GENOA, ITALY 29th – 30th June

GENOA, ITALY 29th – 30th June: This was scheduled as a one day visit but due to bad seas expected on the way to our next scheduled stop of Monte Carlo the captain made the call to overnight in Genoa giving us from 7 am in the Thursday till 3:30 pm all on board the next day Friday the 30th.

They put on coach trips to Monte Carlo for the second day and a lot of the ship took advantage of this including Paul and Michelle. 

We have been before and used the second day to use the hop on hop off bus to go around twice through Genoa and only hopped off once for an hour and a half, giving us a nice quieter day with enjoyment of looking at all the beautiful buildings and squares the city has and wonderful churches , castles on the surrounding hillsides.
Having no rush to be back on that first day gave us the luxury of stress free time being a tourist. We travelled with 10 others on the train to Saint Margharite and bought ferry tickets for Portofino for 50 minutes later at 11:15 am. This gave us the opportunity sit on the waterfront with a coffee and relax. The ferry was a bonus as we had been told they weren’t expected to be running and all the ship tours were using buses, and they were cancelled for the return, we hadn’t bought a return ticket as our intention was to take the coastal walk back to St Margharite after spending time in Portofino.

What stunning little towns both these places are and certainly look forward to spending more time in this area in the future.
We ran into Michelle and Paul in Portofino and arranged to try and catch up in St Margharite if they could leave the tour there, which they were able to and we spent a few more hours there mooching around and soaking it all up before heading back to Genoa on the train.

We can see that Genoa area is a great jumping off port for lots of areas from there, including Monte Carlo, the coast, Turino, and Cinqe Terra.

Anyway back to Portofino and our coastal walk . It was a HIGHLIGHT of our trip, simply incredible to be walking the red carpet all the way from Portofino to St Margharite trees, birds, coastal views, palatial homes and hotels and several little beach areas on the way back made it a wonderful way to spend a few hours away from the hustle and bustle of some of the tourist areas.
We arrived back onboard just after 7 pm happy, and pleasantly tired and after eating in the dining room for the first time in nearly a week we were quite ready for bed by 9:30 pm.
Tick off another fantastic stay in port on our grand voyage around the world in 104 nights.