By this Author: Desimonetravel

After an overnight flight on TAP Air Portugal our driver, Fabrizio, delivered us to our hotel, the Eitch Borromini, which is right on Piazza Navona. It's a lovely 29 suite property in the old Pamphjil family palazzo that dates from the 1700's. Our room had its own separate entrance and turned out to be a three room, two floor suite which may have housed the architect when he was working on the original construction of the property.

We've been to the Cinque Terre a couple of times so when we were tendering at Portovenere we decided not to try to get back there again. Plus the weather was cold and windy, quite rough for the tenders and, this being November, the regular ferry boats up the coast were out of season. We hadn't been in La Spezia so decided that would be our goal. Thinking we could just grab a taxi for the 20 or 30 minute ride, we didn't do a lot of research. Well, a taxi in Portovenere (at least this time of year) wasn't that easy to come by. The bus would have been a better idea but we finally were able to call a taxi driver who said he would show up and he did. We wandered a little in the old center; La Spezia has a great park near the water. Deciding we should have the last official Italian meal of this trip we stumbled into a great little place that had been in the same family for over 50 years. They took very good care of us!

Arrived in the port of Bastia for a day of exploring without an organized tour. It's a small town but we were impressed with the great condition of the streets and walls. A lot of effort and money has been put into upgrading the approach to the old city. The walk up to the entrance is steep but there are great views from up there. It was a little cold and windy but no rain so we enjoyed our walk and looked for a place for lunch. Back to the ship after a few hours.

The ship docked right in town so the walk in was pretty easy. Monaco is very small but very steep and our first mission was to make sure we knew how to get to the train station since we planned to visit our friend, Hedwig, in Nice. We found the stairs to the train station and later found that there were also escalators and elevators so we only had to make the trek by stairs once! Back to the ship for lunch and a little rest since we weren't planning to leave for Nice until around 2:30. Hedwig picked us up at the train station and we had a lovely afternoon and evening walking around the old section of town and doing a little shopping. An early dinner at Le Safari (the daube was great!) and then back to the train. Arrived back at the ship before 9:00.

The ship anchored off of Saint Tropez because the port authorities decided it was too rough for us to dock. It was an overcast and drizzly day. We chose a shore excursion to a place outside of Saint Tropez called Grimaud; it sounded like a beautiful hill town with nice views over the bay. Unfortunately, the weather didn't break all day. It was raw and the clouds never really let up so we could see the view. The first part of the tour was to Port Grimaud which is a man-made enclave on canals with about 2,600 residences. Our tour involved a boat ride along the canals but the place was a ghost town. After leaving there we continued up to the old village of Grimaud which was very charming.