As we take leave of this beautiful hillside villa our host, Andreas, was there to bid us “arivi derci’, but before we were in the car out came Mama who has been ever present during our visit and who’s preserves we have been enjoying at breakfast. She is certainly in her 80’s but in great shape and always full of smiles. With a wave of his arm, Andreas said, “And here is the woman who has made all this possible”, as Mama came out to say goodbye. So with invitations to come back in the fall to join them harvesting the Barbareso, Nebbiola, and Barolo grapes in their vineyards across the hillside we hugged and took our leave.
As I have written in past notes, but will mention again, Judy and I are continually amazed at how well John navigates these highways and little narrow roads with poor signage and a less than dependable GPS. He (Giovanni) continued to dazzle us as we left Alba and headed to the coast at Santa Margharita Ligure. We packed the remains of our in room picnic of the night before for our lunch on the road and off we went confident in our drive’s ability to get us there with little problems.
When we stopped for our picnic we chose a little ‘wayside rest’ off the auto strada where there were a couple of campers and autos. We noticed there were no tables but thought we could make do and then noticed that the other folks were sitting perched on curbs with their picnic so we joined them. The wayside rest toilettes were bushes if you found the need. Our picnic, including our wine, was delicious and memorable. John and I couldn’t help reflect on the comparison of these rests and those in Norway where everything was so perfect with little tables with covers over them and of course lovely bathrooms. Not to suggest one is better only that they are so polar opposite.
We found ourselves with a mis-communication with our rental car service (Europe Auto) so when we arrived on Saturday, May 1st, a major European holiday, they were not open. We had no option but to keep the car and will not be able to return it until Monday as we leave to return to Rome. It isn’t a big worry to us, but I am only mentioning it because I think if we were to rent in advance as we did on this trip we would pick a well known American service such as Avis or Hertz simply for the ability to communicate more readily.
Our plan was to go to Portofino this evening and then the Cinque Terre tomorrow but once we hit the streets of Santa Margarita we revisited our plan and decided it was more rushing than any of us would like and that we would prefer to enjoy Santa Margarita this evening and then Portofino tomorrow. We all felt that we have the flavor of the Cinque Terre here plus we had traveled the Amalfi coast so why not relax and enjoy versus push ourselves. I think the more relaxed Italian culture is soaking into us!
It was fun to check out the street markets and shops and then stop at a wine bar for a couple of glasses of wine in between shopping. This area is famous for Foccaccia breads so when we were served our wine we were pleasantly surprised to be presented with a lazy susan with little trays of cheeses and various Foccaccia. I think our favorite was one with onions baked in on the top somehow and no trace of cheese. The little place seemed like a local place and was a highlight for all of us.
Following more window shopping we ended with dinner at a sidewalk restaurant with traditional food. We are pretty rigid judges of food at this point so on our scale Judy gave it a 2 and John a 5. We did, however, have a great time because as usual we met people near us and had a good time getting acquainted. In this case it was a couple from New Orleans area. They are our age and he is an engineer. This was not their first trip to Italy but this time they were on a pilgrimage with 11 other people and a priest to see the Shroud of Turin. They had some amazing experiences to share about this trip and past trips to Italy and other parts of Europe, we really enjoyed it. So we made our way back to our once again humble little place and did our best to get a good nights rest.
This morning we have our chance to return to Portofino, a place we held so close to our hearts form our honeymoon. We were taking our time and John got online to do some business. He happened to see an email from his deceased cousin, Carol’s husband John. We are not in closed contact with John but for some reason my John opened it and Italian music began to play and along a slide show and a comment that he “wished his Carol were here and he missed her.” After facing cancer twice John and I are always silently thankful for each day. The return to some honeymoon spots certainly ranks way up there with things we are thankful for. And so as we thought about his cousin we and took a few tearful moments to quietly be grateful once again that this John was not missing his Carol, and that we were blessed to be here together.
Although it was a bit overcast and cool we decided to take a ferry around the little peninsula to Portofino for some shopping and lunch. It was a fairly choppy sea but we were very close to shore so it was not an issue. The coast from this prospective was beautiful of course, just like the pictures. The three of us shopped and just soaked in the beauty of this tiny little postcard village perched on the Mediterranean. John & I had a big splurge lunch here fourteen years ago but were not able to identify the ‘spot’. In the end we chose a great place right on the water and enjoyed a long Italian lunch. Before our return to Santa Margharita we found the little shop of Anna Branca, an artist we had visited in the past. The one souvenir we purchased of any value on our honeymoon was one of her water colors of the famous little village which hangs in our home today. We found the shop and were surprised she was so much older, imagine that! It was great to stop back there, this time we bought a couple of small prints and a little one for Judy.
Portofino is a tiny little harbor and so it shouldn’t be surprising that we ran into our New Orleans dinner companions of the previous evening. And of course we ran into our group of three ladies twice at Portofino so by now we are on a first name basis. By this afternoon Judy was showing these ladies the treasures she had bought and getting gently asked to not use the cafés table to display her wares.
On our return we decided to take a short (about 4-5 mile) taxi ride which is quite spendy but very beautiful and a totally different perspective from our ferry ride. It was a rainy night so we enjoyed some wine in our room and walked to our favorite wine bar for a bite of dinner. When we got to the door I said “wouldn’t it be funny if the three ladies were in here?” We walked in and there they were at the first table. We all had quite a laugh and they wanted us to join them at the next table but it was reserved so we grabbed another, shared some food and returned to humble pension for our last night in Santa Margharita.
Tomorrow, Monday, we will begin our day with a return of our car in Rapallo and a then a train to Rome where we will spend our last night at a wonderful Marriott with heavenly beds!
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