Ok, so got up today and decided we would do the day trip to Portofino, even after the couple staying next door to us trashed it. The Edna was too tired so decided to stay behind, and Paul thought he could do without the experience as well, so the girls set off on their lonesome....was kind of liberating actually, felt like we had arranged a baby sitter for the day and we were free!!!!!
Unfortunately, there had been more fires behind Levanto, and it was very smokey and hazy. The ferry ride was quite pleasant otherwise and took about 2 1/2 to get to our destination.
They took us around to San Fruttuosa first, we got all excited, but alas they didn't let us off, only pointed to the Benedictine Monastery from the ferry and let everyone take pictures, gave everyone a little background info in Italian, obviously we only caught every 8th word or so, we got " sorry can't speak anglaise...big old church" Finito!! Hehehehe
Was hoping they would drive us over the the Christ of the Abyss, the bronze statue of Christ that is 15m under the sea, apparently you can see it from the surface on a good day, and today was a good day, the water was amazing, but no not even a mention....well not that we could understand anyway.
We got off at Portofino which was way more pleasant than explained to us the night before, some pretty impressive yachts were mored there, freaking huge vessels, see pics. We couldn't help ourselves, when we got home we googled them, the Helios is available for charter at a cool $395 000 USD per week, whereas the Lady Kathryn IV is a much more affordable option at around %195 000 USD plus expenses, will keep both in mind for our next vacation!!
Went for a stroll around, shopping was either high end or tacky souvenir, so decided to eat instead. Walked up around the headland near the Castle, everything was so manicured the gardens immaculate, and the walkways very civilised, a huge contrast to the steps and paths we have become accustomed to on the Cinque Terre.
Next on our agenda was of course gelati...whilst in the line up saw these amazing sundaes coming out, so decided to sit down and treat ourselves....don't even ask how much they cost, but ended up being worth every cent. Had to laugh at the waiter, while we were waiting and checking him out we noticed that he was a little unfriendly, that he maybe wanted to be anywhere but here serving annoying tourists who didn't understand anything, especially after said annoying tourist stomped on his toe on the way out....so enter us. We sit down and say we know what we want, 2 of those things over there we point, medium or grande, "grande" we chorus, he looks at us like we just asked him to take his pants off, hahaha, 2 he says, writes it down on his order pad, and repeats it again just to make sure before he walks away with a huge smile on his face!!
We catch the ferry home and finish our day in the usual way, at our favourite restaurant in Manarola with a bottle of red. Was particularly good last night, the perfect send off......sooooo sad to leave in the morning.
