Anchored out in the harbor, we had to take a tender into the quaint, picturesque town of Portofino. It is one of the oldest ports in Italy and consists of a harbor, shops, beautiful colorful houses, and one church.
New yard art idea for Tom
After walking around the harbor for a bit, we began at the church on a 5 km hike to Santa Margherita Ligure, the next town up the coast.
A stone path, covered in red, wound along the side of the hill overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. It had some steep uphills, with fewer down hills, and passed some beautiful large homes along the way.
We passed by a resort at Parragi that looked like a fun place to stay. I think that this should be the location for the next Stoeber family vacation!
Views from the path:
Along the way there were many steel ladders going down to small rocky areas and the water looked very refreshing, blue and crystal clear. It was very, very hot and Jeff wished he had worn a swim suit so he could get down into the water. I listened to a lot of grumbling from Jeff. The path finally leveled out as we entered the lovely town of Santa Margherita, a slightly larger harbor town.
We found a place to eat lunch along the marina, Caffe del Porto. We had a great lunch that included a plate of fried seafood with little fish the heads and tails (maybe the size of sardines) along with squid, prawns, and shrimp-like things called scampi. It was excellent.
View of our lunch spot
Views from our table, duck ramp on the right
After lunch, 2 ducks wandered up from the marina, so while I connected to wifi and checked email and texts Jeff fed the ducks from our bread basket. Sorry, no pictures of the ducks. After walking around the town some more, we boarded the ferry back to Portofino.
More scenes from Santa Margherita Ligure:
Back in Portofino, we did a little shopping and, of course, had gelato at Gepi. This was the best gelato of the trip so far. Finally, we tendered back to the ship just in time for dinner with the Brits and Scots. We went to the show after dinner – a musical featuring the ship’s singers and dancers. As our British friends would say, “not Jeff’s cup of tea”. After working on the blog ( still no internet) we went to bed – late.
Buonna notte.
