2004
Tuesday, July 20 - Trip to Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino
Lodging: Villa Gnocchi B&B (phone = +39 0185 283431; email = roberto.gnocchi@tin.it); plan to stay until July 22nd.

We slept in later than Gregg had anticipated, past 8:30 AM. We needed to check out by 10:00 AM. So we repacked and Erica took a shower while Gregg finished getting ready. We walked down the MANY stairs at Palazzo Zenobio to check out at 10:00, or perhaps a few minutes after.

After checking out we proceeded to walk toward the station. Gregg wanted to take another ferry to see any other part of Venice aside from the Grand Canal. So, after much confusion about which ferry station to wait at, we finally opted for the 52. The people working on the ferry were a bit less friendly and asked us where we were going and told us where to stand (the other side of the boat from where we would depart). I guess we looked out of place. I know Erica was sweating enough to fill a sink!

Our idea was to take the ferry to another area, grab some breakfast or lunch and head back. We took the ferry we had time for, asked a couple of restaurants when they would open, with no success. No one was serving breakfast or lunch on that strip. It was about 11:00 AM and no McDonalds in sight (ha ha). So we walked a bit further to the next ferry stop for 41 or 51 (either would do). We took the ferry for one long stop - back to the train station.

We stopped at the station to use the phone. We still needed to confirm our reservation for tonight at Santa Margherita. We also wanted to reserve a seat for dinner. Gregg only got voicemail - Let us hope they get our message and understand!

We still wanted to grab something to eat before taking our six-hour train ride to eventually bring us to Santa Margherita. Gregg wanted to go to this place we saw our first night, near the train station. It is kind of setup like a cafeteria: pick out what you want to eat and pay before heading to a seat. It was most likely the best deal we have had since being in Italy (aside from McDonalds). We spent less than 15 euro and had big bowls of pasta, three small carafs of water, fresh kiwi, watermelon & grapes, and Gregg had a big Coke. That was more like it!

We then headed to the train station. We had about 9 minutes until a train was supposed to depart. We did have a little difficulty though. We did not know that we were taking one train to Milan and transferring to another train to take us to Santa Margherita. We went to the train information center and got some useful information from the gentleman working there, although I do not think he understood much English. He printed off what time our train would leave Milan and that should help us out a great deal. Keep your fingers crossed for us! This is probably the one chance we have of really messing up and missing a connection. Gregg is going to take a nap and Erica is probably going to read before dozing off on the train to Milan. Gregg did set his phone to wake us up 20-30 minutes before our transfer in Milan....

...
We made it! Our transfer at the station in Milan did prove interesting. We were cutting it pretty close on the departure times and were not certain which train we should be taking. Erica had studied the train map posted near the exit before exiting the train at Milan (just by coincidence). Luckily, we did make it on to the right train.

We wanted to go to an ATM, mail some postcards, call the Villa again to let them know we had made it safely, and then grab a taxi to the villa. There was no mailbox or ATM, but we did manage to call the Villa. This time Gregg was able to speak with Roberto, and Roberto said he would see us in 10 minutes.

There was a taxi right there waiting to take us. We told him Villa Gnocchi and he indicated he knew where it was without saying a word. (We do not think he understood much English at all.) Boy - We were SO GLAD we took a cab instead of trying to find this place on our own! And you should see the roads to get there! I have never seen such curves! The taxi was also a Mercedes station wagon - a big car! Even Roberto was impressed when we arrived that the cab driver had made it all that way; he said the drivers usually stop at the end of the drive instead of driving guests all the way to the door. Unfortunately, our taxi driver pricked himself on a cactus when he was taking a bag to the walkway. (Ouch!)

Roberto came to the car to greet us - a very amiable fellow. He showed us the walkway and the terrace where we would be taking our meals, then he showed us to our room. What a place! What a view! The port is absolutely amazing! Perfecto! Bravo! Our room is quaint, with a lovely terrace and a nice regular bathroom - Hallelujah! The room is very comfortable, although Erica swears she has never seen a bed so narrow. It looks like someone took a full-size and cut in half down the middle. At least she is not kicking Gregg!

We cleaned up (Erica was SO happy) and then headed to the terrace for dinner. We met a few of the folks staying that were from Denver and New Jersey and had the normal American chit-chat. Where have you been? What are your plans? What are you doing tomorrow?...

Dinner is a surprise each night here, and Roberto is known for splendid cooking. Erica started with some chianti from Tuscana and we had water and bread. The first course (this is usually a pasta dish in Italy) was creamy pesto on gnocchi pasta. Gnocchi! We are at Villa Gnocchi - get it? Anywya, the next course was some kind of strong fish on potatoes with a stuffing on top. Dessert was Tiramisu. It was interesting and good.

After dinner, we went up to the room and took some night pictures. We decided to review all the pictures we had taken so far (over 850!) and delete unnecessary, repetitive, blurry shots. We made a first pass attempt and eliminated quite a few. We definitely were conservative to keep as many photos as possible. With a 40 gig hard drive and a few CDs to burn, we have to stop somewhere... This took well over 2 hours! During this time, fireworks were going off in downtown Santa Margherita. We had a great view, but the start and stop times were quite unpredictable. What we did see was magnifico!

Time for sleep... zzzzzz...