September 26 Portofino, Italy

The Edge rounded the northern tip of Corsica to travel through the Ligurian Sea (arm of the Mediterranean Sea) to Portofino, on the northwestern coast on Italy. Before dawn the sky exploded with sheet lightning and rain. We had a good view from our balcony. We made sure that our umbrellas were packed in Larry’s backpack.

By 7:30 a.m., the Edge was anchored in Portofino Bay. We climbed to Deck 14, just two flights of stairs, for buffet breakfast in the Oceanview Café. Today passengers were tendered to the fishing village of Portofino, Italy to explore the region.

Portofino, which is on the Italian Riviera, was the favourite of the rich and famous during its 1950s heyday. The bay houses many different kinds of leisure boats including large yachts. The capital of the region is Genoa. There are luxury goods outlet shops from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Pucci plus hotels and restaurants lining the piazza of the horse shoe shaped bay.

Our excursion took us and 200 other passengers to see two of the five Cinque Terre (pronounced chink-ah-terrah) villages. Participants ranged in age from early thirties to late seventies, all capable of walking on cobbled streets up and down hills. Cinque Terre is known for its white wines that are around 11% alcohol. The Cinque Terre area is a National Park and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We met in the theatre to collect our stickers and waited for the groups to leave at 8 am to board a tender boat. The Edge’s “Magic Carpet” was used as the staging area to move people into the tender boats that can hold 132 passengers. The Edge was launched in 2019. The tender boat seats are a new design from older tender boats with thick dense foam seats that easily fold like theatre seats instead of hard plastic. It was a seven minute ride to the Portofino pier, belonging to the Portofino Yacht Club. The small bay is very picturesque. There are pastel coloured narrow four or five storey houses with main floor shops and restaurants surrounding the bay.

The bay is guarded by a centuries old Genoan watch tower flying the flag of St. George, the patron saint of Genoa. It was the flag of the Genoese Navy. Genoa was a powerful maritime republic in the Middle Ages. The Genoa flag has been used since the late 12^th century by English ships in the Mediterranean to receive the protection of the Genoese fleet from enemy ships in the region. There is a belief that the English actually struck a deal with the Doge of Genoa in 1190. “The English monarch paid an annual fee for the privilege of flying the Genoese flag, but over the years it seems the English simply stopped making payments.” – since 1771!

At the pier, each of five groups of 40 were assigned a guide for the day. Each group was given a brief description of the schedule, then everyone boarded a chartered boat to go to Santa Margherita Ligure, where each group boarded a bus for a 70 minute ride to the train station at Levanto. The boat passed some villages with their own churches. Once on the big bus, the road passed through many long tunnels. During the drive Francesca, our guide, split the group in two for embarking on smaller minibuses after sightseeing in Manarola. At Levanto, we got on a local train to transport us to Manarola, the first of the two Cinque Terre villages. Views of the rocky shore and villages perched high above the railway swept by, when the train was not travelling through very long tunnels. Because the train ran late, taking almost 30 minutes to get to our stop, there was only 20 minutes to explore Manarola, a village of about 800 people. It was enough time to wander downhill to the sea on a broad sloped street, the only street in town so you couldn’t get lost. Manarola is located in the Riomaggiore region of the northern Italian province of La Spezia, Liguria.

Near the water’s edge, the wide Manarola street was lined with small boats on trailers. Each boat was parked in a spot that had a small metal disc, larger than a Canadian Toonie coin ($2), with a number on it. There was no order to the mixture of numbers. The boats were also parked near the beach along the plaza walls. The historic houses here are painted in soft pastel colours. There are walkways up the cliffs for better vantage points to observe the beach below. Walking back up the slope past the train station, we walked further uphill, where there were sidewalks and vehicles. There was a good view of the terraced vineyards and olive tree groves on the hills above the town. The stone walls of the terraces are constructed using the dry stone technique, now almost a lost art. Once the group was assembled, we walked up hill to find our minibus. We passed the old water wheel of Manarola. The village’s name means large water wheel. There is a partly underground stream running under the village that you can hear flowing under the grates in the road. It is easily ignored. We passed San Lorenzo church and across from the church its defensive bell tower.

Next, each of our two smaller groups of 20 boarded minibuses for an almost one hour drive to Monterosso al Mare, along a two-way narrow road twisting and turning, sometimes turns at 25° angles, hugging the cliffs. The journey was just a little less thrilling than driving the Amalfi coast south of Sorento right on the edge of the cliffs. Villages could be seen above and below the route. We had two hours to explore Monterosso al Mare.

People from our ship tours arrived within minutes of each other for their visit. There were restaurants, bars and retail shops lining the pedestrian friendly main streets where an occasional car crept it way up or down the street. Francesca gave our group a five minute stroll of the two main streets, where we noted photo opportunities for later. Before the group dispersed to explore the town, Francesca, guided us to a restaurant where we all sampled delicious Cinque Terre white wine with bread cubes covered in a nice tasting pesto. Then everyone scattered, some to explore, while others decided to find a restaurant for a leisurely Italian lunch.

We stopped at two gelato stores to sample five different gelato flavours including a delicious Tiramisu flavour. Small boats were also apparent here, lining the edge of the beach and covered with striped tarpaulins. We climbed the path from the beach up to the old stone watch tower to a look at the beach and town. Continuing up the zigzagging path, we diverted to the Frati Cappuccini convent looking out high above the beach. It was established in 1618.

Back into the town proper, we went to the piazza where the Genoan church and one of two confraternities were located. San Giovanni Battista (St. John the Baptist) church was built between 1244 and 1307. The façade is influenced by the Genoese Liguruan Gothic style with black and white stripes. It was remodelled in the 1600s and again in the mid 1960s. Its central white marble rose window is attributed to Matteo and Pietro da Campiglio. The interior basilica plan has three naves with the distinctive black and white striped columns. Across the square on the west side is the Oratory of the Confraternity of the Neri Mortis et Orationis (Death and Prayer) run by the black robed confraternity, where widows and orphans sought sanctuary. While a few streets away, at Oratorio della Santa Croca church, the white robed confraternity ran a hospital and clinic.

Everyone was on time at meeting place and then walked, as a group of 40, to the Monterosso train station for a one stop journey back to Levanto. It took 15 minutes walking at a good pace of 4.5 km per hour partly through a tunnel shared with vehicles with no sidewalk. We retraced most of our morning route back to Portofino. A short until 10 minute train ride, 85 minute bus ride passing the town of Rapallo to Santa Margherita Ligure and then boarding the same chartered boat for a 20 minute voyage back to Portofino. The groups arrived in time to catch the final 6:15 p.m. tender boat to return to the ship. Being a ship’s tour, if the groups were late, the ship would have waited at least 45 minutes as one of the guarantees of a ship’s tour is that the ship will wait or arrange transport to the next destination. A long enjoyable almost eleven hour day!

There was a bottle of Pol Rémy 2021 Brut sparkling wine waiting in an ice filled bucket in our stateroom when we returned. It was here either due to our loyalty status, our stateroom category or our stateroom attendant. We also have a bottle of 2021 Canaletto Pinot Noir that was in the stateroom on Day 1 that we have not opened yet. Toni has supplied us with the proper wine glasses for the different wines.

We changed and walked down to Deck 4 for a relaxing dinner in the Cyprus main dining followed by a decaffeinated cappuccino and decaffeinated Americano in Café al Bacio. We were too late for the main theatre 7:30 show, featuring pianist Jason Lyle Black, but watched the video recording on the ship’s Entertainment channel as we read the newspaper and wrote a brief version of today’s journal. Details were added the next day We have a tour in Cannes, France – Villages in Provence tomorrow.

Total steps 15,109

Aside: Italy elected right wide prime minister Giorgia Meloni with 26% of vote and form coalition government with two other parties.

British pound hit lowest value against the American dollar ever, to almost equivalent to American dollar. At its lowest point today, 1 £ equaled $1.03US rebounding to $1.06US by day’s end.