Day 48 - Santa Margherita Ligure

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A rainy day in Santa Margherita Ligure

This morning, my focus was on making sure that my future travelling was all squared away. I poked around on Google Maps and Rome2Rio to make sure that I understood where I needed to be at different times and what travel options existed. The Eurail app is quite good for planning train trips between major train stations, but it is no help at all if a train doesn’t go to your destination. Rome2Rio (and Google Maps) can bridge the gap, but it’s fiddly. Anyway, I sorted out the travel to and from Milan Linate Airport for my Edinburgh flights and then booked my trip to Rome for next week too. All my ‘structural’ travel is now decided. I may yet still do a couple of day trips between Edinburgh and Rome. Genoa, Turin, and Milan are all on a priority list.

There was a fair chunk of poking around trying to work out how to get from Edinburgh to St Andrews for my golfing adventure. As many readers will no doubt know, St Andrews is about 2 hours away from Edinburgh (or a 17 hour walk, Google helpfully tells me). Transport options are pretty good, but it’s a big time commitment to show up to put your name down for a game and then go back to Edinburgh for visiting, each day. Also, the weather forecast is pretty bleak. Sunday and Monday will be clear and cold, Tuesday will likely be cold and rainy, and Wednesday, cold with possible rain. I can’t get out to St Andrews in time to put my name in the hat for a game on Monday, so I’ve decided that I will commit Monday to visiting St Andrews, put my name in the hat for a game on Tuesday (my birthday), do some sightseeing in St Andrews, then return to Edinburgh. If I get a tee time, I’ll play on my birthday, whatever the weather. If I don’t get a tee time, I will not try again. I had set aside five days in Edinburgh in my original planning to allow for multiple attempts at playing, however, when doing that I hadn’t really factored in the travel to and from SML. I’ve only really got three (and a quarter) days on the ground.

Having settled on that strategy and collected links to helpful sight-seeing tours in St Andrews and Edinburgh, I turned my attention to Rome. I’ve received advice over a long period that I should pre-book tours in Rome as it’s very busy and the city is celebrating a huge anniversary, so its doubly busy. I spent some time on Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor sifting through the dozens of options and have booked a tour through the Vatican, another through ancient sites including the colusseum, and a golf cart tour around the other main attractions (to orient later self-guided visits to these places). That should ensure that I tick off the high-value attractions and allow me to be a bit lazier with other self-guided expeditions.

Posted the multi-day blog entry after settling my mind with all my travel arrangements. The day was bleak and on-and-off raining, so I spent my time indoors, packing for Edinburgh and reading. Lunch was a foccacia I had bought when getting milk for breakfast. I went down to Ristorante del Baffo for pizza for dinner. Then an early night to make an early start easier.

Daily facts: Location: Santa Margherita Ligure Temp: 16 Weather: Heavy overcast; patches of rain

Comments

  1. Anonymous17 November 2025 at 06:26

    Hi Tim, good luck in getting in a game on Tuesday - either way St Andrew’s will be memorable if not just for the Arctic blast. Defrost in Rome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tim18 November 2025 at 03:49

      The very good news is that I have literally just heard that I have a tee time - 10:30am! It's only 16 holes and several temporary greens (because this is their repair/restoration season) but it will be significantly discounted too. That tee time is not too difficult for me to make from Edinburgh either, so it's really turned out about ideal!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous19 November 2025 at 17:05

    So pleased you can tee off. TT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tim21 November 2025 at 23:00

      The whole plan came together almost exactly like I wrote it up! And the game was very satisfying, even if the conditions were not ideal.

      Delete

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