Thread by @scattermoon

It's a lovely warm Mediterranean morning in Nice.

Let's go to Italy!

Ok that doesn't sound as impressive as when I said it in Glasgow...

But I'm going to an entirely different country first.

Layers

Here's where we started two days ago.

https://twitter.com/scattermoon/status/1522867166009339904

I might be well refreshed after finally getting a full night's sleep (photo evidence provided) but I still forgot the hashtag in that first tweet so here we go: #TEE4

My brightly-coloured TER to Monaco Monte Carlo is strangely full of other Glaswegians. Half expect us to go via Partick.

Well, this isn't Partick, it's Villefranche-sur-mer.

This whole line along the Côte d'Azur is just stunning, especially under blue skies.

Easily among the most beautiful railway lines I've ever been on

Oh. Guess you'll be waiting a bit on seeing these tweets!

🇲🇨 Monaco ☑️

Monaco is a place unlike anywhere else I've ever been. It's a densely populated vertical city state but also Mediterranean, extremely warm, and extremely rich.

Spin City 🇲🇨

Because the city state is so densely populated and on such steep slopes, there are public lifts everywhere that go up and down the terraces of streets.

By the Jardin Exotique looking down to Fontvielle from the monegasque slopes

This place doesn't feel fully real if I'm honest, and I suspect it still feels that way for its very wealthy residents!

Civil Reserve. Not seen this before. He was helping folk cross the street?

Taking in the view from up on high

Many gardens/parks where the shade is very appreciated as it is very warm, especially when climbing up and down the steep streets!

Walking across to the bit of Monaco that everyone knows. It is a very walkable city, which isn't surprising given its nature.

Also this place makes you feel fancy just by being in it. Briefly cosplaying being rich by just walking about and stopping in the parks.

Here we go 🏎️🏁🇲🇨

As you can see, the city is in Grand Prix season. The famous motor circuit is already in place, most obviously around the harbour at La Condamine

nyoom nyoom im a race car

Crossing under the circuit involves what feels like a hall of mirrors.

Imagine it's a few weeks later and there are F1 cars whizzing past and this would be a really cool selfie

La Condamine from Monte Carlo.

This looks like the Monaco everyone thinks of 🇲🇨

it🌴is🌴very🌴hot

"Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter"

We get it, you use Chrome.

Monte Carlo Casino, the reason behind this small coastal city state becoming the vertical playground of the world's richest. It's expensive and formal to even so much as enter, let alone to gamble. 🎲

Monte Carlo Casino, the reason behind this small coastal city state becoming the vertical playground of the world's richest. It's expensive and formal to even so much as enter, let alone to gamble. 🎲

Does this count as a selfie?

The famous hairpin curve of the Monaco circuit.

Have to say, this place is driving me round the bend.

They're all connected, it's a fast system we've not unlocked yet.

https://twitter.com/matt_heath/status/1523636018087268352

I wish you could tweet smells sometimes because this garden smelled like mixed herbs. Suddenly hungry for pizza.

I am however far too poor to be staying around Monaco so it's time to move on. But not without one last look at the view.

That pool doesn't have much privacy...

Back on the train and heading west along the coast, running directly along the edge of the sea with the turquoise shallows. This is France again, but not for long.

Ciao Italia 🇮🇹

My answer finally revealed. They're good!

https://twitter.com/scattermoon/status/1523364597314453506

Border station Ventimiglia, in Italy.

For all my travels before, they've usually been in Northern or Eastern Europe so this is where I reveal the shocking truth that this is my first time in the country of good coffee, delicious pasta, and Loredana Berté 🇮🇹

I'm getting an intercity train to Milano Centrale but I'm not going anywhere near that far. Not even Genoa yet.

I have a pilgrimage to complete...

Also one of you on Twitter had this exact view from Ventimiglia station as your Twitter banner for years so I've been desperate to recreate it. It actually feels very much like an advertisement for what I've been going - the excitement and Romance of international rail travel.

Along the Ligurian coastline

To the Italian slightly dated but still fashionable resort town of Sanremo.

Why have I come here? Well, I actually based my whole itinerary about coming via here!

And this theatre (and this casino) are why.

Some of you will *instantly* recognise that sign and frontage - you will if you're Italian, I'm fairly sure.

Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo, or Sanremo for short, is an Italian song festival that traditionally takes place in February each year. It's a celebration of Italian music, a whole host of almost 30 songs by the big names and stars of Italian music.

It's run since 1951 and is an Italian institution. The festival takes place over 5 nights, with artists typically performing their songs, unreleased before the festival, three times over the five nights. There are guests, sketches, speeches, covers, the whole thing is 30h long.

In 1956 the European Broadcasting Union were trying to think of a show format for new broadcast technology that for the first time permitted different member broadcasters in different countries to share a TV feed. And Swiss journalist Marcel Besançon decided to use Sanremo.

The new technology had an official name, but a British journalist quipped that as it was television shared across Europe it could be called...Eurovision.

Yes, I'm in the place that could be considered the birthplace of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Also sorry Scotland I'm Italian now

It all feels very Italian. I've done three countries in quick succession today and my head is reeling.

Also this kind of pavement which I've only seen in Southern Europe (and SE Asia!).

I assume this involves everyone getting cans of Carling and listening to Ed Sheeran?

One final visit to the Ariston before I next see it in the excitement and bustle of next year's Sanremo festival. All my love to Amadeus.

Back to the railway station and they're playing songs from this year's edition of Sanremo. Well, you would, wouldn't you?

And as I bought my ticket to Turin, this year's Eurovision host city, my favourite song started playing - "Dove si Balla" by Darren d'Amico

This is the song as it was performed live from the Ariston in this year's Sanremo.

The choice of that music at that exact moment actually made me cry as I caught my train to Torino Porta Nuova

The choice of that music at that exact moment actually made me cry as I caught my train to Torino Porta Nuova

Heading through Liguria towards Savona.

*ticks off another country for today*

Between the hazy Alps and the myriad blue Mediterranean, through small town after small town. The Ligurian coast feels less exclusive and more lived-in than its two western neighbour states.

Two sides, two views 🇮🇹

Entering the regional capital, Savona, in the heart of Liguria, as the sun starts to disappear behind the mountains to the west (the coast here faces southeast rather than south like at Nice)

Here's where there's a slight change of plan. Those of you who remember my initial route announcement will know that I was originally going via Genoa, but a few smaller changes of plan added up to ensure I missed my intended train from Sanremo. So instead I'm heading direct Turin

It's basically cutting the corner, although with a slower train. But this means I can visit Genoa sometime in the future when I have more than two and a half hours to spend there, especially given I want to have pesto gnocchi.

(sorry for the delay, the power socket on my train didn't work so I switched to preserving battery and taking photos rather than tweeting)

Taking the direct train turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the line immediately pulled away from the Ligurian coast and followed a river valley up into the alpine foothills, with industrial sites scattered along the valley floor

There was even this cable way running along lines above the valley, carrying buckets high across the valley floor. I wonder what it'd be like to ride one?

So much greenery as we follow the river steadily up. I can very much see why this isn't the fast route.

At San Giuseppe di Cairo a huge chemical plant with flare tower stood out against the rugged rural scenery. You don't really see this kind of inland industry in the UK anymore.

Incidentally, this is what my luggage looks like - two very heavy big supermarket bags and my handbag, which often sits in the supermarket bag. It's a pain to carry but more flexible than a suitcase that can run into trouble with airlines.

We're now heading west into Piedmont and the landscape flattens out a little into rolling hills.

The single track line winding its slow way though this kind of scenery, stopping at little towns here and there reminds me a lot of rural Japanese lines I've watched on YouTube

Ceva feels much bigger than it actually is after so long running through forested hillsides. This far west, the actual Alps themselves come into view on the horizon and we'll be following them to Turin.

Italian train rules.

The sun disappeared behind one of the mountains, creating this unusual silhouette, and casting the landscape around the River Tonaro in an odd light.

Mondovi isn't far north from Sanremo but feels like an entirely different country, with its alpine backdrop and sweeping views upon entry.

Later on, the sun behind the mountain peak cast a visible shadow across the sky, which was an almost eerie effect across the plains of the uppermost Po valley. Like a jet of darkness.

Night set in as we were still crossing the plains and my phone battery dropped to 5% so I put my phone away, only taking it out to photograph this canopy of wiring at Fossano.

An hour or so later and finally the lights of Turin come into view. Then the city streets. And then this station!

...but it's the wrong one. This is the Vauxhall to Torino PN's Waterloo, so to speak.

Torino Porta Nuova. End of the line.

I'm here. Turin. From Glasgow. By train (and coach). For Eurovision.

Wild.

Let the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 begin.

Bonus content of Turin as I walked to my hostel.

I'll be tweeting things of and from here for the next few days but not as a travelogue as #TEE4 is now complete! Thank you for joining me all the way from Glasgow's West End. Wonder where we'll go next time?