Day 26 - La Spezia and Porto Venere

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Up and off to the Stationale to look at our options for getting to Sorrento tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Trenitalia only gets us as far as Naples. What an adventure! It was pouring with rain as we then headed off to find a boat to Porto Venere - oh, it's no longer in season, the seas are high, there are no boats running. So off to the Information Centre and the decision was to bus. There is a huge naval presence in La Spezia town, all behind high block walls - heaps of battle ships. Canons sounded as we were waiting for our bus. A chap advised that it was a show of military force to the people. Then later, another friendly Italian chap on our bus told us it was just testing equipment. ??? The bus ride was 25 minutes to the Port (the bus drivers are fearless and very clever at driving so close to anything at the side of the road!). The Port was beautiful/charming - and the coffee most needed! The wind was up, the rain was pouring down and we loved every minute of it!! The Church of St. Peter (S. Pietro) was definitely worth the visit but we didn't make it to the Castle because of the weather. Back into La Spezia - and having talked Roy out of a rotisserie chicken and buns ("we're in Italy"), and even though there were heaps of restaurants, we went back to the one from last night that was so nice for a hot pasta dish and another pizza (oh, and half a litre of wine - you just HAVE to do it!!). There are no morning-after effects from the red wine - or perhaps it's just that we are only having a little so there ARE no morning-after effects 😊)

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