Gaeta, Livorno and the ‘Italian Riviera.’

Next stop was the small port of Gaeta where our original shore excursion had been cancelled and I hadn’t rebooked, thinking we might want a down day by now. We had a leisurely breakfast and then caught the shuttle into town…. and then out again fairly quickly. We spoke to others that had taken shore excursions further afield that were very good but we didn’t feel we had missed out.

Gaeta

Gaeta in fact looked most scenic as we left it 😊

Leaving Gaeta

Our next scheduled stop was Livorno, jumping off point for Tuscany and many people had excursions booked to visit Florence. Russell and I were going our separate ways here as I really wanted to visit Cinque Terre and he had a date with another cooking excursion in Tuscany.

The weather was not really cooperating once again and as I contemplated  the two hour bus trip to get there I hoped that it would be worth it.

Of course it was, it would have been even better with sunshine but still managed to get some nice shots and see this area that has become overrun with tourists, in the quiet time.

Riomaggiore

Manarola

The tour actually visited Manarola and Corniglia but whilst in the former I jumped on a train for the five minute back track to Riomaggiore for the requisite harbour pics, very worthwhile.

The local vineyards are gravity defying and since the late 1970s many properties  have installed  a little monorail type train to assist with transporting grapes during harvest. The system consists of a rack supported by steel poles driven into the ground along which a tractor with a powerful internal combustion engine.
The trains can go through slopes with 100% gradient carrying 300 kg, including the driver and the monorail can have a length of up to 1,000 metres. I had a sit on one at the top but not sure I’d feel safe going down a 100% gradient!

It was a long day but I can cross Cinque Terre off my bucket list ( for now ) and Russell had also enjoyed his cooking day so we slept  well that night, looking forward to pretty Portofino tomorrow, our last stop.

Unfortunately, the next morning Captain Serena’s announcement once again informed us that conditions were too unsafe to attempt tendering and Portofino was cancelled 😏 Nearby Genoa however, had a berth available and that’s where we eventually docked. Our original shore excursion had been “cruising the Italian riviera” but was now converted to “bussing some of the original itinerary” 🤣

Russell’s lurgy was getting the better of him by now and he decided to stay on the ship so I set off along with our new cruise friends Barb and Bob, for the short bus ride to scenic Camogli. Of course being our last day, the sun was out in force, perfect blue skies and seas contrasting with beautiful Mediterranean pastel buildings.

Comiglia was a pleasant wander around which I did largely independently before running into Barb for a final water side glass of wine.

We arrived back on board early afternoon to start the onerous task of packing up… all in all our first cruise experience was a good one, the weather slightly uncooperative ( we were to hear later from the Captain that it was the worst May weather for 62 years in the Med) but not bad enough to stop us to booking another cruise in 2020😉