A magical Meditteranean vacation - the Italy road trip COMPLETED - Page 35 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I fell way behind on all the TRs recently, so today is catchup day!
I didn't think I'd seen you posting for a few days....
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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.
It's a shame, but it wasn't meant to be - certainly not this trip... maybe we'll make it back there one day, we'll have to see...
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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!
Wow, I can imagine that was hard work with the hiking, but you're right, the views would've been superb!
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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.
Oh wow, sounds
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Vernazza had some major floods a few years ago and destroyed many buildings near the harbor. I think they've been rebuilt.
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Saturday 19 July – part four: I’m not going to take any direction from you!
There was a thriving market in one place…
… and none of us could believe how many were already out on the beach. We had already said, even though it was in the low 80s, it was already too hot for us outside, as there was just no breeze. How people sit out in this, I really do not know!
Soon we were coming back into Rapallo…
…. and then we headed out, and made for the motorway…
It only took us about 30 minutes from there to get into Genoa. We passed through a multitude of tunnels, and a heap of bridges again. You have to admire the engineering in Europe.
Soon we were seeing the outskirts of Genoa…
… and then we were coming into the city itself…
The entrance to the hotel is right in front of the entrance to the aquarium, and we overshot slightly. There was a group of Africans outside, who tried to help us reverse back, but you know what? We were doing fine on our own. Once we got in there, there was another, who tried to direct us to a parking space. Well, if you’re not a member of hotel staff, I’m not going to take any direction from you!
We headed into the underground car park, and although there wasn’t much available on the first level, thankfully on the second level, it was absolutely fine and we found somewhere to park no problem.
We headed up to reception to see if our rooms were ready, although we knew it was a long shot, as it was only 11:40am by now. I started off in Italian, and the receptionist stayed in Italian, eventually asking me if we had parked. I ended up answering in English, and she looked quite shocked, but as I often say, I can understand it better than I can speak it.
The receptionist said the rooms weren’t ready, but she hoped to have them ready in an hour, and she suggested going across to the terrace to sit outside, and get some drinks. We walked across there…
… and the terrace was lovely, as was the view from it…
Next: : if it’s not busy today, then I don’t know when it’s busy…
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Great pictures has you head into Genoa!!
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Originally Posted by chezp
… and none of us could believe how many were already out on the beach. We had already said, even though it was in the low 80s, it was already too hot for us outside, as there was just no breeze. How people sit out in this, I really do not know!
I ask myself this question whenever I visit my sister in Arizona. I was there in May and one day I went to the pool in the neighborhood and it had to be about 100 degrees outside. There were people laying out in the sun. I was boiling just making the 5 minute walk from her house!
I ask myself this question whenever I visit my sister in Arizona. I was there in May and one day I went to the pool in the neighborhood and it had to be about 100 degrees outside. There were people laying out in the sun. I was boiling just making the 5 minute walk from her house!
I guess it's what you get used to, but I don't think I'll ever get used to extreme heat or cold!
Was that a bridge, or a tunnel? Or both? I've never seen anything like that before, very cool!
So far, the lobby/lounge and view are promising for your hotel - looks good!
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Was that a bridge, or a tunnel? Or both? I've never seen anything like that before, very cool!
If you mean the one that lets light in from above, I don't actually think it was either. As we were driving over it, it was hard to judge, but I wasn't aware that we were going above or under anything, if that makes sense?
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So far, the lobby/lounge and view are promising for your hotel - looks good!
I have to say it was probably my favourite hotel of the whole stay.
Saturday 19 July – part five: if it’s not busy today, then I don’t know when it’s busy…
We settled down to peruse the menu, and decided what we wanted, but there was no sign of anyone. In the end, I went inside, and asked if we could order. The woman came out, and despite her name tag clearly saying she spoke English, she obviously didn’t, which turned out to be entertaining.
It ended up with Mari and I getting our meals first. I went for the Caprese (can you tell I like this? ) and it was very good, and there was certainly a lot of it…
Mark had ordered the lasagne, but we think our server mis-understood and thought he said Nicoise salad – easy mistake to make, I’m sure… Eventually his turned up, and didn’t look inspiring…
At least his was hot, while Mari’s minestrone soup was cold in places.
Once we were done eating, I wanted to know what the dessert options were, as I’d seen macaroons as we entered. Thankfully a guy turned up, who spoke good English, and we got there. The macaroons are supposed to be a special order, but he asked the chef, and we got some. I was presented with them when I got back from getting our room keys, as our rooms were now ready. I was in heaven with these… so good!
We settled up, and headed up to check out our room, after the issues Mari and Raleigh had had yesterday. Thankfully there were no more such problems, and I was very impressed with our room:
The view from our room
We headed back down to the garage to get our luggage from the car, and then headed back to our rooms to enjoy a bit of down time.
We headed down to reception at 3:30pm to find only Mari there. It turned out Raleigh had crashed and was still sleeping, so they were going to bail on going to the aquarium with us, which was fine. I desperately wanted to see it, so I wasn’t going to miss it, but if they didn’t want to go, it wasn’t an issue at all.
We set off, and saw this, which is the view from Mari and Raleigh’s room. Apparently it was used in Roman Polanski’s Pirates film, which I had never heard of, so there you go… It’s very nice, but I wasn’t going to pay the €5 ($6.20) to go around the interior of it.
We headed over to the aquarium, and we got two adult tickets. It was interesting, as there was no wait to get a ticket, and from what I could see, they do timed tickets at busy times. Well, they weren’t today, and if it’s not busy today on a Saturday in July, then I don’t know when it’s busy… It was €24 ($30) each, and I felt it was thoroughly worth that cost.
Now the first thing I’ll say here is that the aquarium doesn’t look like much from outside:
It’s in a lovely part of the city though:
Inside we went…
Annoyingly, a guided tour appeared to have just started, but thankfully we were eventually able to push our way past them, and we didn’t see them again.
Your room looks perfect, but too bad yours was the only good choice for lunch. It's amazing how popular French macaroons suddenly are over here. They're available in every regular grocery store now-- I'm sure the quality varies, but you never used to see them. We used to have Jewish macaroons (entirely different), but never the colorful French ones.
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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! 
So pretty!
I was in heaven with these… so good! 
It’s very nice, but I wasn’t going to pay the €5 ($6.20) to go around the interior of it. 
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