Portofina, Italian Riviera

View from Castello Brown

THURSDAY 12 JUNE 2008

The town was buzzing because Wayne Roony was getting married in Portofino, and the rumour is the wedding is today. We had already decided to go to Portofino anyway and caught the ferry there. It is full of restaurants and extremely expensive designer shops. We saw a few paparazzi, but nothing else to show there was the ‘wedding of the year’ taking place.

We visited Castello Brown, where there was a photo exhibition of all the rich and famous who have come to Portofino – Onassis, Churchill, many film stars including Liz Taylor, Walt Disney etc.

We had a farewell lunch with Cecily and Geoff and caught the ferry back to Santa Margherita and then the train to Milan. We stayed in a motel near the airport and had to check in at 5.30 a.m., but the woman who drove us took us to Terminal 1 instead of 2, so it took us twenty minutes to get to Terminal 2! We were then serenaded by an Italian Male Voice Choir on the plane. Roger and I enjoyed it, but the man next to us obviously didn’t as he was trying to sleep and kept putting his fingers in his ears and groaning!

We caught the bus from Malaga to Algeciras and the ferry to Ceuta, arriving back at the boat about 4 p.m. We were delighted to see our friends from Swansea Yacht Club, Barbara and Tudor, had arrived in their boat Yooannmee. We had a meal with them and later adjourned to the Ceuta Yacht Club.

Lively Lady, Sir Alec Rose’s boat, was moored one boat down from us and is heading back to the UK after a circumnavigation with disadvantaged people joining the boat for parts of the journey.