Thursday 26th – Pigna

The church in the middle of forest

We went for a similar walk to yesterday, heading up from Montalto but taking the road this time rather than the track. It didn’t make much difference as we ended up passing the same church and old houses as yesterday. At the top however, the road headed further north into a different valley and we enjoyed the change of scene. We thought we might be able to cut across and come down a different way, but the road petered out and we had to return down the road. We are feeling a bit knackered – three serious walks in three days, and we felt it heading up through the alleys of Montalto back to our apartment.

A local road!

Pigna and Castel Vittorio

We were home by lunchtime, so decided to check out Pigna after lunch. One of the places we had come to look at for a possible house was Pigna, an attractive thermal bath town up the valley from Ventimiglia and Dolceaqua. The valley is the most attractive of the three we have explored so far, with big trees and an attractive river. At the head of it is Pigna. We suppose it is a bit like Vernet-les-Bains, the ex-spa town which was originally our first choice for Europe (in France), in that it had once been a major spa resort, but was no longer in such favour. Some huge and probably abandoned hotels on the way into it, and I mean HUGE. Five stories and a hundred metres long, and totally out of scale with the area, but attractive all the same. The town itself was every bit as old and convoluted as Ceriana, and we spent a little while wandering about. Too many really dead buildings and houses for sale for our liking, and I don’t think we would have been prepared to buy there.

Typical Pigna alleyway

It was interesting to see how they do furniture removal in Italy. A house on the main square was being vacated, and they put a portable electric hoist in the window, and winch everything out. Maybe that’s how we will get our stuff into the Céret house. It must be pretty common as an Italian hardware brochure delivered in Montalto had a choice of four hoists!

Further back down the valley Isolabona looked pleasant, but Dolceaqua even more so. It has both old and more recent sections, and seemed to be quite alive. It’s been interesting how our view of towns we visited in 2009 has altered now we are looking at them with different eyes. The good thing though is that the more we see, the more we like the look of Céret!

Tried to spend a lazy hour in the sun at the beach at the end of the day but again thwarted because we arrived a little too late. At 6pm the sun wasn’t really hot enough to tempt us for a swim in the sea.