Day 29 - Santa Margherita, Rapallo, Portofino

Today was a day of no tours or solid plans so we decided to leave Portofino in the morning and head over to Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo for some exploring and a bit of shopping (although Portofino is a beautiful place to stay, the Louis Vuitton, YSL, and Chanel stores are just a tad out of our range). After a croissant and coffee, we got on the bus for a quick trip to Santa Margherita where I managed to find a couple of linen shirts to bring home. Despite trying, Barb and Toni weren’t able to also talk me into a slim pair of bright red shorts (very Italian looking but I just wasn’t able to do it). After moving on to Rapallo, we wandered around the shops a bit more before stopping for the obligatory Aperol Spritz. We have finally cottoned on to the fact that the shops all close in the afternoon to allow time for the Italian lunch, so a bit more strolling through the back street shops was next on the list so that we could time lunch to coincide with when the locals eat. We bought a few genuine antipasti bits and bobs to take home to NZ. No presents in the suitcase this time, but some tasty bits to share instead. 
For a bit of a change, we found a good burger restaurant - although eating pizza, pasta and tiramisu every day has been fantastic, it was really good to have something a little less rich for a change. Back to Portofino and we took a walk up the hill opposite the apartment and out to the tip of the penninsula to a tiny outdoor bar stuck right out at the end of the cliff - a really cool wee place! Although there is an early start tomorrow for our pesto class, we managed to hold out until 8 o-clock before heading out for dinner. Finally, at the end of the trip, we have managed to kick in to Italian time.  After dinner it was back to see if we could operate the shower in the upstairs bathroom (the smallest one in the world). Not much luck (the controls are quite bizarre) and with the bathroom space being so tight, it looks like we’ll all be sharing the downstairs bathroom. Oh well, worse things have happened. Also, we’ve been really lucky with the weather so far so we can’t complain - the storm that’s meant to have been closing has held off for another day. Its due to really hit tomorrow, but we'll be heading down to the Cinque Terre for our Pesto class tomorrow, so all good if it's stormy here. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9 - Farewell Korcula, Hello Hvar

After a good night sleep, we had some breakfast onboard and got ready to head back into Korcula for a guided walking tour of the city. Although we’d had a wander around the the evening, the tour was definitely worthwhile - we got a really knowledgeable guide with a very dry sense of humour, and the city was quite a different place without so many people (most of the cruise ships that had been in the previous day had left). We did a bit more wandering after the tour, just to make sure we’d seen everything and then it was back onboard the ship for lunch - three courses! I think we could very easily get used to the idea of lazing around on a boat and having everything done for us….. While we lunched the captain sailed us out of Korcula and up the coast to the island of Hvar. Another walking tour of the old city - again, well worth it (we’ve officially become those disoriented looking tourists that you see wandering around with earpieces in, trying to keep up with the guide). Onto a bus to...
Read more

Day 30 - Cinque Terre

Image
An early start again today as we had a bit of travelling to get to our pesto making class. First a taxi to the train station and then over an hour on the train to get to Cinque Terre where the class was scheduled to start at 10:30. Unfortunately, the whole scheduling and ticketing thing with the trains is not straightforward so when we realised that we’d missed our stop and tried to double back, it was the start of a bit of an issue. We’d left plenty of time to get to Cinque Terre but when we went to the ticket office to try and get back to the correct station, the queue was nearly out the door. Barb tried to order new tickets online but that also seemed to be taking forever. We decided to just board the next train going back (so that we’d at least be on time) but that’s when it all came to a head - we got sprung by the conductor and despite trying to show that we’d tried to buy online tickets, we got a hefty fine. Although it was pretty rubbish, we didn’t have a lot of choice so we tr...
Read more

Day 24 - Last day in Puglia

Image
There were no solid plans for today because the weather forecast was for stormy weather all day. But looking again at the weather apps over breakfast, the report was for fine weather for most of the region (and by just looking out the window, it seemed that the day wasn’t going to be that bad). Barb did some online research to find a recommended beach nearby, and since we had food left from our visit to the supermarket a few days before, we thought a picnic would be a good idea. After making sure our ferry tickets were booked for our trip across to Capri tomorrow, we gathered everything up and set off to find a sunny spot with a bit of sand and some surf. Mission accomplished - we spent a few hours at a beach just south of Monopoli enjoying the sun, having a swim, and eating alfresco. The perfect way to end our time in Puglia - although it is another reminder of how lucky we are in NZ with our number and quality of sandy beaches. After drying off, we all piled back into car to take a ...
Read more