Thursday, August 23, 1979
We awoke alone in our compartment, a few stops before San
Remo. We ate a breakfast and decided since San Remo may not have the greatest
beaches, that we would continue on to Nice, France. However, as we arrived in
San Remo, we heard a loudspeaker announcement say there was a strike and no
trains would go into France that day. We quickly hopped off the train there in
San Remo. We started off in search of a room for the night. We even tried a
convent-school situation, but it was full. Next door we got a decent place for
a slightly more exclusive hotel. We were taken to our room in a nearby
“cottage,” which had three beds and a sink, but we would have to share a common
bathroom. We had a view of the sea across the railroad tracks. The lobby of the
main part of the hotel was very ritzy and filled with elegantly dressed people
so that we pretended to be rich kids ourselves. We got a ticket to use the
swimming pool in the next-door physical therapy facilities.
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| Hotel brochure page 1 |
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| Hotel brochure page 2 |
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| Hotel brochure page 3 |
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| Hotel brochure page 4 |
Before lunch, we
took the private under-the-railroad passage to the public beach where we sunned
ourselves in the wooden and canvas beach chairs, and listened to Italian music
from a jukebox. At lunchtime, we first took a walk around town, finding where
the casino was located. We found a Parisienne café where we tried out Italian
dishes like gnocchi and rabbit. We also stopped for great ice cream several
times! We returned to the hotel, and this rock (myself) then tried to learn how
to swim with little success in the salt-water chlorinated pool next door. It
was real easy to float and I learned to float on my back and managed a few
paddles, The only other occupants of the pool were two elderly women and one of
their husbands, and later a family with two teen-aged boys. We can’t forget the
live drain which attacked Kathy’s thigh trying to suck her in. It didn't
succeed, but it did give her a huge bruise. Afterwards we showered. As we dried
and cooled off, we were blowing bubbles out the hotel window with a soap solution we had bought that afternoon. We
soon took this activity outdoors where we amused ourselves and the desk clerk
who passed by on his bicycle. For dinner we went out for ice cream cones, and
then we went to the casino. We made sure we were both properly dressed by
wearing dresses. We got our entrance pass and climbed the stairs to the game
rooms.
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| Casino entrance pass |
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| Casino roulette guide page 1 |
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| Casino roulette guide page 2 |
The rooms were already full of people crowding around the tables. There
were about eight officials per table, and smoke hung heavy in the air. We spent
the first part of the evening trying to figure out how the games were played at
roulette and some strange card game. We managed to figure out somewhat how bets
were made at the roulette table. So after a break out on the balcony (to get
away from the eye-stinging smoke, but only to smell urination!), we went to the
cashier to change £10,000 into two £5,000 chips, £5,000 being the minimum bet.
After wandering by a couple tables to study the situation, Kathy made a 50-50
(more or less) bet on red. And wouldn't you know it, the marble did not stop on
black. Nor did it stop on red; it landed on the green zero! After a bit of
hesitation, I bet on row containing my
favorite number ’13.’ The marble landed on 16 which meant we won an extra two
chips! The gambling bug bit us! We bet on rows and colors. Our best technique
was to blindly toss the chip on the table (partly because it was so crowded we couldn't reach the table)! We even bet on a “pair” when we
weren't even sure what it meant! We won, although we still aren't sure as to why!
At one point we had an extra eight chips, 10 chips on hand. So we had won
£40,000 or $50. We continued gambling and later left with £30,000 in winnings!
It was enough to pay for our entire stay in San Remo! We stopped at a sidewalk
café to celebrate with drinks; milk with crème de menthe.
Friday, August 24, 1979
The next morning we checked out even though the desk
clerk asked us to stay because “it’s nice here.” We took our baggage to the
station, then went in search of a beach. We didn't find one, but since swimming wasn't really a planned activity for the day, we decided to join
others sitting on large rocks by the water. We spent the morning sunning
ourselves, and later Kathy went for a walk. The sea was getting rougher and/or
the tide was coming in, because as time wore on I was getting splashed more and
more. We went to a nearby restaurant for the “tourist menu” lunch, getting
spaghetti and veal steak. One of the waiters seemed pleased that “we” could
understand Italian, and he babbled away, especially at Kathy. Afterwards we
decided to take the train to Bordighera just in case Gianni was there. While
waiting for the train to arrive, we were saluted as Americans by one of the
station crew who kept singing English songs as he walked past. At Bordighera,
there were no baggage-check facilities, so Kathy stayed with our luggage as I
ran down the main street to Uncle Bepe's shoe store. Uncle Bepe was there with
a customer, but he remembered me and took time out to chat. Gianni and his
parents had been there to visit, but now they were all at home. Bepe invited
us up to his house for the night, but I decided we should head straight to
Torino. I ran back to the station and as we waited for the Torino train, we went
to get ice cream. The shop did not have Kathy’s first, nor second choice of
flavors. Fortunately they had the third! We got on the train which had velvety
spacious seats in second class, and everyone at first thought it was first
class. As we went along we were joined by an older man and two younger fellows
who soon all joined together for the common sport of girl-watching and
hassling…
Next: Turin.
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