Day 9 Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy

Well I will start with a small situation from yesterday.  After arriving at our hotel I needed to take the car to the hotels parking lot.   On the way there I turned too soon and found my self on a very small lane barely wide enough for our car.  Once on the lane I could not back up so I went ahead.  Now I was stuck.    I found a small side lane that I was able to turn into after a few back and forths.  Then I had to back out which took a number of maneuvers and the aid of a plastic trash can to cushion my bumper I was able to retrace my drive and get back to a normal street.   Thank goodness for small european cars.
Today we caught the bus to Portofino.  We got lucky because the forcasted rain did not appear this morning although it did finally arrive just as we finished our visit.  The road to Portofino is narrow and winds around the oceanside.  The bus had to stop a few times along the way because the road was so narrow opposing cars had to squeeze by slowly.   The town is a quaint waterfront village tucked in a small bay.  The buildings crowd the quay and retain their character that has brought so many people to this very pretty place.  We toured Brown's Castle that sits atop the end of the peninsula that creates the harbor.  They displayed pictures of famous people who had visited the tow.  These included Churchill, Hemingway, Onaisis, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Jane Mansfield and many more.  We had lunch at one of the small restaurants near the water to enjoy the ambience.  I can't imagine how crowded this place must be in the height of the summer season.

Chris - We had a beautiful day....OK so it wasn't perfect but compared to what I worried, it was beautiful. We were able to do everything we wanted without downpours and thunderstorms. I first heard about Portofino from a trip that Mom, Dad, Mike, Cathy and Gretchen (and a friend of Gret's) took to Switzerland and Italy. I was running an event and couldn't go with them and was jealous of their trip. Mom's favorite place from that trip was Portofino, ever since I've tried to get there. It's not easy to see from cruise ships and trains....so today was my first opportunity to see it. We had hoped to approach it by ferry but due to the weather conditions the ferry wasn't running, so we took the bus and walked into the Portofino from a bus stop behind the harbor. It was as beautiful as I imagined with the multicolored buildings, sidewalk cafes and "flat shaped" trees fitted neatly into a tight harbor. We saw a lot of fishing boats in the harbor today, but they're replaced by all sizes of yachts in the summer. The pictures taken from above at a distance are from Brown's Castello that sits high above the harbor that we walked to. It was nice to participate in Portofino's  #1 past time...people watching.  While we had lunch and we were able to watch a bride and groom come from a church up on the hill down to have have their photographs taken around the harbor. It wasn't ideal to be here in the very cool, threatening conditions, but I will say based on the crowds we encountered on the buses, it must be crazy to be here in the summer. It was really nice to have the harbor sparsely populated for photographs.