that blue?!

I left Giardini Hanbury about 11:30am. I'd foolishly programmed my GPS to take me to the nearest supermarket, which happened to be in the tiny, busy streets of Ventimiglia, so I had a few sketchy moments of an Italian town. I decided instead to try to find one along the way to my next destination. Driving in Italy was already stressing me out - it seemed much more aggressive than in France. I jumped on an autostrada that took me all the way to Genova, about 3.5 hours away. It was absolutely not scenic at all but it was quicker and less stressful than navigating the other roads there. I got to a campsite outside Genova a bit before 3pm, took my spot and settled in for a quiet night. I had decided to take it easy on myself after the stressful driving and until I got used to these new roads. I had an early night, setting my alarm early for tomorrow's adventures in Genova.

Campsite: Camping Genova Est

Rating: 1/10. After camping in France for 2 weeks, my first Italian campsite was cramped, with far too many people squashed in. There was also some sort of nightclub or live music venue nearby that was loud all night. The toilets were up about 2 flights of steps and were dirty, and my camping neighbours smoked me out with a combination of chain smoked cigarettes and a badly stoked barbeque. Not a good introduction to Italian campsites. Oh, and it was so much more expensive than the (much better) French ones.