POSTCARD FROM ITALY Thursday 23 May – Tuesday 4 June 2019

I left London Gatwick before 7am on Thursday 23 May and had a very smooth flight to Genoa and then a comfortable ride by car to Portofino.  Thanks to the friendship of the GM of the Belmond in London with the GM of the Belmond Splendido Mare in Portofino I had my room upgraded to a lovely corner suite with a small balcony, not to mention wine, chocolates and flowers in my room!   Unfortunately, their pool is up at the other Splendido, a shuttle ride away, which is annoying, but nonetheless I spent a quiet afternoon up there in beautiful sunshine. In the early evening I took a walk around the delightful little town and later I had a very expensive dinner near the waterfront – Euros 50 for one course, one glass of wine and some water.

On day two I took a walk up to San Giorgio, Castello Brown and the lighthouse in the morning but my leg was not too good.  Mid-morning I took the shuttle to the sister hotel and spent the day by the pool although a little bit cloudy most of the day.  In the evening found a small restaurant behind the hotel and had an excellent meal for Euros 26, inclusive of half a litre of wine!!!  Day three was the pool all day and the same restaurant in the evening!

On Sunday I was driven from Portofino to Monterosso on the Cinque Terre.  Unfortunately they don’t allow cars inside the little town so I had a long wait for the hotel’s taxi service to fetch me from the carpark.  My room at the Porta Roca Hotel was meant to be a suite with bath, sea view and balcony, but it had no bath so I moved to a standard room with bath, sea view and balcony.   I can’t understand why I wasn’t put in that in the first place!  A few problems on this trip!  Went for a walk around the town in the afternoon, but it is a long walk down – and then back up – a slope to the town.  My leg is far from good, so in the end I got their buggy to bring me back up.  And did the same for a rather poor dinner in the evening.

On Monday I decided to ‘do’ the Cinque Terre.  I took the “5terre Express” from Monterosso and visited the delightful little towns of Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  I had great difficulty in walking around these places thanks to my very painful leg.  The worst one was Corniglia when there were over 300 steps to cope with.  I have no idea how I managed it.  I had to keep stopping on the way up and down and massage the back of the leg, and I had to take one step at a time so I was very slow. However, thankfully, I made it! Once back in Monterosso I rewarded myself with an Aperol Spritzer!  That night I had a delicious dinner in my hotel.  The next day was miserable and cloudy so I decided to give myself a rest and stay in the hotel for the day and dined inhouse that night too.

On Wednesday 29^thI travelled to Capri.  It was a long and sometimes difficult journey – first I had to get a taxi from the hotel to the meeting point for cars, and then it was a two and a half hour car journey from Monterosso to Florence.  There my brilliant taxi driver took me into the station and got me on to the 14.08 train to Naples Central.  Luckily, I spotted in time that there are two stops in Naples and I was the second one! From there a very poor driver took me to Naples Port, gave me a ferry ticket and then just dumped me there.   Fortunately, I found the right ferry and got myself and my luggage on board for an hour and a half ferry ride to Capri.  It was a short and swift journey from the port to the Villa Marina Hotel.  I was not impressed with my very small room, with no bath and little space.  I tried to move myself the next morning but it proved impossible.  Anyway, I sank a few drinks that evening and then hit the sack.  The next morning I discovered that a room move was not on the cards, so I unpacked and took myself to their small pool for the day.  

In the late afternoon I walked to the port, but it was tough on the leg, so I had dinner in house in the evening.  It was all rather expensive, so I shall have to put my best foot forward and hope the leg will stand up to a walk to the port each evening for dinner for the rest of the week.  Friday was spent by the pool and went down to the harbour for dinner.  On Saturday I took a boat trip around the island which was meant to finish with a boat trip into the Blue Grotto, but it was too rough for boats to get in and out of the Grotto.  Later that day I took the shuttle into Capri Town, but there was nothing much to see there.  In the evening it was back down the 60 steps to the port for dinner.  Sunday and Monday were spent quietly by the pool, and on Tuesday I set off on the long journey home via hydrofoil from Capri, car to Naples airport, flight to Gatwick and car to London!