Travel with Dale & Margaret

Cannes, France:

The ship arrived at about 7 am in Cannes (in French say “kahn”) today on another beautiful and warm morning. Up at 7:00, breakfast in La Veranda, Margaret decided to stay in and meet me at 1:00 pm. Caught tender to shore at 8:15, walked a short distance to bus #7 with a German tour guide that sounded suspiciously French. As we were driving south down very narrow roads in a bus, we saw one fancy hotel after another, the building where the Cannes film festival is held (just a couple weeks back) and even past a hotel called Hotel California where all the Russians stay. In that part of town the guide said that when you walk down the street at night almost all the people are speaking Russian.

Drove over 1 hour down the shore road to Nice, past Antibes.  There were an amazing number of high rise (about 6-8 floors) apartments looking out over the ocean and as far back from the coast as we could see. We were dropped off next to a park and were told to meet at 12:15 which gave us one hour to walk around town.   The tour guide walked us through a bit of old town Nice past the town square to the opera building pointing out some interesting things along the way.  This was typical of most of the tours.  They would say we would have an hour to look around but then take about half that time walking us around.  Usually works out but you have to rush after they are through with their diatribes.

Walked through the flower market which was quite large. Turned to the left and walked down a typical old town alley, stopping at a café with a few tables and a couple that had a black lab with a huge tennis ball in his mouth.  I became his best friend instantly, had an espresso, threw the ball about 10 times, fed him the last bit of my croissant, took a picture of him, used the free toilet and was on my way. Did some exploring, finding a small carousel in the park where we were to be picked up and took some pictures.  Found cafe next to the bus stop and had another coffee before catching the bus.

When we got back to the dock area the small train that we were to catch wasn’t there and our guide told me that it would arrive in about 15 minutes. That meant that with the 1 hour and 15 minute small train shuttle we wouldn’t arrive back until 2:15. I told her that I was to meet Margaret at 1:00 so couldn’t go. After waiting about 30 minutes, reading my Red Notice novel about the Russian oligarchs that are buying up property around here, Margaret showed up. Yeah!

We walked out of the port and down the main drag in Cannes. We stopped at the first café that looked very French with tables with table clothes (very important for Margaret) on the sidewalk. We picked well. The waiter was great, spoke great English, as well as a few other languages, and he helped us pick out a nice French Rose (that looked very white), a salad, moulles (mussels), linguine with pesto and a huge seafood platter. OK, that’s a lot of food but I was schooled on the bus that you were to have about 2.5 hour lunches here in France and not have a care in the world. It worked! We had a great time and ate almost all the food. Finished off with a very strong espresso that was a great way to end a great lunch.

Walked around town, past the Cannes film festival building which is, by the way, nothing to write home about, then turned inwards and walked back up the hill to the castle.  It was actually an art museum but it went quickly. We then marched up the steep stairs to the top of the castle where a nice, attractive young woman asked me to take her picture. With Margaret’s permission I obliged.  She then took a picture of Margaret and me and was quite the photographer, even reshooting after I noticed that I had set the ISO at 4,000 for Margaret to take pictures inside the museum.

We walked down the hill and explored town a bit more, taking pictures of interesting doorways and windows for our designer Scott.  Just before we reached the parking lot where the tender dock was located we witnessed a huge argument between what looked to be family members.  Fortunately, someone who worked at the restaurant broke them up but it was really something while it lasted.  After sweating while waiting for the next tender we loaded up with a bus full of fellow passengers and made our way back to to the ship. I stopped by the Observation Lounge on the way back to our room to pick up a couple Pink Flowers from Mihaela while Margaret took a shower. Then, while watching Fox News, I took a shower, put on my slacks and white shirt, yellow tie and blue blazer and took a call from Matt and Amy. We hoped to meet them in the O.L. as this was their last night on the ship. If we didn’t see them we had their contact information and hoped to see them in Carmel in the next couple months.

We headed to the O.L., grabbed a couple more Pink Flowers from Mihaela, our favorite bartender, and sat down to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Within a few minutes Matt and Amy came in and sat with us and we had a great time with them. They headed out to Prime 7 and we went for dinner at Compass Rose.  I’m not sure that I mention that each day, the kitchen would send our menus for the next day  to our room so we could pre-select our meals for the next night.  Then, they make sure that they make a gluten-free version of that meal.  I’m also not sure that I’ve told you that despite this, Margaret gets the urge once in a while to order a pizza from room service at 11:00 pm.  This night was no exception.  She clearly seemed to be back in the game.  This night it was even pepperoni.  We’re bad but the pizza, as average as it was, was good!!!

Portofino, Italy – Late Afternoon

When I last left off I was ready to catch the ferry at Santa Margarita. The 15 minute ferry ride brought us back to the little port(ofino) and I was very excited to see that Margaret had made it! She’s finally off the ship! This is exciting. We had a hotel in Redondo Beach called Portofino and we had martinis there often. We also had a lot of our friends stay there for our wedding 11 years ago. Fun to see the real thing together!

We walked around exploring the horseshoe dock area. She had already explored further in town and done some shopping so we picked a nice cafe and ordered a nice bottle of Rose and a charcuterie plate. It was yummy (see picture) and we had a very nice relaxing time for an hour. A huge inflatable dinghy came up with the owner of one of the big yachts anchored off-shore and two of his crew. They sat next to us and we enjoyed hearing them talk of their exploits. The amazing thing was that the owner was driving his own dinghy.

The rest of the night consisted of taking a shower, meeting our new friends Matt and Amy (who were honeymooners we met on our first excursion to Provence), at the Observation Lounge. We all had with Pink Flowers while we watched the sun heading lower and then had dinner with them at Compass Rose. Good times.

I decided to put all the painting related artwork in Genoa in a separate gallery.  Sorry that I don’t have any descriptions but I’m sure you’ll agree that it is incredible and worth going to see.

Up at 7:00 am. Margaret decided to stay in and not go on the 8 hour trip to Genoa but would call me at 3:00 and maybe meet me in town.  Today we anchored and took a 15 minute tender ride to the quaint town of Portofino. Then, we caught a ferry ride (people only) to Santa Margarita, which is the next cove over and took about 15 minutes. We then walked to a bus and drove about 45 minutes to the famous city of Genoa. Buses can’t go directly to Portofino because the roads are very narrow and windy and, well, they just can’t make it there. In fact, getting out of Santa Margarita is no piece of cake. The bus had to stop and back up a bit a couple times to get around some of the corners and you’d swear that the mirrors were going to hit some of the buildings. Great fun!

The driver showed us how rocky and steep the hills are surrounding these seaside villages. In fact, these mountains, which are the end of the French Alps, extend 1200 miles. I was surprised at how many houses, some rather large, are built into the rocky hillsides and how terraced they are, with dry stack stones, so that people could grow grapes but mostly olive trees. The olives that are grown in this part of France produce the mildest olive oil in France. After parking the bus our tour guide walked us to a part of town called Strada Nuova.

Charles Dickens gave a suggestive description of Strada Nuova in his travelogue Pictures from Italy: …When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the Strada Balbi! or how the former looked one summer day, when I first saw it underneath the brightest and most intensely blue of summer skies: which its narrow perspective of immense mansions, reduced to a tapering and most precious strip of brightness, looking down upon the heavy shade below! The endless details of these rich Palaces: the walls of some of them, within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, heavy, stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier: with here and there, one larger than the rest, towering high up—a huge marble platform; the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, immense public staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like arches, and dreary, dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers: among which the eye wanders again, and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by another- the terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches of the vine, and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full bloom, twenty, thirty, forty feet above the street—the painted halls, mouldering, and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still shining out in beautiful colours and voluptuous designs…  I couldn’t have said it better myself!  If only Dickens would go on all of my tours I wouldn’t have to do so much writing.

This area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the 1600’s this street was populated with poor people, brothels and the like. A developer came up with the idea to raise the street and built palaces and it caught on. The wealthy families in Genoa built very large multi-story mansions in about 4 years and then spent the next 20-30 years finishing them off with elaborate ceilings with plaster reliefs and frescoes and having famous painters of the era paint huge paintings to hang on the walls.

Two of those palaces, Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Blanco were donated to the city of Genoa by a wealthy family when they didn’t have any heirs and they were dedicated to becoming museums, complete with paintings by Van Dyke and Reubens among many other famous painters. There is even a self portrait of Reubens.  I put it first in the artwork gallery (see below).  It’s the one with Lots of them! The ceilings were art themselves, as good as any that I have seen in Rome or Russia.   Incredible structures and incredible art makes this a worthwhile visit.

I split all of my artwork (including frescoes and paintings) into a separate gallery in a separate blog post so that the posts would continue to load fast rather than deleting them since they were so beautiful.  You can click here to see them.

We went into another mansion only to view a very famous violin that was made by a master violin maker.  While it was interesting I’m not sure it was worth the people in wheel chairs having to deal with elevators up and down and all that goes with that in old buildings.  But, I am VERY impressed with the perseverance of these people and you always have to remember that one day it will likely be you in that situation.  More power to them!

There were over 40 of these mansions in this area with 12 of them being on this one street. Lots of competition to out-do your neighbors. Then, these palaces were put on a Palazzi dei Rossi or list of palaces for visiting dignitaries to stay in when visiting Genoa.

After the tour guide turned us loose at an incredible cathedral I walked around town, had lunch at a trattoria located in a very narrow and dark passageway. Obviously a popular place with locals, it had arched brick ceilings and was, let’s say, cozy. We were told that we must have the local linguini with pesto and fresh bread as well as the local red wine. OK, it wasn’t gluten free but hey, give me a break! I’m in Genoa. Then, I walked around a bit more and got a gelato and went through an ancient part of town where the original walled city was and found the remains of Christopher Columbus’ house. Right in the middle of a high end shopping area. Then, the few blocks back to Ferarri Square where the bus picked us up. The ride back to the port was reverse of our trip out. I emailed Margaret to meet me at 4 pm if she could at the ferry dock and she said that she’d try to be there.

While we were waiting for the ferry to take us from Santa Margarita to Portofino we had a half hour to do some sightseeing. I went into a cathedral in the middle of town and it was pretty incredible. Very ornate inside with a beautiful turret on the top with beautiful stained glass around it. They didn’t want us to take pictures inside so you won’t be seeing it.

This day is continued in the next post.

Today we landed in Civitavecchia, Italy, the port city to Rome. It is a large port that was built fairly recently, following extensive bombing in WWII and replacing an ancient port that served Rome in the good old days. It is now are scheduled to take a 1 hour bus trip to Lake Bracciano and then, on the way back to the port, stop to do some wine tasting at a winery.

Margaret, although she still had a bit of her cough going decided she would go with me today! Yeah! But, it wasn’t to be. As soon as we got on the bus they told us that the bus wasn’t working. After having beautiful, well maintained busses in France, including perfectly clean windows, both busses in Italy left something to be desired. But, you’d think at least the busses would run! But not this one. They called a mechanic and a new bus but, after 15 minutes nothing was happening. Margaret said, “I’m outta here!” and she was. I waited a few more minutes but then left to go to the coffee shop. They said we could meet them right at the exit gate in 30 minutes. I did but it was still about 15 minutes before a new bus showed up. The payback for all this? They said they’d buy us an aperitif or cup of coffee when we got to the lake! Wow! Isn’t that something special.

Like the bus ride the prior day to Pisa, it was not chocked full of breathtaking scenery. We learned about some local color from the tour guide who, although she was German, spoke like she was a local. After driving what seemed to be halfway around the lake we stopped at a small village and walked a block to a coffee shop where we ordered our free drinks. 30 minutes later were were back on the bus and on our way to the wine tasting. The lake was, well, let’s just say, it was a nice lake. Nothing to write home about. Not Lake Cuomo for sure. Sorry, but just can’t say much about it.

And, the wine tasting was much the same. A commercial’ish wine tasting room for a local winery that had case displays, some retail stuff for sale and seating areas inside and outside, although the outside seating had a view of a loading dock area repleat with pallets and other miscellaneous stuff that you would have at a warehouse. And, the wines? Three whites and three reds were, let’s say, $6 supermarket wines. One was almost drinkable. They did have some prosciutto, cheese, bread and olives which made it a little more acceptable but it seemed that everyone was less than impressed.

Another 45 minutes and we were back on the ship for lunch at Compass Rose with Margaret. Well, at least I had lunch with Margaret. Who knows about everyone else? Others had 8-9 hour trips into Rome, some free, some paid, but we had already done all that when we stayed in Rome for a few days a few years back. Those that did those trips said, because it was a holiday weekend that it was hot and absolutely packed with people. Same for the people who went to Florence yesterday. And, we had already stayed in Florence on a business trip a few years ago as well.