We’re trying room service breakfast today. It’s a special occasion too – Hubby reaches a significant number today.
As we enjoy breakfast on our balcony we are treated to a spectacular view of the park and headland surrounding Portofino. We’re no strangers to this area but always love the view.
Portofino is tiny and we have to tender in once again, and then head up into those hills, basically repeating a walk we’ve done several times.
The first parts are very tough, we climb almost 1500ft in the increasingly humid heat, but it’s worth the effort as almost all the remaining distance is downhill or flat. As we ascend we can see our ship, and also the new Orient Express Corinthian yacht, officially the worlds largest sailing boat. With the smallest suite over twice the size of ours, and prices from over triple ours, we won’t be asking Yvonne to investigate!
We pass the now decommissioned water mill, sadly the wheel is gone and the workings are completely overgrown. What is still visible is the communal washing sinks where villagers used to meet over their smalls. This is the highest point thankfully.
The walk continues through the park for several miles slowly descending into Santa Margherita Ligure. We stop off at the beautiful Villa Durazzo and take a wander round. Last time we enjoyed the musicians practicing for an evening concert, today it’s quiet and virtually empty. This time the church is open so we take a look around Chiesa di San Giacomo di Corte e Santuario di Nostra Signora della Lettera before walking down into the town centre.
It’s been very hot so we need to refill our water – surprisingly difficult to find a suitable shop but eventually we find a green grocer with a cooler full. We love the old and new Fiats.
Walking out of the old town onto the harbour, we follow the only road and commence our return journey home.
It’s a beautiful walk as the road winds around the rocky outcrops, and we’ve quite forgotten that for a small section it goes uphill to avoid a tricky section!
Back in the harbour of Portofino we can see our tender arriving, perfect timing once again.
We get onboard and head straight to lunch as it’s getting late. We are invited to a cocktail party for club members, it turns out we are two of just seven travelling this week who are Platinum members!
The afternoon rapidly vanishes as we get various tasks completed, Spanish, blog writing and a bit of work.
We meet as always for drinkies in Explora Lounge and then go to find the special restaurant Anthology. Here we work our way through a seven course dinner, which is a bit strange becuase unlike most tasting menus there’s choices to be made on most of the courses. It was all excellent so I’ll just mention a few noteworthies, from Sicilian red prawns, morel salad, raviolo langostino, Wagyu beef and finally the cannolo Siciliano, as well as birthday cake!
We got home to find our cabin decorated.
