Domina Piccolo Portofino

We will be staying Riomaggiore (one of the five villages) and have booked our accomodation already at Casa Lorenza  We will be staying in apartment Nettuno.

What shouldn't we miss while we are here?

Partie tot ce matin pour se rendre a monterosso, premier village de 5 dans le parc national des cinque terre. Apres 1h40 de train, nous voila au deprt du sentier qui relie les 5 petits villages. A flanc de montagne, nous avons traverser plusieurs champs de vigne et plantations d'olivier de village en village ...

As the traffic had been horrendous yesterday we decided to hit the autostrada and pay the tolls to save our sanity and hightail it to our next destination. 130kms and 10 Euro later we arrived in Santa Margherita Ligure, which is just up the road from Portofino.

This place is a bit larger than we are used to and Italian towns all have small car parks and narrow ...

... is either way this town is the only connector to Nice where we want to go or Milan to get to Paris. We visit the ticket counter 5 times in 2 hours each time finding out new information for our situation and having to leave to pondering our next plan of attack. It becomes comical when each time we attempt to make a decision and go back to the ticket counter there is atleast one new staff person. I will have to continue this later because a lady needs this computer.

... ticket said La Spezia on it but didn't specify which one since there are apparently two stations in the tiny town; one on the outskirts and one in the center. The girls and I along with probably another dozen American tourists got off on the wrong one and had to search for help. The only person at the station other than us was the train engineer. He helped some but we had to wait in the rain for around half an hour for the next train to take us to either the central station or ...

... went diving this afternoon for a few hours. Stee likes to see In the evening a few of our guests went to look at Santa Margherite, a small village down the coast, but I just hung around Portofino and later after dinner aboard, we all found a place for drinks along the waterfront.

... channel covered his life and death as a major world event. The channels were showing clips from his electrifying performances, and
for me, most of all, it was amazing to see how people would actually
cry at these concerts. Perhaps this happens with famous figures when they pass away (especially those who have succumbed to alcohol or drugs), but on the television MJ was being immortalized retrospectively. All those years of jokes about his ...

... of Portofino. You will need to set aside a full day, but one beautiful route takes you from Monte Portofino, the mountain that overlooks the town, to the Abbazia di San Fruttuoso. The hike takes about five hours roundtrip. If this sounds like too much work, you can take a one hour hike from Portofino to Cappella delle Gave. The tourist office sells hiking maps, and does a great job of providing directions to get you on your way.

We just finished our frist port call at Portofino. It was very picturesic but for me the highlight was the restuarant we found for lunch! The best pesto pasta ever. Though since the cruise line lost my order for my tux and Kiyo's order for her shoes we had to do a bit of shoe shopping there as ...

Portofina and Santa Margherita - We did not sleep well last night due to rolling seas! I never did hear the alarm clock this morning - Carol had to wake me! A fast shower, a small breakfast out on the back terrace where the sky was a beautiful blue as was the water, back to our room and then off to see Portofino, Italy which is an extension of the French Riviera. We were taken in by our ships Tender to this very quaint ...