Day 17 - Santa Margherita Ligure

Holidaying on the Italian Riviera

There was no plan for today. The morning was spent finalising the long post for Monaco. By the time I’d finished, I was deciding what to do about lunch. I chose to wander down to the town centre to get something in a cafe. It was a beautiful day, again, and I felt it would lend a holiday air to my day. I ended up in a laneway outside a restaurant that had no other customers, in spite of tourists wandering all through the town centre. It was an excellent choice. After lunch, I thought I should investigate where the local ferry terminal was, as I had in mind that I would get the ferry around to Portofino, and maybe even Cinque Terre. That little stroll turned into a journey of discovery as I realised that there was at least half of SML township hidden from me by the curved wall of buildings surrounding the harbour.

A painted facade. There are many buildings in SML with this kind of decoration (I’ve just realised)	Castello di Santa Margherita Ligure	Hotel Laurin (I think)
Marina-facing buildings	Street scene of SML	The marina part of the harbour

While I was passing, I came across a boat being ‘launched’. They’d apparently just arrived when I went past the first time. They’d launched the boat by the time I returned.

The new boat, ready for launching

The ‘slipway’

And afloat

I wandered along for a while, seeing the sights. It’s a lovely town, SML, and this slightly quieter part right on the water was very pleasant. Also, clearly, the older and probably wealthier part of the town.

Villa Durazzo

Unnamed old fort

Hotel Miramare

This part of the harbour, past the marina on the way to Portofino, was dedicated to bathing beaches. It was lightly populated, almost certainly by locals (tourists are unlikely to walk this far from town when they visit, IMO), but was really glorious in today’s weather.

A bathing beach	Looking back along the bathing beaches	Out to the Mediterranean where visiting boats are anchored
A panorama across the harbour to Rapello

After walking further for a little while, I realised that I’d left the town and was on the road to Portofino. I checked on Google Maps and it appeared that I was already about halfway there. I decided that I would turn back, but now had a firm plan to walk to Portofino tomorrow as it was not much more than an hour given how far I’d come idling along today. I could then catch the (electric) bus back from Portofino.

As I was returning home, I discovered the ferry terminal, which I had spectacularly failed to find as I walked past it the first time. I checked with the ticket office. The ferries leave pretty regularly and the ride takes 15 mins. Maybe I’ll come back from Portofino on a ferry. The ferry to Cinque Terre doesn’t run at this time of year, apparently.

Further walking found me at the tourist information office where I found out about the buses. I asked if there was a bus to Cinque Terre. “No,” he said. “It would take five hours! It’s one hour on the train.” I had not had any idea how far away it was. That put Cinque Terre into a different plan bucket.

The walk home was augmented by assisting two middle-aged women to find their hotel. One of them had been in front of me at the tourist information office and I had tried to help her understand the directions being given by the tourist guy. He kept pointing at the line of buildings across the street, saying “go that way for 5 minutes and you’ll be there”. He meant, of course, to take the streets that lay behind the buildings, but she was not getting it. She set off exasperated, even though I’d tried to make clear what he meant. As I set off to return home broadly in the same direction that the guy had sent them, I saw her, and her friend, miss the turn they needed to go straight to their hotel. I hurried up to catch up to them. I told them, you’ve missed the turn you needed. Let me walk with you for a while. I’m going in the same direction. They accepted this help. I made sure I knew where I was going on Google maps and walked with them up to the street where their hotel was, the sign being visible from where I left them. They were very grateful.

The rest of the day was spent reading, with a brief interlude to set up the stereo equipment. That’s all done now, though I can’t test bits of it because I don’t have relevant CDs or cassette tapes. The radio works!

Tomorrow, a walk to Portofino beckons.

Daily facts: Location: SML Temp: 23 Weather: Sunny and warm