Portofino, Italy

Portofino & Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy

We started with a walking tour of Portofino – very hilly, very quaint – up to the church of St. George, built on the site of an ancient sanctuary.  We then walked up the hill past Brown Castle and out to the Faro – Portofino’s lighthouse. Afterwards, Dale took a little coffee break (great coffee) before continuing on a boat out to Santa Margherita Ligure.  The Baroque church of Signora della Rosa was splendid.  During times of great prosperity, lots of the artifacts and decorations in the church were covered in gold leaf – wow!  Had a leisurely walk through the town with a stop at a bakery famous for its focaccia bread – very different from ours, very thin, almost like a pizza, dripping with cheese – yum!  Then, back to the ship for lunch – again, yum!

In the afternoon, we took the tender back to Portofino to go inside Castle Brown.  Very interesting in itself, but the views were spectacular!  And it was only 250 steps plus several inclines to get there from the port - not to mention a few steps inside the castle.  But it was worth it.