Picture Perfect Portofino

Tueday morning came a little too early, but never the less we were ready for our Disney excursion to beautiful Portofino and Santa Margherita which are reached from the port of La Spezia, Italy. We boarded the tour bus and headed along the highway towards these picturesque villages. The reason for taking the highway is that the scenic route winds along the coastline thru many villages but more importantly, those roads are so narrow it would have taken forever for the bus to manuver them all. Besides, the scenery from the highway wasn't too shabby to look at. All the beautiful mountainside terraced fruit and olive tree groves could be seen as well as occassional glimpses of the coast.

We stopped first in Santa M. and visited the church in the city square prior to be cut loose for shopping. Plenty of interesting little local shops and pasticceria's to visit in addition to some designer shops as well. Our group all gathered together at noon and descended on a pizza restaurant for a real Italian pizza party. There was no shortage of pizza's, we were full after each having a piece of white pizza made with a wonderful thin crust, and then true pepperoni pizza. They continued to bring out veggie pizza and pizza margherita before bringing out the best...Chocolate (Nutella) dessert pizza. However, we had already excused ourselves after the 1st two pieces and headed out to take pictures along the bay.

At 1:30 PM we met together again at the ferry pier and boarded our launch for the short ride to Portofino. It was such a beautiful, sunny day with a mild breeze blowing as we approached the postcard perfect harbor of this playground for the rich and famous. The ferries don't have priority in docking, as we had to wait 10 minutes or so while a YACHT moved out of our way and provided us entry to the pier. Portofino is as beautiful as you have seen on postcards etc. We strolled around and up and down the hilly streets of town, popping in and out of the little shops, making sure we weren't missing out on some designer fashion that possibly could have been on sale. These were the true "designer" shops and way out of our price range. We decided to settle for a refreshing Nutella Frappe enjoyed Al Fresco at the cafe in the square. This excursion was a nice relaxing way to see more of Italy in a leisurely fashion, especially after the hecticness of Rome the day before.

Sandy