To GENOVA via PORTOVENERE

Next morning we headed out towards the peninsula of Portovenere. We were just giving up on finding somewhere to park when some one offered us their parking ticket. This is another example of the hospitality that we have received. Had a short walk around Portovenere. Deckchairs our in the sun (which need to be paid for) where you can sit on the pebbles and look at the water. People sunbathing on slabs of rock. As well as all the little fishing boats there are ferries here that will take you around the islands. Our impression is that it is a little like Devonport where people go for the day as there were lots of school groups, restaurants and daytrippers on the ferries. Very nice place and very pretty.
From here to Portofino through lots of tunnels. The tunnels ranged from 200m to 1800m and were only interspersed by viaducts. This is very steep country. We thought the roads were narrow before, well this is ridiculous. We didn’t get to stop in Portofino as there was nowhere to stop. We happened to meet a bus on the very narrowest piece of road which meant juggling backwards and forwards, avoiding the scooters parked in the ditch and having literally only a couple of inches to spare. My advice to anyone, would be to go there by bus and then you might get to see it. Lots of glitz and very big boats.
On to Genova. Set the GPS for the tourist office (to find accommodation) and started heading through very narrow streets. Everytime we have thought that they couldn’t get ant narrower, they do. We ended up going down these tiny medieval streets that ended in deadends. GPS lady telling us to go left when there was no road. We were heading down a tiny street when road workers pulled across a barrier in front of us, yelling at us to go back, they were going home for the day (it’s Friday), and a truck behind us telling us to keep going. Somehow we backed down non existent streets and got out of there. But yes, we did find somewhere to sleep. I think Justine must be good luck, we haven’t had to sleep in our car yet.
Went for a walk and to find dinner. In a medieval way it is probably quite a nice place, but we don’t intend to hang around.