The Italian Riviera is some of the most beautiful landscape in all the world! Our ship dropped her anchor just of the coast of Portofino. Since we had not been here before, we chose to take a small boat along the coast & explore the fishing village of Camogli, then spend the afternoon in Portofino. We should have taken the tour to Cinque Terre...but since we had already been there, we decided to try something different. If you are ever given the choice...CHOOSE Cinque Terre! Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but Portofino does not even come close to the beauty of Cinque Terre...have I driven that home, yet?
San Fruttuoso, an old monastery turned resort, is tucked away in this little cove. You can only access it by boat or by foot.
Camogli was still asleep when we pulled into the harbor...
The brick buildings are covered in plaster & the details/trim are actually "painted" on them to give it that 3-D look to make it appear like fancy woodwork.
A beautiful view of this sleepy little village...
By the time we had to leave, the beaches had come alive as the shops opened up. We enjoyed some delicious, fresh-baked ciabatta bread...
We got back to Portofino in time for lunch. They have the tiniest little bay filled with yachts & sailboats...
I love the balconies decked out with beautiful flowers...& laundry? Oops! They probably weren't expecting us...
The next day found us in Alghero on the Island of Sardinia. Here, we decided to tour the Grotta di Nettuno ( Neptune's Grotto)...
These limestone cliffs have tons of holes & caves carved out by the sea. Our boat literally drove into one where we found an under ground lake filled with stalactites & stalagmites at Grotta di Nettuno. I didn't have my camera set properly to capture all the unique formations (most of my photos were blurry), but it was pretty cool inside!
After we toured the caves, we visited the Old City. Many European cities have an "old city" that is usually walled to protect it from enemies. I love wandering the old streets & visiting their shops...
Being in Italy, I couldn't pass up the gellato...pretty sure I managed to get this twice a day!
It was such a hot day! We tried to enjoy the water, but the Mediterranean is pretty warm...it felt more like a warm bath - it wasn't very refreshing!
Italy is one of our favorite countries. We did NOT see enough of it during this visit...I hope we can visit again soon.
We had a day at sea the next day as we made our way back to Spain...coming up next.
2 comments:
How gorgeous! What a great way to see Italy.
And now I'm so sad. I miss Italy so much. I'm glad you had a good time, even if you didn't offer to take me with you.
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