The Port Town of Rapallo Italy
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The Port Town of Rapallo Italy |
Today we jumped on the bike and rode out to the end of the peninsula that shelters the little port towns in this area. At the end of the peninsula is a little tiny cove that holds the little yachting town of Portofino. To get there we rode a narrow winding coastal road through the port town of Santa Margherita. After we got to Portofino we walked out to the end of the peninsula to the lighthouse for the area. This walk took us up a windy little paved path with a few stairs. Since we had the bike we just walked it up the hill with us and took it out to the lighthouse with us.
John on Walk to Light House in Portofino |
When we got to the lighthouse we locked up the bike, finished the hills and had a Coke while watching some divers finishing up what looked like a great dive. If we had more time in this area I would definitely dive here. The cliffs fall from hundreds of feet right into the Mediterranean and then continue down fading into an inviting deep blue.
Divers Off The Clifs Of Portofino |
After a good day of riding and exploring, nothing feels better than a nice shower. It has some magical way of making you feel, and smell like a normal person again. However we've found that even this simple little thing can be a challenge when your in a forign land. Most of the hotels have bath tubs with removable shower heads, but no shower curtain so you end up taking a bath-shower which take a bit of getting used to, but it's workable. However our hotel in Rapallo was a bit rediculous the tub was 3 feet long, and 2 feet wide at the top! The house that Dave and Jenny Leichner are building has a bigger area than this for washing the dogs! But after 6 hours of biking, and exploring in the sun, what else is a 6 foot tall guy to do!!!!
Bath Time For Bonzo |
The Jagged Mountains dropping right into the ocean makes this area remind me of the southern parts of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The town of Rapallo could just as easily be located in a cove on the island of Grenada or Dominica as Italy. All the sailboats, and clear blue water, make me want to sell everything buy a Yacht, and a few diving tanks and my own compressor, and sail until the money runs out. As the quirky song writer Lyle Lovit sings - "Kiss my ass I bought a boat, I'm headed out to sea!" I invited Tim Ortt and his family to drop everything and come on over! We'd turn this cycling trip into a round the world sailing trip! The life of a boat rat seems pretty appealing from here!
Rapallo Italy |
Today we spent the day visiting the little tiny costal villages known as the Cinque Terra or "five lands". This area is made up of 5 little tiny isolated villages that are perched on the edge of the mountains where the land meets the sea. These little villages are connected via a very nice hiking trail which receive a lot of foreign tourists. We started our visit of this area by riding the train from Rapallo to Corniglia, and then hiked to the little town of Vernazza before catching the train back to Rapallo. Unfortunately we timed this hike to coincide with the main heat of the day, so the hike wasn't as pleasant as it could have been, but ice cream in the little village of Vernazza helped make up for a hot hike.
Cinqua Terra Village of Corniglia |
Cinqua Terra Village of Vernazza |
This little trip to the Cinque Terra also proved to us that the Italian trains aren't as user-friendly as the French rail system. First, we discovered they don't have any way to identify what train is which, like the train numbers on the French trains. We were waiting for a 10:30 train when the late 10:15 train actually arrived at 10:35. Unknowingly we jumped on only to find that although it was headed the right direction, but didn't stop at the station we wanted. Fortunately we were able to jump off in time, and then catch our train, which was running about 5 minutes behind.
One of the coolest things I've seen in use over here are motorized tracked wheel barrows. They use these things in farming to climb the steep terraces and in the towns for climbing stairs with a load of blocks or concreate. One of these would have been handy when I was re-grading our yard while playing landscaping boy back before I joined Leader Group.
Motorized, Tracked Wheel Barrow - where do I get one? |