In 2005, just after completing my study abroad in Spain, my parents and I spent three weeks in Italy exploring some of the cities we'd liked but had gotten too little time in on our trip the previous year. We spent extra time in Florence, Siena, and Sorrento and visited Liguria, the province that covers the Riviera section of the Mediterranean coast. Along the way we met up with two different sets of my aunts/uncles, met a Tuscan guide who became a family friend, and fell in love with a few new (to us) destinations. One of these was the small seaside town of Santa Margherita, a tucked-away port that gets much less traffic than its neighbor, Portofino, but offers the perfect starting point for sailing to the popular seaside villages of Cinque Terre.
None of these locations are typical, first-time-in-Italy vacation destinations, but I didn't want our two weeks to be all city-city-city. Janis, Julie, Val and my mom are all water people and I knew from the moms London visit that, after four busy days of travel, tours, and big cities, everyone would appreciate some down time to relax and take in a pretty view.
We arrived in Santa Margherita in the evening of July 13 and found ourselves smack in the middle of the festival to their patron saint, Santo Siro, with a front-row view of the church festivities from our restaurant. Joe also found a bar full of soccer fans with whom he could enjoy the World Cup final. Oh, and to top it all off, there was a HUGE fireworks show that we could watch from our balcony.
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| the standing band, which did battle with the church bells |
the church of Santo Siro, now with baby saints
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| World Cup Final, very serious. |
Fireworks show!
We were meant to be on the Riviera for only one full day, enough to take a private boat tour of the coast. Fortunately, a weather forecast that included clouds and rain on our sailing day caused us to adjust the schedule: Monday would be spent on shore in Santa Margherita and Tuesday's stop in Pisa would be cut to just over an hour in the evening in order to accommodate our sailing day. (Despite the stress of missing the last train to Siena and having to take taxis, this decision was worth it.)
This meant that Monday, instead of setting an alarm to be out of our hotel before 9 am, everyone got to sleep in. And sleep in they did. It was after 1 pm by the time we were all up and showered and ready to explore Santa Margherita.
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| sailing students, getting ready to go out on the water |
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| sailing school ducklings, which we loved watching for way too long |
Since the weather mostly held out (only a little sprinkle shower and some clouds), we decided to take the bus over to Portofino for dinner. There we ate at
Ristorante Stella and maybe-possibly-probably saw Magic Johnson.
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| Portofino |
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| Ristorante Stella, right on the harbor. We watched them bring in fresh fish directly from the boats! |
Tuesday was the perfect day for boating: big blue sky, hot sun, and crystal clear water. We worked with
Cesare Charter and booked the
Spite, a 9 person boat with a small under-deck room and bathroom on board.
Cinque Terre is accessible on foot, by train, or by boat, but in my opinion boat is definitely the way to go. There is no other way to see the legendary "five lands" from their most photogenic vantage point: the sea. (Although visiting by boat does mean that the ports in a couple towns are too small to dock and you can't fully experience the foodie tour that we found
here.)
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| leaving Santa Margherita |
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| Val |
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| wanna see tectonic plates? |
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| below decks |
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| Riomaggiore, the first of the five towns |
We stopped for swimming both before and after lunch so that Julie, Joe, and Val could swim in the Mediterranean Sea. (The rest of us had done this before and opted to just put our feet in.)
Lunch was in Vernazza, the fourth of the five towns heading north. Our boat was too large for Vernazza's harbor, however, which we only realized when we saw Tonino, the yellow-Speedo clad power boat driver who came to pick us up. This was definitely one of those moments when you realize that something is going to happen and you have no control over it or way to stop it. You just have to accept it in the moment and say, "Okay, so this is happening now."
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| Hello, Tonino! |
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| Tonino's ride (for all six of us, plus the skipper) |
Our skipper, Gabrieli, was a homebrewer who had his own craft beer bar back in Santa Margherita. Joe and he got on famously.
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| Italian marine flag |
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| love that sea breeze |
Our boat ride, even though we only stopped in one of the five towns, was an Italy vacation highlight. It was exciting to share this experience with new people since my mom and I had done nearly the same thing on my 22nd birthday with my dad, Uncle Steve and Aunt Susan. And Santa Margherita, you have captured our hearts forever.
Oh Tonino!
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