Wednesday 16 September - Bussana Vecchio & Andora

[Photos: Bussana Vecchio buildings and art gallery, Riviera interior, Alassio ]

We'd packed up last night, so were able to get out the door quite early. Solid rain all night, and in fact it didn't let-up all day. Managed to lug all our gear down near the tunnel, where Karen hid from the rain, while I umbrella'd my way around to the car at the far carpark to retrieve it. Packed our stuff in easily, and off on our next adventure, still with the possible town house whirring around in the front of our minds.

Down the hill, along the coast and back up the hill from Bussana to go to Bussana Vecchio. This is a village which was struck by an earthquake in 1887. Unfortunately most of the population was in church, and the church suffered worst with the roof collapsing, killing a large number of people and causing the abandonment of the whole village. In 1947 a number of southern Italians tried to settle in it, but the council objected and destroyed all the stairways to prevent it. In the 1960's artists started squatting there, leading to its establishment as an artists' village. It was pouring with rain but we were still keen to have a look about, so worked our way up the narrow road to the village. Parked in the rain and got out the umbrellas for the walk to the buildings. All very much ruined, but with pockets of flowers, creepers and lived-in rooms, rarely a full building inhabited. There are some 60 families here now, almost all artists judging by the huge number of little galleries with various types of art, ranging from OK to good.

Found the church which had killed the bulk of the then inhabitants, with the walls still looking fine, but with stone arches truncated. A little disconcerting thinking of what had happened. The alleys of the town were typical Ligurian with pebbles stood on edge and cement between, but today there was so much water coming down that the paths were awash. Stopped in the only café to have a coffee and a pastry, and spent quite a while talking about NZ with the German-looking but Italian-speaking owner. The artists here were from all over – in fact our real estate agent's parents came here from Switzerland and still live there.

Took a little long chatting with the owner, and didn't leave until 11:30, leaving limited time to get to Andora for lunch. Wasn't helped by me finding a supermarket on the way so we could find some antiperspirant, as I had run out, and for some reason it is easy to find deodorants here, but not anti-perspirants. Maybe they like sweating. Anyway found some, and raced away down the road to Andora. Our trusty GPS delivered us to the D'Ambrosio's electric gates perfectly. I had looked the place up on Google, and entered the co-ordinates, which worked spot on.

Gill and Riccardo were extremely welcoming. We are downstairs in their nice house, which is set in a private forested piece of land, with no visible neighbours. Riccardo was a high-level manager for Fiat, Gillian an ESOL teacher, and they have two sons who are both doing very well in the financial world in London. Sat out on their big terrace under a big verandah and had a delicious lunch of pesto pasta and more, discussing houses mainly. The two of them are more or less retired but do a sideline helping people find houses in Liguria. We are not in their normal spectrum; we don't even get near the normal bottom end. Prices here really start at 200K€, and we have a nominal maximum budget of ¼ of that, so you can understand our choices are more than a bit limited.

After lunch we jumped into their much loved Fiat Uno, and headed out on a tour of some of the local towns. We started with Laigueglia, then on to Alassio and Albenga, before heading inland to smaller towns. The three big towns were very smart, with nice pedestrian areas and lots of shops catering for the tourist trade, though without the glitzy feel that some other centres have had. Prices start at 38,000€ for a carparking space. We then headed inland, where prices are slightly more reasonable. I can't recall the names of the little towns. All very different both to each other and to Ceriana. The biggest difference is that Ceriana is still a little tight Italian village, everywhere else is much more open, but touristy. It does expose the fact that Ceriana is very old and tired, but there isn't the slightest possibility of us affording anything here in these towns, as prices are 4 times Ceriana.

Dinner was local long curly sausages (lovely smoky flavour), with three vege dishes, accompanied by red or white wine. We were back late, so by the time we had finished dinner and had talked for ages, we were quite late to bed.