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The Doria
Park Hotel has the best breakfast in Italy.
It's a spread, and few other hotels put out so much stuff. There's still-warm
pastries, all sorts of cheeses and meats, breads, cereals, fresh fruit,
eggs (a rarity), yogurts, and a crazy machine that splits oranges and
sqeezes them on the spot for fresh juice. It's enough to make a non-breakfast
eater like me tempted.
The weather starts out very overcast and foggy, but we take a chance and
walk down to the port to hop on the ferry to Portovenere. As we head over
for the short trip (20 minutes) to the other side of the gulf, the sun
breaks through and by the time we start hiking around the town, it's sunny,
hot, and humid. Portovenere is the town where Byron and Shelley hung out
(and Shelley drowned). It's, as usual, built on the side of a cliff, with
a castle and a church built out on the edge of the point. We climb to
the top of the church and look out over the Mediterranean.
there are a whole bunch of Italian tourists (it's May Day and a bank holiday
here). We head down to the Byron Grotto, where he used to swim, and climb
down on the rocks near the edge of the lagoon. I think there is a grotto
down there and some people are scuba diving off a Zodiac in the center.
Next we head up aove the town to the castle. It's pretty high up there
and it's getting humid now, so this is quite a workout.
But it's rewarding, excellent vistas and lots of walls and ramparts to
conquer.
Back down at the bottom, it's gelato time. Melone and fragola, and the
cantaloupe is outstanding. Rich and fruity. Mom even finds a seed in hers.
We hang out on the square, resting from the hike, eating gelato (my brothers
play some foosball in a bar) and wait to catch the ferry back to Lerici.
There had been talk of heading to Cinque Terre and eating at Vernazza
or Corniglia, but the steps and the tourists convince us otherwise.
Back in town, it's lunch time. There is a local specialty called farinata,
which is a chickpea flour dough that you eat like pizza. I have a hankering.
Unfortunately the sit down places with views don't serve it. So we end
up at a restaurant called Due Corone (I don't know what that means). I
think I've eaten here before, but it doesn't register good or bad. We
sit outside under a semi permanent tent and dig into some fish. Mussels
in a spicy tomato broth (very large, very fresh) a white fish carpaccio
'marinated' in olive oil, and proscuitto and lardo to start. Lardo is
kind of what it sounds like. Take bacon and take the meat off.
Put it in a brine inside a marble cask for months and slice thin on bread.
Mom can't eat it on principle, but it's pretty good....
Then a terrific dish of orata (a white fish) cooked to perfection inside
paper thin slices of potato. Really, really good. Dad has fritto misto
and Seth has little gnocchi with octopus and other shellfish. A couple
of bottles of local white and we are happy happy campers. We struggle
up the hill to the hotel and decide to do nothing for the rest of the
afternoon. Seth, MIchael and I play a couple of games of Scrabble (they
each win once, but none of the games are particularly inspiring), while
mom reads and dad types. It's an unusually unstructured, but enjoyed afternoon.
We decide on a light early dinner and go in search of farinata. But we
take the back way to town and check out the castle in Lerici. It's now
a children's dinosaur museum, don't know if we'll ever end up inside,
but a
good castle is a good castle. We end up at a pizzeria in town where we
order various styles of farinata. They are all good (some with cheese,
or pesto, or ham) but none are outstanding. Perhpas tomorrow in Sarzana
we can have a better selection.
A short walk for gelato (very average blackberry and strawberry for me)
and then back to the hotel. The afternoon in the sun (even sitting
around) has sapped us all the brothers may be jet lagged...)
Tomorrow: Carrarra marble, and the search for farinata and lardo continues.
PS Michael and Seth rented a separate car and drove up from Rome to meet
us here. Tomorrow we'll see how many Zurers fit in a European Automobile.
Also, in the castle pic, Michael and Seth are in the lower left hand corner
in the grass, waving.
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