September 2007

We found out, a few days ago, that our tenants in B.C. are terminating their lease in October.  They had a lease through the end of August 2008 . . .  As such, we will have to leave the boat somewhere and fly home to B.C. to deal with our home.

8 September

We finally departed Villefrance sur Mer yesterday morning. Made a quick trip along the coast to Menton, the last town before the Italy border. It had a fair sized cathedral which was very beautiful inside, built in the 1600s. We got there in time for the market & got some fresh fruit, along with a nice hot baguette for lunch! After lunch we headed towards San Remo. Ended up just past there anchored for the night. Will continue along the coast today, although have yet to decide our destination for this evening! Jello plans!

10 September

We are headed to Santa Margherita this morning, just north of Portofino. We may stay there a few days, as it’s a central location to take the bus to Genoa, Portofino & Rapallo.

We still don’t know where we’re keeping the boat, so haven’t made plans for what to do as we head down the coast. I will find internet access in the next couple days & see if I have any messages from marinas.

Stopped and visited Cervo. We could see the cathedral up on the hill, and it just looked too neat to pass by, so we dropped anchor and headed up the hill.

11 September

Got to Santa Margherita Ligure mid-day yesterday & spent the afternoon looking around town. What a great area & very pretty. We’re catching a train to Genoa today, as the tourist office said there is no direct bus & it’d be too confusing & take too long. Train takes about 35 minutes & supposedly costs around 5 euros R/T.

14 September

This is a wonderful area. We have spent the last few nights anchored at Santa Margherita Ligure. It’s a lovely town just down the coast (less than a mile, I think) from ‘world famous’ Portofino. There are two amazing churches in town, both with an unbelievable amount of crystal chandeliers & gold leaf carvings on almost every surface that isn’t painted! We walked over to Rappalo, which turned out to be another quaint & fun town. Ate dinner on the water after exploring on foot. They have a small fortress on the water. We’ve taken the train into Genoa two days & walked miles & miles seeing it. Nice was nice, but we like Genoa even more. It is full of palazzos (palaces), most from the 16th century. Awhile back the Via Grimaldi became a UNESCO world heritage site. Many of the palazzos will let you see a little bit of the inside, free of charge, during the day. Most of them have offices, etc. nowadays. We also toured three that are now museums. And then there are always the churches . . . Everywhere and each one gorgeous. What appears to be a simple church from the outside becomes an opulent one inside. We also went to the cemetery — yup, we really did! Spent over 3 hours wandering around it. You have to see it to believe it. The monuments, tombs, etc. are all works of art, what with the marble & granite statues & carvings. Some people erected individual buildings, some the size of small houses & some that look like fancy cathedrals on a small scale. Amazing!

Today we are going to Portofino. Tomorrow we may head on down the coast. We’ll see . . .

18 September

We are having to ’sit tight’ today due to high winds. We had planned to sail down to Pisa, but there’s no protection from south winds in Pisa — and the winds are supposed to be up to 20 knots today. So we are hiding out tucked behind an island next to Portovenere. I think Pisa is about a 30 mile sail for us.

We found a place to put the boat down in Tunisia. It’s about 500 miles as the crow flies — on the north coast of Africa. I am hoping it’ll be OK. Nowhere else has a spot for us that we’ve located so far. We’d end up taking a 22 hour ferry ride up to Genoa, Italy & then catch a plane either there or up in Milan. I tried 3 times to call the guy back to confirm that we want him to hold the spot for us, but I kept getting cut off . . .

20 September

We made it down to Pisa. We’re anchored in the Arno River a few miles downstream from there. Pisa isn’t on the coast. So yesterday we dinghied over to a marina & then caught a bus to town. It was fun seeing the Leaning Tower & the buildings with/by it, the group of which used to make up the religious center of the city. You always hear so much about the tower, yet nothing about the cathedral & baptistry which are right by it. The tower actually was built as a bell tower back in the 1100s & started leaning almost immediately due to insufficient footings for it. It wasn’t completed for almost 200 years. The baptistry has the most amazing acoustics we’ve ever heard. One of the ticket takers came in & sang; I actually got goosebumps listening! The acoustics are absolutely perfect.

Today we are trying to locate a veterinary to take Shadow to get a health certificate. It looks like we’ll be taking the boat down to Tunisia to leave it for awhile, & they require a certificate which is less than 6 months old. I called a place yesterday, but they said I’d have to call again today to see if they could do it.

We’ve enjoyed being in the river. The terrain here is farmland, so we have horses right next to us. When we got back yesterday, we saw a fox and then later a wild pig. Fun!

We may head to Capri & then to Elba next. Haven’t really decided.

23 September

We’re still hanging out in the river south of Pisa. We took Shadow to the vet on Thursday & got a rabies shot & health certificate. The vet said we needed an EU pet passport, for which we had to go into Pisa & apply. So the next morning we road the bus into town & did that. The government vet, upon learning we were heading to Tunisia & then back to Italy to fly to the U.S., said Shadow would need more extensive rabies (he couldn’t explain — didn’t speak English) to return to Italy. They said the passport would be available on Monday, though. So now we are thinking we can’t go to Tunisia & leave the boat. That, or Shadow & I would have to hop off somewhere prior (like Palermo) & then meet up with Robert back up in Genoa or somewhere.

At this point we haven’t figured out what we’re going to do. The vet said he’d tell us more on Monday. Yesterday we caught the train & went to Lucca, about 14 miles from Pisa. The town still has its walled fortress surrounding it from the 16th century. There are 99 churches in the town! We managed to get by a lot of them, although many were closed. Lucca is where Caesar, Pompey & Crassus agreed to rule Rome as a trimvirate in 56 B.C. It was later the first Tuscan town to accept Christianity. It’s also where the famous composer, Giacomo Puccini was born; we went by his house. It was a neat town & we had a fun day exploring it.

We had planned on going to Siena today, but had to catch the 6:30 am bus to get to Pisa on time for the correct train, and we didn’t quite make it. Oh, well . . .  Jello plans!

We may leave here on Tuesday & head to Elba.

25 September

We are currently underway towards the island of Elba. We will anchor off Portoferraio, a distance of about 50 miles from us. We stopped in Livorno to refuel; it’s got a large commercial harbor. Not pretty at all, but where numerous cruise ships go into so people can take day trips to Pisa, Florence, etc.

Yesterday we took a train to Siena. What a wonderful town! We met some nice people from New Zealand on the train, & they invited us to visit when we get to their neck of the woods. Also met a group from Minnesota; the guy asked if we needed any crew. He said he’d put in his resignation immediately. I told him he could come do the crossing back with us in November 2008. He took a card & said he might have a friend or two wanting to do that. You just never know who you’ll meet! Anyway, back to Siena: We didn’t have enough time to see everything we’d like to have seen, so it’s on our list of ‘return if possible’ places. I highly recommend anyone coming to the Tuscany area to visit Siena. We lucked out in that the cathedral uncovers their marble floors every September. The rest of the year they are covered (for conservation reasons). They are magnificent! The floors were begun in the 14th century & completed over 400 years later. There are 56 scenes. The cathedral also has a Michaelangelo & a Bernini. The best thing in there besides the floors, however, IMHO, is the Biblioteca Piccolomini, a room painted by Pinturicchio between 1502 & 1509, with frescoes showing scenes from the life of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II in 1458. Gorgeous! We did a combo ticket & also got to see the crypt, baptistry, & two museums. Kept us constantly moving the entire day! We also visited San Domenico church, which has on display the head and a finger of St. Catherine. Robert specifically wanted to see that! I don’t know what they did with the rest of her or why they chose to display those two things. Didn’t get back to the boat until 9 p.m.

We also picked up Shadow’s Italian pet passport, so I’m thinking he’s now officially an Italian cat! At any rate, we now are in good shape for any EU officers wanting to see his vet papers. His passport is good in all of the EU countries.

The weather continues unbelievably gorgeous, with days in the mid-70s & cooler nights (no idea of the temp, but you want your sweats on in the morning!). The water temperature has dropped to 63 degrees, so I don’t intend to hop in. It should be warmer in Elba, since it’s almost due south of Livorno.

26 September

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We got to Elba around 5 pm yesterday. We’re on the north side in a bay at Portoferraio. It is very pretty. There are tons of ferry boats coming in & out, though. I had no idea how popular this place was! We saw six in an hour yesterday after arriving. And there have already been two today before 7:30 am! On top of which, these are ’small’ ferries. They are like mini-cruise ships! The island, at least here, isn’t terribly populated so it looks really nice. The island is very green with fairly gentle hills. We’ll explore this town today & see if we can find a tourist office for information about the rest of the island. We bought used bikes at a flea market a couple months ago, so can take them in by dinghy & then ride around to explore. Robert’s broke the first day we bought his, so it’s been out of commission. We got that resolved last Friday, so now we’re good to go.

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28 September

We had high winds & rain yesterday so just stayed on the boat. It was the first rain in months, so we actually were glad for it. Washed the boat down well!

If all goes well, we’ll probably head out of here on Sunday. Will take a couple days to get to Rome, where we’ll probably hole up in the river for a couple weeks. Can’t wait to start seeing everything there. I know we’ll make lots of good memories there!

Didn’t end up getting the rain they forecasted today, nor the high winds. Of course the high winds can come at any time, so my guess is they are ‘behind schedule’ and will arrive later. That’s what’s happened the past two times.

RH headed out for a bike ride while I am surfing the internet. Did you know Napoleon was only on Elba for about 10 months? I need to read up on that man; I thought when he was exiled it was supposed to be for life. I knew he snuck back over, but don’t know enough about him to fully grasp his ‘life’ . . .

30 September

We’re still in Elba, in the harbor near Portoferraio. We rented a moped yesterday & tooled around the island. It’s a gorgeous island, & we like it a lot. It’s not super built-up, so is very charming. It’s also very hilly and green, with numerous beautiful coves. Ate at a place on the western part of the island. Had pasta and of course they give you fresh grated parmesan. So I’m in heaven. I’ve been complaining all thru Portugal, Spain & France about wanting parmesan cheese!

I have been looking at our tour book and making notes for Rome sites to see.  I already have ten days planned, and that is only for the highlights! My guess is we’ll be there at least two weeks, and we may stay for three weeks & then bring the boat back here to Elba to leave it for a few months. There is a yard here capable of pulling & storing it, but we have decided to check in the Fiumicino River (not sure as to spelling) and see if there’s somewhere there we can keep it, then perhaps pop back over to Elba when we return to get the boat pulled & a little work done on it.  So, as usual, just us and our jello plans at present.

The Vatican is ‘free’ the first Sunday of each month, so my tentative plan right now is to go there this Sunday to see all of the ‘little things’ there (i.e. not the Sistine Chapel or Raphael rooms), then go back another day when it should be less crowded (since you have to pay about $17 USD each on other days) to see the ‘big’ stuff. I have 3 camera batteries, but I have already had days in some towns where I’ve been on #3 when the day ended. I can’t even imagine in Rome. I’ll probably run out by mid-day. Maybe I need more batteries!!

Weather continues to be glorious — mid 70s days, mid 60s nights. Shadow thinks he’s died & gone to heaven; maybe we all have!

On a sad note, I just heard from a friend in Tampa that an acquaintance of ours there just jumped off the Skyway bridge & committed suicide on Friday. That certainly has made our hearts heavy. We had seen & spoken to Maggie when we were in Tampa in January. She was only a few years married & had an adorable little girl. She was a beautiful person with these huge eyes. I can’t even imagine what was going through her head, but it’s so very sad to hear of her passing . . .