Portovenere

What an absolutely gorgeous place in Liguria. Portovenere is a small fishing village with characteristic colourful tower houses, some 5-6stories high and extremely narrow.  We enjoyed wandering the narrow shop lined streets selling trofie pasta and freshly made pesto from the tastiest basil. We hired a boat and sped around the a Cinque Terre, although we nearly crashed after the petrol ran out and the motor wouldn't restart! We swam, tried standup paddle boarding and enjoyed the pebbly beaches. We enjoyed grilled squid, muscoli- a type of mussel, focaccia. Food stores were not well stacked with fresh produce but deli items and restaurant food was excellent. I hiked around palmeria Island; situated 1km off shore, I also hiked Cinque Terre (once with Ruby and once with Lucy and her Mum Paul & Ruby), Portovenere to Riomaggiore and a few others high up on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. They were tough hikes but gorgeous. Our friend Lucy and her Mum spent a few days with us there. I really enjoyed her company on our walks and dinners. 

The only down side to Portovenere was our lousy apartment. With no water pressure, the trickle of water from the taps was barely enough to shower in. Cooking and cleaning was a challenge and the electric shock I received from the washing machine, the loose electric plugs, the screws falling off doors etc, made for an unpleasant experience. We ended up leaving a bit earlier than planned and heading to Santa Margherita! It was "character building", cough cough....