shave ice & gelato

Wednesday June 25

After another good breakast, I headed down to the dock to buy a ticket for a boat ride to San Fruttuoso and Portofino. If I had one pet peeve, it would have to be how most Europeans rudely cut in line. I, along with a few other people waited nicely in a line for the chain to be opened so that we could board the boat. Just as the man came to open the chain, it turned into a mini-stampede. It is incredible to me how rude people can be pushing their way in front of you when they can clearly see that you have been waiting nicely in what appeared to be a line.

Despite the stampede, I was able to get one of the last spots on the top deck of the boat. The boat first stops at Portofino and then continues onto San Fruttuoso. I decided to stay on the boat and go to San Fruttuoso first. I did a post on San Fruttuoso a few months ago - either put the words San Fruttuoso in the search box or click on Liguria in the category column to see photos from my previous trip there.

I set myself up on the rock beach to catch a few rays. It was such a peaceful morning there UNTIL the invasion of teenagers from Camogli arrived. It was some sort of Summer Fun group. I lasted about 10 more minutes and then headed up to check out the Abbey. The cost for a combined ticket for the Abbey and the Tower was 7 euros (definitely not worth 7 euros in my opinion) but still interesting. The last time I visited San Fruttuoso, I only visited the tower, which was not a tower to climb but instead a room where on that occasion there was an interesting amber display. This time, there were a few paintings to see which did not really interest me that much.

I had lunch at da Laura's back on the beach. I read a wonderful review for this restaurant, raving about the spaghetti and clam dish, which I was looking forward to trying. Unfortunately this dish was not on the menu. Instead there was a spaghetti alla marinara dish, which was spaghetti with pieces of mussels. It was ok, but not anything to rave about.

After lunch, I headed back to the boat dock to catch the boat to Portofino. As luck would have it, the group of teenagers were also catching this boat! Fortunately, most of them sat below and seemed to disappear into the crowd once we arrived in Portofino.

Portofino has to be one of the most beautiful places in all of Italy. Too expensive to stay, but a glorious place to visit. After taking many photos, I headed up to the Castello Brown, which was so much fun to explore. The cost was 4 euros and worth much more. Inside in all of the rooms were black and white photos of stars from the 50's and 60's hanging on the walls. The photos were of their visits to Portofino, Santa Margherita, and Genova. The castle also provided wonderful views both from the windows of the castle as well as the garden outside. I really enjoyed my visit to the castle and have to thank Leslie for the tip.

Before leaving Portofino, I had my daily gelato - this time a nocciola (walnut) and pistachio. YUM!! Delicious!!

I took a short nap after returning to my hotel and then had dinner at a place called Zinco. I ordered a pizza margherita with mozzarella buffula cheese which was just OK. The soccer game was on which made it fun to hang out there for a while.

Today (Thursday) I am taking the train to Genova. Ciao!!