In case you missed Part 1 Part 2 and Part 3
June 7
Italy! Hello, beautiful Italy! I love languages and how they sound. Growing up bi-lingual, I tend to have a knack for imitating the sounds of languages I am not fluent in. Italian has a wonderful sound – I amused myself pronouncing words like Firenze, Portofino, Bella with my best Italian flair! I think poor David got tired of my interest in getting the sound right! Italy is charming! Our tour to Portofino was lovely and HOT and HUMID! We took a ferry from Santa Margarita to Portofino, which was, and still is, the playground of the rich and famous and is therefore overpriced. Vendors were selling various goods, and I got suckered into buying a hat for 20 euros. I am sure he picked them up for a song compared to what I paid. But I needed a hat! As the days passed by that overpriced hat became more and more valuable to me. It gave me the much needed shade and unfortunate hat head bangs. David found a hat he liked in Portofino that was 15 euros. These hats became our friends.
Portofino means Port of the dolphins (but it is too crowded with showy yachts to be a welcoming place to dolphins – as a matter of fact we did not see any dolphins or whales the entire trip.)
In Portofino, we enjoyed pizza and an ice cream treat called Paciugo which was vanilla gelato with strawberry sauce and fresh berries with whipped cream. Our tour guide had recommended it and called it a “mess”. The pizza came with four toppings – each of them on a quarter, separated and by the way I found out the hard way that the olives had pits – I nearly broke a tooth discovering that! We enjoyed a short climb to see a beautiful view of the harbor. The yachts were in a battle for one-up-man-ship like not seen before. Portofino was much smaller than I thought it would be, but the beautiful painted buildings were charming and photogenic.
Pictured below: David and I in Santa Margarita, Paciugo, Pizza, narrow alleys, charming colorful buildings, cute row boats, lovely flowers, pricey yachts, and overpriced hats!
Next: Firenze (Florence)
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