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Day trip to Portofino24 May 2009
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Sun 24th May---Weather:-Nice and sunny
We had a little look today at the place where it all started---La Dolce Vita (the good life) or should I say---the good and expensive life?
Here, on the Italian Riviera, in a little bay sits the little hamlet known as Portofino. This was THE place where Old Hollywood actors would go on vacation; actors such as Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart & Tyrone Power. With its dramatic tree-lined cliffs, ocean views and warm weather this quaint little fishing town has become the darling of the rich and famous. Since the 1950’s, Hollywood stars, European royalty and day trippers have flocked to Portofino and as you have guessed we are two of the latter.
When the boat first came into the little harbour the first impression was that this is a very small little place but after getting off the water front promenade you realize that there is some depth to the place and there certainly is some height, we became mountain goats again climbing up into the hinterland so that we could overlook the bay. The view was worth it and there were many other height seekers as enthusiastic as us, but I must admit the added benefit of the cool shade amongst the trees was another bonus worth climbing for. There seemed to be a yachting regatta on for the whole town was dressed up in large green balloons which gave it a bit of a party atmosphere so letting our heads go we decided to join in. We have not had a proper sit down meal for about 4 days so lunch in one of the little bay side restaurants was too tempting to pass by and we again were lucky as we certainly were not disappointed on any front. It amazes us though for Herman could just manage to eat 2/3 of his main course and I—miracle of miracle—ate all of mine but the LEAN French people next door ate 4 courses each (the lucky ducks).
On our walk to the ferry terminal in Genoa--at the other side of the harbour to where we are living—we noticed that another of the big super liners had berthed. This one is called the MSC Fantasia. You get dizzy just trying to count how many levels of cabins it has.
The ferry trip out of the port of Genoa showed us that we had only seen about one third of the harbour as there were a lot of docks out of sight in some of the other bays. We became a little confused at about that time for over the loud speaker (only in Italian) on the ferry it became apparent that we had to change ferries when we came to our one stop in San Fruttuoso and also we deciphered that Portofino had 2 little wharfs at different parts of the town and it depended as to what time ferry you caught back as to which wharf you needed to go too to catch it. At 5:10 when it was finally time to go back to Genoa even the people in Portofino could not give us the right answer but in the end-when we were trying to board the wrong ferry we were told “not here but over there” so that is our story of today’s escapades and now to really get the sympathy vote for this hard done by little traveller one of my little toes is swollen up to twice its normal size as it is covered in one big blister----don’t you feel sorry for me—having to endure all this hardship?
P.S. After 3 nights here at the Novotel Ovest, Genoa we feel that we want to state publicly that the rubbishing it got on “TripAdvisor” is completely unfounded. It is one of the cleanest hotels that I have ever stayed in, the staff goes out of their way to be polite and courteous, there is a shopping centre within 8 minutes walk, 3 busses to take you where ever you want to go. So I don’t know what else these complainers are looking for.
