A magical Meditteranean vacation - the Italy road trip COMPLETED - Page 34 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
We didn’t bother with a wake-up call, and I was awake just after 6:30am, which I was happy with, having had more than eight hours of quality sleep. We headed down to breakfast just after 8:00am, and discovered it sadly hadn’t been the same story for Mari and Raleigh, as they hadn’t had a particularly comfortable bad, and the ants had returned!
At least breakfast was in a lovely setting…
Inside was pretty impressive too…
… and as for the selection of food available – wow!
And it wasn’t just food!
I honestly think this is the best breakfast we’ve had so far this vacation, and I can see why it’s so highly rated on TripAdvisor, although obviously Mari may disagree with me on that one…
Before we left, I got a final few shots of our hotel:
We headed out just after 9:00am, and I’m glad we didn’t need dinner, as it would’ve been a hike into town.
We told Mark to make sure he didn’t hit them…
Mari wanted to dip her feet in the Mediterranean, and we promised her if we saw a car parking space, we’d do that here. At first, it didn’t look promising, then Mark spotted one, and darted in.
I got some shots of the seafront first…
… then of Mari’s momentous moment!
With that, we headed back to the car, and made our way out of the town.
Next: is there going to be any parking in Portofino?
I can't believe the nonsense with the ants. That's horrible! Good thing it was just for one night.
Breakfast looked fantastic!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Saturday 19 July – part two: is there going to be any parking in Portofino?
The next town we came to was San Michele de Pagana.
Then we entered Santa Margherita Ligure, which looked like a very posh place…
There aren’t really any shots of the sea, as I was on the wrong side of the car. However, don’t worry, as I’ll make up for that on the way back…
We drove through a couple more villages along the coast…
Now at this point, I have to say that everywhere we’d driven through had been packed, and there wasn’t a single parking space available. Given what had happened yesterday, I’d already warned everyone that we may need to just drive in, and back out. We made it into Portofino fine with no issues…
… and we found signs for parking in a garage, and it wasn’t full. In fact, it was quite empty. There were two levels of public parking, with four levels of private parking above. We quickly found a space, and headed out…
Not cheap, but then again, that’s no surprise – given the location
Quite posh looking. Wow! Like a perfect vision of a fancy mediterreanean town.
I had to make notice of one of the pictures of the coast you did manage thus far - the gentleman with his head turned looking back at the woman jogging by. I guess that's the same in every country.
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Quite posh looking. Wow! Like a perfect vision of a fancy mediterreanean town.
I had to make notice of one of the pictures of the coast you did manage thus far - the gentleman with his head turned looking back at the woman jogging by. I guess that's the same in every country.
Oh my goodness, I hadn't spotted that before - that's classic!
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ballston Lake, NY
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 46,162
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 94
Likes (Received): 241
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 139
Pixie Dust (Given): 3
Pixie Dust (Received): 4
That was quite a spread for breakfast!! Sorry Mari and Raleigh still had problems with their room. At least Mari got to dip her toes in the Mediterranean! Beautiful pictures of the town!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
When we got to Portofino, it was pretty much deserted. The shops were just opening, and the restaurants were starting to set up for the day. It was the perfect time to be there and just drink in the scenery.
We made our way around one side of the harbour, getting more shots as we did.
Can you imagine sitting here eating a meal?
It was just so peaceful and colourful here, although I could imagine it wouldn’t be that quiet later on in the day.
When we got to the edge of the harbour, I was finally able to photograph what I’d seen as we drove down – the haze hanging over the mountains in the distance. It was, quite frankly, depressing to see this. It makes you realise how horribly polluted Italy is, and really the only place you do escape it is right out on the coast.
Once we’d finished exploring, we made our way back up to the car park. I was hoping to find a fridge magnet, but I couldn’t find anything I liked, which was a shame.
We headed out, and this time I was on the coast side of the car, so I had a field day snapping away!
Next: I’m not going to take any direction from you!
It was indeed quite peaceful looking. And it does look very similar to Universal Orlando's Portofino Bay hotel and area!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
I fell way behind on all the TRs recently, so today is catchup day!
Sorry about the parking experience in Lucca as it's such a beautiful and historic town to visit as I got to back in 2006.
Enjoyed your photos of the Cinque Terre and looks like you had a wonderful meal. I did the train route from some of the towns and got to visit three of the towns (Monterosso, Vernazza and Rio Maggiore), including hiking down from the mountains to the harbor in Vernazza. It was quite tiring, but the views were beyond belief! This area is famous for anchovies and pesto sauce. Their lemons that are grown in the hillsides are quite spectacular as well. Both which I enjoyed (after my hike)for lunch as appetizer and a main course. I remember having fresh anchovies with olive oil and lemon juice and trofie pasta with pesto sauce. Both were excellent in one of the harbor restaurants in the main square in Vernazza.
Vernazza had some major floods a few years ago and destroyed many buildings near the harbor. I think they've been rebuilt.
Seems like you were enjoying Portofino with many great photos of the resort.
Sorry to hear about Mari and Raleigh's experience with the ants at the hotel!
.
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
We headed down to breakfast just after 8:00am, and discovered it sadly hadn’t been the same story for Mari and Raleigh, as they hadn’t had a particularly comfortable bad, and the ants had returned! 
Sorry the ants returned to Mari's room! 
I guess that's the same in every country. 
Glad Mari got to dip her toe in the Mediterranean. 
Linear Mode
