Wow, the sea is rough today! We walked down to level 3 on the ship to disembark onto a tender. There was a bit of a cue and people were getting anxious as we only had a few hours at the port. They were having trouble getting everyone on the tender, which holds about 50 people. The waves were so rough that it was taking a long time to board each person safely. By the time they had about 40 people on board the first 20 were beginning to get seasick and asked to come back on the ship. They were white as ghosts when they walked through the crowd and up the stairs. Rose and I decided to go have lunch on the ship and hope that the sea would cooperate and calm down in the mean time. A couple hours later we were on the tender and being dropped in the most beautiful little port that I’ve ever seen, truly a painter’s dream.
Because we have so little time in each port and there is so much to see I am not taking the time to do the little watercolors that I usually do when I travel. Instead I’m spending my time exploring and photographing and will rely on my photos to create paintings when I return home. With all the places I’ve been so far this year I have enough resource material to last the rest of my life and I plan to live a long time!
Portofino is called the Pearl of the Mediterranean. It is small and intimate, declared a national monument by nearby Genoa in 1935. When I think of a quaint, small, unchanged village along the coast of the Mediterranean, Portofino is it.
It has a circular port that has a small opening to the sea, which is why the ship could not dock there. The harbor has small yachts and tiny rowboats. The sidewalk that wraps the harbor is lined with cafes and boutiques. There is a main street that climbs up a hill where hotels and more restaurants are located.
We wandered the streets and shops for a while and then walked up to see the Church of Saint George and Brown Castle. As you walk you pass some local homes tucked into the hillside with those picturesque red tile roofs and all painted shades of peach, yellow, green and pink.
As we walked down the steep curving steps back to port we suddenly realized how parched we were and decided to spend our last hour in port at a café overlooking the Gulf of Rapallo with a glass of wine and a couple appetizers. We ordered two glasses of white wine, a plate of prosciutto with melon and a plate of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and they brought a basket of bread too. It was so delicious. We had been warned that things were expensive here and when the bill came it was true, 80 euros about $125. US, outrageous, but how often are you in Portofino, Italy… the place where all the movie stars vacation. Next time I’m packing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
