Category: Italy/Slovenia/Austria/Liechtenstein/Switzerland, Fall 2021

One last shot of us at our place in Milan just before we left to head towards the train station.  That view of the Duomo never gets old.

The train from Milan to Camogli was just over 2 hours, and again there were constant messages about wearing your mask.  Dispite that, I kept mine hanging off my ear most of the trip.  The train was maybe half full, and several seats had signs on them indicating they were supposed to remain free for social distancing.  Of course, everybody on that train had to be vaccinated or a show proof of a negative test….so where is the science??  Ugh.

Camogli was a little hotter and more humid than expected, but our hotel was only 200 yards (meters?) from the train station.  The hotel we are staying at, Sublimis Boutique Hotel, is just beautiful, and everything is very modern, and the air conditioning works great, which is perhaps the most important aspect of a hotel to us!  This hotel just opened in June of this year, so it wasn’t listed on Tripadvisor when I was looking to book…I just happened upon it, and I’m sure glad I did!  I just checked now, and they finally have some listings (all 5 stars), which I intend to add to.  Here is the view from our balcony.

In the photos below, keep in mind this is our own private balcony!  Stunning!  This would be a perfect spot for a honeymoon, or for just indulging your wife because she’s a super awesome person.  Well, we ain’t on our honeymoon!

We had our first dinner at Ostaia da O Sigu, which was pretty good.  The view is excellent.

The next day we took a hike to San Frutuosso Bay, which is a beautiful spot a little more than 5 miles from Camogli through the Portofino National Park.   The trail is marked with little red circles, and the starting point with two red circles.

The signage was excellent.  You cannot get lost if you can read!  There were beautiful views along the way.  This is from San Rocco looking back towards Camogli.

This shot is looking towards Punta Chiappa, a popular spot for sunbathers.

The first part of this hike was tough, with at least 800 steps and steep walkways.  You end up in San Rocco, where we bought some cold water, and then continued on…up up up….and then entered a forested area which was quite nice to hike through, as it was mostly shady.

The last 1.5 miles are steep downhill switchbacks on rocky trails.  This is not the easiest hike we’ve ever done!  I saw this little guy on the way down.  We saw a lot of lizards and several snakes along the trail.

At the end of the trail you are rewarded with the beautiful San Frutuosso Bay.

We had lunch at Da Giorgio, which is right on the edge of the water.  Very cool spot with really excellent food that I highly recommend!  Here is a view from the other side of the very small bay.

The lunch was superb!

This Vermentino was one of the best I have ever had, and I’ve had a lot of them!  The winery ownership is apparently a British Royal who likes to vacation in Portofino.

I’m a cat person, and cat’s know this.  The restaurant cat, Molly, came over to see if I had any spare seafood.  I gave her a few tastes.

The view from the restaurant.  Italians love laying on rocks.  There is actually a fee to lay on this beach.  The mafia truly is everywhere.

The ferry ride back to Camogli was 10 euros each.  Much better than taking that hike back!!  Beautiful views abound.

There are several WWII bunkers along the coastline.  You can hike to these but apparently it’s a pretty dangerous hike, involiving hanging onto chains to span vertical drop-offs.  We passed.  If you visit you really need to take the ferry to see the beauty of this spot from another perspective.

One last shot of the Camogli promenade.

Next up, Portofino and Rapallo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are not usually fans of big cities, but this is one of those that you just have to visit at least once.  On this trip we are actually visiting it twice, since the wine tour that got us to come to Italy in the first place departs from Milan.  Details about that later.

We are touring for the first two weeks of this trip with our friends Eric and Karmenn Hanson, from Kingston, WA.  I met Eric years ago while playing an online game called Quake 2 Lithium, and suffice it to say that’s a long story on it’s own, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Kim and I are staying in an AirBNB near the Duomo.  Here is the view from our balcony.

I wish the rest of the place was as nice as the view, but it’s an old building that makes a lot of odd noises, and the place we are staying needs a ton of work.  It’s well located though!

We took a stroll through the Galleria Vittorio Emaneule, which translates to “You don’t have enough money to shop here” in English.  Regardless, it’s a beautiful spot.

We had dinner near the Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore, which is beautiful church, particularly at night.

This church is one of the oldest in Milan, built between the 4th and 5th centuries, right about the time Nancy Pelosi was born.  Right behind where I took this photo are some Roman columns which were relocated here in the 4th century to form an atrium in front of the Basilica.  The columns were originally part of other Roman buildings from the 2nd or 3rd centuries, most likely from a pagan temple elsewhere within Milan.  Seems like somebody is always stealing shit from the pagans!

The next day we had a booked tour of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, located adjacent to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

We had a guided tour which I thought was well worth it.  She droned on about the artistic nature of the piece moreso than the history and how poorly the painting survived the elements since it was painted on plaster.  With Milan being a very humid city, pieces of the painting starting falling off within 20 years.  The painting that exists now is heavily restored, with very little of the original work remaining.  The story of the damage to the painting and the restoration efforts is worth a quick read on Wikipedia:

Last Supper Damage and Restoration

Regardless of how much his original work remains, if any, the fact that Da Vinci himself was working in this very room is pretty special.

Aside from the effects of time, the church was bombed during WWII, but miracuously, one of the few walls that survived is the one with the painting.

Make sure you book your tour well in advance.  When we went to pick up our tickets, a couple in front of us thought they could just walk up and buy tickets, and were told the next available tickets were at least a week from then.

We were ushered into the hermetically sealed room in a group of about 15 people, and we could only stay for 15 minutes, but that’s far better than standing there with 100 people….or 1200 in the case of the human crush at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre!

We also toured the grounds of the Castello Sforzesco, which is a huge park in the middle of Milan attached to the Castle.  It’s free to tour, and well worth it.  At the northwestern end of the park is a mini Arc de Triumphe, called the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), which was requested by Napoleon to celebrate his victories during the short lived Italian Republic (1802-1805).  The construction was stopped after he was defeated by the Austrian Empire, but they then completed it with bas-reliefs depicting Napoleon’s defeat.  He who wins the war, writes the history…or in this case finishes the monument!

The last part of the day was spent at the Monumental Cemetary, which I found to be very interesting (Eric loved it so much he went back again today).

This place is HUGE, and could take days to explore.  I’ve never seen so many artistic tombs and monuments in one place.  It was rather mind blowing, and this place is also free.  What’s not the like!

I was shocked with how many trees there were….in a cemetary…many of them quite old!

What does this say about the person buried here??  I wish I knew.  Next time we will take a guided tour.

This one has an art deco look to it.  Are those radio dials on the front, and speakers on top?  Was this some Italian radio DJ?

One last shot of the Duomo at night.  We have tickets for a guided tour when we return to Milan in about 10 days.

Next up, Camogli, along the Italian Riviera.