From Nice

Directions to Colletta from Nice (Nizza) Airport

The car hire companies have their pick up and drop off points in a cabin outside Terminal 2, so if you arrive at Terminal 1 catch the free shuttle just to the left outside the terminal building. This ends up at Terminal 2. You cross the road and go through an open passage between the multi storey car parks.

You can do the paperwork at the counter in either terminal, or at the cabin outside Terminal 2 – choose the latter if there's a long queue at the desk inside the terminal.

Leaving the airport from Terminal 2, you must follow the signs for the A8 motorway or Sortie.

Note that in France the signs for the motorway are in blue, but in Italy they are green.

There are three roundabouts to negotiate, but unfortunately the signs are easy to miss at the final one and you can very easily find yourself taking the A8 towards Antibes/Sophia Anti(no)polis, which is the wrong way! If you get caught by this, you need to come off at the next junction (Cagnes, about 5 km), pay 50 centimes, turn back on yourself at the roundabout, pay another 50 centimes and head towards Vintimille (Ventimiglia, XXmiglia) and Genes (Genova, Genoa). It is also quite possible to take the wrong exit at the roundabout when trying to double back, so be very observant!

What you should have done in the first place to avoid all this is to take the first permissible exit at the final roundabout, the one before the one marked A8 Antibes – so if you miss it, just keep going round until you get back to it. It is signposted to Nice Nord, Monaco and Genes. Then immediately you should bear right and join the A8 motorway heading east towards Vintimille.

On the French side, the motorway alternates between two and three lanes without much warning, and is mostly two lanes in the tunnels. On the Italian side it is two lanes all the way.

On the portion of the motorway that is in France you pay a toll at two points (€1.30 and €2.00), and you can do this with coins or a credit card. When you get to the Italian section at Ventimiglia you take a ticket and then don't pass another toll until you come off at Albenga. You should get there about an hour and a quarter after setting off from the airport, all being well.

From the Albenga exit, go left towards Garessio and Castelbianco.

Now follow the directions from Albenga.

If you are looking for refreshments, then there are a few service stations on the motorway - or you could find something at the airport before setting off.