Week 2 – Monday July 5 – Portofino

Everybody cycles round here – from the very young to the very old. Last night, as we were leaving the campground for dinner, we were walking up the hill on the exit driveway, and down the hill came the lady who runs the camp on her bike and then just behind her was the grandmother, the non-English speaking grandmother also on her bike and hurtling down the hill to catch-up, waving frantically at us, with a big grin on her face, calling “Ciao, Ciao” - it gave us a real laugh. Coming back from dinner, we were passed by a dutch couple on bikes at the bottom of the small hill that leads into the campground – Dutch.... hill, I thought, let's see how this combination goes. About 20metres into the 50m hill, the woman started giggling and then got off, while her husband struggled up to the top of the hill.

If they're not cycing, they're on a scooter, which are the coolest transport on the planet, or hooning round in their wee cars – the original Fiat 500's seem to be everywhere here. The other really cool thing we see all the time around here are the Piaggio Ape 50 – the tiny three wheeled truck scooters. They're a little truck, that is obviously based on a 50cc scooter – inside they have just one seat in the centre and have a scooters handlebars to steer with. On the outside they have a little cab surrounding the driver and a tray for the weeds, tools etc. The great thing about them is that they are really tiny and it looks funny seeing fully grown men hooning round town in these little vehicles. I've put a photo of one up on the site, for you to look at. There is a range of them, with the Ape50 being the smallest, then is the ApeTM, with a proper steering wheel and finally, and my favourite, the ApePorka with 4 wheels and two seats inside the cab – you've made it when you get one of them.

Yesterday was a very upmarket day as we headed in the opposite direction to the Cinque Terre, to the seaside resort of Portofino. Portofino is tiny and very expensive, so we decided it would be easier to take the train to Santa Margarita and then a bus to Portofino. There is only one train, so we arrived at the train station just before 10:00 for a 10:23 train, only to find there was a 30 metre queue with all the people wanting tickets to the Cinque Terre. There was a guy at the front of the queue, with a Europe on a Shoestring Travel Guide, who was obviously doing a complex transaction to somewhere else in Italy or Europe, and as there was only one window open, everybody else had to wait. Fortunately, I spotted a ticket machine, so headed to that to try my luck. Unfortunately, the first question – “Select your language?” hadn't been installed on this machine, so I had to fluff my way through it, which was no real problem until I stuck my credit card in so far that I couldn't get it out and the machine then seemed to freeze. That got my blood pressure up until it spat it back out, without giving me any tickets. Reverting to old fashioned cash for our two tickets, I was surprised to receive three tickets, but not the 7 Euros change I was expecting. Fortunately, the man behind me was able to tell me that the machine was out of cash (obviously not the 20 Euros I'd just put in it) and I had to take the third ticket to a counter to get cash from them.

The train ride to Santa Margarita took about 45 minutes, after which we had to catch a bus out to Portofino, which is in a small harbour at the end of a peninsular. It's one of those delightful European roads, that is wide enough for a bus, and sometimes a car as long as they pass in the right place. The bus had to toot at every corner to make sure nobody was coming round the other way. The 5km trip took 25 minutes.

Portofino is a beautiful little town, set in a tiny Harbour - about the size of the lagoon outside the star boating club. While the harbour might be tiny, the price tag on the yachts in the harbour certainly isn't. The most impressive was the Lady Anne, which as 225 feet and with decks on 3 levels is absolutely huge. Being such a tiny harbour, everything is very close, so we got some beautiful photos of the harbour, the boats and the surrounding buildings and houses.
Lunch in Portfino was in one of the harbour side sea food restaurants – We shared a fish dish with an olive and caper sauce and Spaghetti with Pesto Genovese – which is normal pesto, but they invented it. It was a delicious lunch in a very beautiful setting. Dinner was again in our little Taverna, cos why break a 3 day habit.