If you have read A Darker Breath, my debut book in the Ben Weir series, you might remember that Ben and his friend, Richard, dash along a narrow road in order to use night vision binoculars so they can spy on an island just off the coast. Well, in reality, it's the via Julia Augusta that they run along to find a good viewing spot. Having walked along it a few times myself I can definitely testify to the great views of Isola Gallinara on a clear day.
The road dates from Roman times, hence its name. Julia was the daughter of the Emperor Augustus. Originally it was a very long road built to connect Rome to the southern coast of France (or Gaul as it was known in Roman times). Today, most of the original road has been destroyed or sections of it turned into modern highways, thus very little of the original road remains. That's where we're in luck, or rather Ben and Richard were, since the stretch between Alassio and Albenga, the next town along the coast travelling east, has remained virtually untouched.
Walking to Albenga from Alassio the track starts off as patches of tarmac interspersed with cinder track, but as you get closer to Albenga parts of the track have been excavated by archaeologists to reveal the original Roman road underneath. It's amazing to walk along it thinking that you are walking on a road that was laid over two thousand years ago! How many people from all the ages of history between then and now have walked along it? Those kinds of things get my mind racing with all sorts of ideas for stories. In some places the road is more like a track and quite narrow and in others it widens out resembling something like a proper road. Cars and motorbikes/mopeds can get part way along the road from either end, but it would often be a bumpy ride.
In the book I tend to imply that Ben and Richard are in the middle of nowhere walking along the path, but in reality there are quite a few houses dotted along the way. Hence the need to get some vehicles down the road. I used a bit of author licence there to create my own image so that Ben and Richard could sit in the undergrowth, being surprised by lizards and other creatures of the night, while they spied on the island. In fact the first time I walked the via Julia Augusta I was surprised by the number of dwellings I came across.
The other interesting thing about the via Julia Augusta is the number of roman ruins along the way. There are several roman cemeteries which have been part excavated and many Roman walls. I did think about using them in my story, perhaps Ben and Richard could be pursued through a decaying Roman cemetery at night, but in the end I decided not to.
The entire walk is about 5.5 kilometres and there's plenty of flora and fauna to see along the way too.
On the right you can see a swallowtail butterfly, centre is one of the many lizards one can usually hear skittering through the undergrowth and right is a prickly pear cactus. It's a good job Ben and Richard didn't stumble into that in the dark!
So the next time you are in Alassio make sure you head up to Santa Croce, just up beyond Solva, where the via Julia Augusta starts and take the walk along to Albenga where you can reward yourself with an ice cream, a coffee, a nice cold beer or a deserved glass of wine! And if it's all too much to walk back again you can always take the train or the bus, both are regular, cheap and get back to Alassio much quicker than you would walking the return journey.
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