Wet, wet, wet.

On Monday we spent the day in Genoa, very hot but dry luckily. Incredibly impressive old palaces lining the twisting lanes of the historical city centre, a well revamped harbour lined with the biggest private yachts I have ever set my eyes on (no kidding, the men that own these must be really compensating for something!!) and some very grand buildings and the like. Much better than I had thought it would be, and apart from a wrong turn down a dark alley filled with undesirables it was a very enjoyable day.

But what I had been really looking forward to was Portofino, land of the rich and famous, the place where Dolce & Gabbana have their summer house and the only harbour I have seen with a Louis Vuitton shop! We had planned to take the boat there and spend the day in all its splendour. When we awoke it was pissing down, thundering and lightning and it continued all morning, hence no boats running. So we thought we would see what happened after lunch. It started to clear a bit so off to the harbour we headed, still no boats running, storm forecast. But we had bugger all else to do so hopped on the train to Santa Marguerita where it was chucking it down by the time we arrived and then bussed it to a very wet Portofino.  

Now as mention in my last blog this whole area has been a little under whelming and as lovely as Portofino was with its gold drain covers, exclusive shops and pretty harbour anywhere in torrential rain just feels a bit miserable! And rain it did, we were rather soggy walking around and most of the place was shut due to lack of tourists. Wearing my pack-a-parka rain coat and jeans, it was not quite the image I had had of myself arriving by boat decked out in a fabulous dress and my Chanel sunnies!!!

But we had an (very expensive, €3 each) espresso on the harbour to shelter from the rain and then took a few snaps, looked briefly in the windows of Gucci & co and set off back on the bus to Santa Marguerita where we indulged in some very pleasant fizzy white accompanied by some aperitivo nibbles and headed off back home to dry off.   

Harbour shops in the rain!

 A soggy Portofino!