Sailing with the Treleavens

We love northern Italy and are now moving very slowly enjoying. The weather has had something to do with it too as some unseasonal lows are causing the Mistral to enter the Gulf of Genoa. The moment you arrive in the Gulf of La Spezia on a hot summer Saturday, it's a buzz with a harbour full of yachts and hundreds of inflatables. Everyone is out on every imaginable boat to enjoy this beautiful harbour. Our son Ian has arrived after 40 hours of traveling from Sydney and we enjoy a dinner of mussels and vongole spaghetti and pizza. La Spezia is a large commercial and naval port but behind all this is a wonderful bustling pleasant town with great architecture. It is also the arrival point for the Cinque Terre which is just north of the Harbour.

Portovenere is at the entrance to the Gulf and a medieval village of
matchstick pastel coloured houses, between a local grey stone church and castle. It is famous for pesto and pizzas. Never rely on the weather; it is all about to change. Janey has now arrived and we plan to sail up the Cinque Terre but the weather stops us in our tracks and we have to wait out high winds in a small bay Le Grazie. Turns out to be a delightful village for coffees ashore and supermarket shopping.

A second night in Portovenere, which is no hardship, and we enjoy what turns out to be a famous restaurant visited by the stars (Locanda Lorena). Set on the island of Palmaria, everyone is picked up in the highly varnished Riva. From grilled whole scampi which were simply delicious, mussels which are farmed in the bay, to marinated salmon.

Finally we leave but the seas are confused and no wind. Pressing on we pass the medieval small towns clinging to cliffs. The five villages called the Cinque Terre, all within a few miles of each other, is now a famous walking area. Once abandoned terraces are now being restored and growing vines are now draping the cliff faces. We anchor off Vernazza,(we are too long to fit into the small harbour) the most picturesque of the villages and venture in by dinghy (not that easy in the rolling sea and my main consideration is the
camera). The villages were built in valleys where there only access was by sea. We can't stay long, but we have time for a short walk along the terraces and wonder how steep cliffs could be terraced and cultivated for hundreds of years and still be fertile land.

We press on and shelter and lunch in the harbour of Sestri Levante where Marconi first experimented with radio waves and a welcome swim in surprisingly beautiful light blue water. I hope we are going to see more of this up the coast. Only ten miles and we are now in Rapallo, San Margherita and Portofino (all within 3 miles) a very popular wealthy holiday home area for Northern Italians. The wind is still strong with the Gulf De Lion having 50 knot winds and we are on the tail end of it. I am starting to dread that part of the coast but hopefully our timing will be okay.

Portofino and we are anchored in the bay for two nights sheltering from the continuing wind….don't feel sorry for us! This has to be a highlight and doesn't let us down. A picture perfect very small port surrounded by manicured gardens and trees that look sculptured and then there are the very few mansions. As we entered the small opening and turned to the right the view is unveiled and the sight of terraced pastel coloured houses to the waters edge is all too perfect. We anchor in the bay just outside the port beneath the road in very deep water; it's surging too much for us in the
port.  At first we are on our own but soon surrounded by local wood varnished putt putt boats to super yachts. There is no room inside the port it's full and then they somehow get more super yachts in. Everyone comes here and by the number of super yachts around for such a small bay it sure has a lot of appeal.

Day 3 in Portofino and the sun is back and we have just spent the day 'gorking' and swimming. I have even refrained from hanging out the washing.

We head for Marina San Margherita for a night to replenish water and pick up George and Sabrina Snow. Eating out has become a real joy and the sea food is fantastic. Dinner out at di Beppe on the water front in San Margarita, we may never leave.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 11th, 2005 at 10:22 pm and is filed under 2005. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.