Portofino & Genoa

Down the narrow roads from Arianna Hill House for the last time and without incident and we were on the road to Portofino.

As we exited the autostrade and neared Portofino the going got slow through some of the "villages" packed with traffic most of which paid scant attention to the centre line & road courtesy & rules as we are used to!

With relief we got the wagon into a park at Portofino and wandered down to the marina where some rather large pleasure craft were moored.

The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming right by the marina walkway.

Found a cafe for morning tea and I am sure the young bloke who served us either owns one of the vessels moored right outside or will do so in short order as he charged the equivalent of $NZ23 for a coffee and a can of coke - didn't realise that we looked so gullible!

Portofino is a delightful seaside village with loads of character and with tons of activity on the water - I guess you could liken the activity to the Auckland viaduct but we don't have an area in NZ that I am aware with the charm the Portofino possesses.

As we left Portofino Mrs GPS went on strike so we had to navigate our own way for around 10-15 minutes - she said she couldn't locate the satellites but I sense that was only an excuse to raise the stress levels of us both.

In following the sign posts to Genoa we climbed out of Portofino and followed the coast line around to Genoa. Whether Mrs GPS would have taken us this way we have no idea but we were glad that we went on this route as it was like driving around Paratai Drive for 25 or so kms.

Once again Mrs GPS failed us as we tried to find our hotel in the centre of the city but we overcame her eccentricities and arrived outside the hotel.

The room wasn't ready so I followed the receptionist's instruction to the car park - "it is only 200m away and easy to get to because all the streets are one way".

About 20 minutes later after ending up in a dead end street, getting a fiery blast from a taxi driver behind me because I was not exceeding the speed limit I finally got the car parked and walked back to hotel.

In short order we were out and about and for some reason not having any expectations of Genoa as a tourist spot.

We were pleasantly surprised as just up from the hotel was Piazza Garibaldi surrounded by lovely old buildings.

Garibaldi's statue

We found our way to the harbour and took a ride on "Bigo" which took us around 40m into the air and revolved around so that one got a view across the harbour and also the rooftops.

Palazzo San Giorgio as seen from "Bigo"

 As we wandered back through the city we stopped off at San Lorenzo, the Duomo which has a black and white striped exterior and glorious (again) interior.

We then followed the walk to the Porta Soprana to find the house where Christopher Columbus once lived and where he developed his passion for the sea.

A stroll through the shopping area and dinner at an open aired cafe finished off another packed day.

Tomorrow we leave Italy and move on to France and we leave behind a country that has made a significant impression from the tourist sights, the beautiful countryside, the charming villages and towns we have stopped at or passed through and the pleasant folk we have met.

I may be tempting fate but in the 3 & half weeks we have been away we have not had any rain other than 5 minutes in Rome as we queued for the Colosseum and the temperatures have been between 25-35 every day - we hope it continues (at least from the news we have seen London will be hot!)