Day 15 Genoa, Italy

Today we visited the port of Genoa, Italy. For us that meant a very early start - 7 am for a Princess Cruise excursion to visit Cinque Terre. JP and I planned ahead last night and scored some food for breakfast. She took her GF toast from supper and asked for a bowl of peanut butter. I had gone up to the buffet to get some nuts, seeds, cheese and smoked salmon for a protein filled breakfast. 

Unfortunately when I went to eat that food this morning none of it appealed to me - expect for the mandarin orange in my room. It ended up being a light day for food until we returned to the ship for supper!

We chose a Princess excursion today because of the challenges of getting to these five lovely Italian towns on the coast. We wanted to guarantee we saw three of them and that we returned to the ship before it departed at 6:30 pm!!

I should say today is our first day where we had cloudy skies and a forecast of rain and cooler temperatures in the mid 20’s. 

So we began with a 90 minute bus ride to the train station in Levanto. By the time we arrived in Levanto it was raining quite hard so we pulled out our umbrellas to stay dry as we moved to the platforms of the train station. 

Our bus of 40 people was divided into two groups of 20 so that we could fit into the mini buses that would be used later on in the day. 

We had a few time delays today that were unfortunate. Two buses of 40 were moving to the train platform. The other bus caught the train, we did not. So we waited and their was a delay on the track for maybe 30 minutes for the next train to arrive. Then we boarded the train and there was another delay on the train (of maybe 20 minutes) while we were going along the coast seeing pretty sites. Fortunately we had a view of the Sea rather than the blackness of a tunnel while we waited. 

We travelled on the train for five stops and got off at the train stop called Riomaggiore. This was our first town of three that we were to see.  It was beautiful!!

Riomaggiore as viewed along our walking path. 

The coast line along this classic Cinque Terre town. 

We then boarded our mini bus with our group of 20. As we were driving to the next town just a few minutes away, our path was blocked by an RV with a utility vehicle that was trying to do a u-turn on the road and it was stuck. The owners were beginning to unload the utility vehicle so they could pick it up and move it. So the occupants of our minibus walked down the road to get to the next town of Manarola. 

So we arrived at Manarola looking down at the Mediterranean Sea. Our guide Laura offered to take anybody interested for a walk down to the marina and back in a 30 minute timeframe. Anybody not up for the challenge was invited to stay up high around the church and courtyard. Given my knee problems of late I made the decision not to descend to the water. Once I saw the pictures of the other three, I was sorry for that decision. It proved to be the hi light of the day. If I had an hour (as I am sure was in the original schedule) I would have gone. This was the classic Cinque Terre view that you see in all the travel brochures. 

I went to a cafe and had a piece of focaccia bread - a classic food for the area. 

This was my view from up top. 

JP deserves credit for this amazing photo from viewpoint of the bay lower down in Manarola!

Then when the group reunited, we walked back up to meet our minibus. Evidently unloading the utility van worked because the RV was no longer blocking the road. 

We then had a 45 minute minibus ride to our third and final town we would visit, Monterosso. Here we were given two hours to explore and eat lunch (after we were all offered a glass of Cinque Terre white wine and some small samples of focaccia bread).  We decided we wanted to see the town rather than sit in a restaurant ordering food. 

JP did buy something like GF pizza that she said was delicious. We all had a gelato and explored the streets, shops and the one beach. 

Monterosso’s one public beach in the old section. 

Once we met up with the group and walked to the train station we learned there was a new section of town that was even busier and perhaps more beautiful!

We then caught the train and travelled just one stop to Levanto. Then we hopped onto our large size coach and drove back to Genoa. We returned precisely at 5:30 pm, our scheduled return time. 

We returned to our staterooms, showered quickly and went down to the dining room shortly after 6 pm. We had tips in hand to give to Michael and Hector. We then learned that Hector had disembarked yesterday. It took less than one meal to realize how much we missed Hector - his knowledge of sugar and cream for JP and milk for ME and so on…..Too bad we wanted to thank him and tip him. 

After dinner we went up to the back of deck 16 as we sailed away. The others ordered some ship’s pictures and I went up to do laundry!!  Such mundane things are necessary!!

Tomorrow we visit Florence!!