PORTOFINO

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today we sailed into the beautiful port of Portofino. Well actually we tendered in. We are having a private tour today arrange by Leah. Our guide met us aat the tender disembarcation pier with a boat and driver. We hopped into the speed boat and off we went. We first went up the coast to San Fructuoso. This is a beautiful site right on the coast where there is an old monastery. There is small pebble beach there. At one time the water came right up to the bottom of the monastery and the boats could go in underneath of the building. After a landslide in the 1600's half of the building was swept down toward the sea and filled in the beach area. There were once 12 monks in residence in the monastery but it eventually fell into disrepair when the last monk died. It was purchased by the Doria-Pamphilgi family and partially restored. It was given to FIA in the 1970's by that family and restorations were furthered. It is an extremely quiet, peaceful place, just the sound of the gentle waves lapping on the shore. There are a few small restaurants there and a few rooms can be rented. Other than that there is nothing except the sea and the sheer mountains behind you. There is a small church there dedicated to San Fructuoso. This church is built over a seventh century church which has been excavated.

We then returned to our boat and went around the tip of the promontory to Comogli. Comogli is a small fishing village which is very lively. We got off our boat and went to eat at a seaside cafe. We had pasta Genovese, Vongole, Pasta amatriciana and fusilli ultima. They were all quite good. We had stawberries and vanilla ice cream for desert. We then walked through the town and along the beautiful long beach. We were then picked up by our driver in a Mercedes Van. Off to Santa Margherita.

Santa Margherita is a beautiful town. Many flower parks and a beautiful beach where you can bathe topless if you desire. The young Italian women are quite beautiful and display their beauty proudly. Michael, John and our guide went through the whole town while Dennis, Ron and I sat on a bench watching the Italian bathing suite display. Michael had found a special ice creaam shop that has pinguinos which are equivalent to our Dairy Queen chocolate dipped cones. So I had to have one. It was quite good. We returned to the ship, exhausted but having had a wonderful day.

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