Thursday, July 8, 2010

EuroTour 2010, Day 9, Portofino Coast

Today is that day we have waited for... our first official pool day.  No sight seeing.  No long walks.  This day will begin with breakfast, then go to the pool, and then we shall see what comes naturally after that.

When you wake up and see this view, things cannot be bad.

The hotel's dining room, set up for the breakfast buffet.

When I sat at our breakfast table and saw this view, well, yeah.  I mean, you would hate me if I skipped sharing views like this.

I know that my breakfasts feel redundant, but note the juice.  Green apple juice.  I have never seen such a thing before, and loved it.

Time for the pool.  You might have noted from yesterday's pictures that the pool is across the street, seaside.  I keep having to force myself to say, "sea," instead of, "ocean."

This is how the Excelsior Hotel gets you to the pool.  Things like enclosed bridges over traffic are plain fun.  Like human sized hamster tubes.

I wonder if the first architect/designer who came up with the Infinity Pool Concept walks around telling everyone he or she meets, "Ever been in an infinity pool?  Yeah, well, that was totally my idea." I would think he or she would have to say that several times per day.

Location, location, location.

Lon's first appearance in a My Feet Have Been picture.  In this case, my feet have been to an infinity pool on the Portofino Coast.

For those of you who are new or forgetful, someday I am going to put all the pictures of my feet into a coffee table book called, "Where My Feet Have Been."  Do not bother trying to steal this concept.  I know powerful Hollywood attorneys.

I closed my eyes for a while, listening to music in a lounge chair.  I woke up and I was alone by the pool.  I looked out over the sea and saw three figures on the platform out there.

Hard to tell, but that is my wife with Sean & Lon.

How sexy is her bikini?  I placed my things in the safest way that I could come up with and then swam out there to meet them.  No pictures out there, of course.  I am not so mad as to think I could hold my iPhone over my head for that swim.

Lunchtime by the pool begins with my favorite -- lemon flavored iced tea.

Barbie's nicoise salad.

My margherita pizza with a little parmesan on it.  (And a bit of Sean's prosciutto and cheese sandwich on the side.) 

When I saw what the seaside portion of the hotel's property looked like when I went to swim out to that platform, I knew I was going to have to return with the phone.  How cool is this area?  I could hang out here all day, listening to waves crashing.

Talking about crashing waves... I waited for a good splash, and the Mediterranean did not disappoint.

Our room is right THERE.

Today is a quiet day, and since I am not forcing you to suffer through any photoshopping I can justify showing you today's iPhone experiment.  What happens when you point the forward-facing camera toward a mirror?  An iPhone within an iPhone within an iPhone to infinity.

Christoffa Corombo by the light of day.  He is pointing toward Africa, not the New World, but I am sure the intention here is that he is pointing out to sea.  If there is one thing the Italians cannot stand, it is a literal thinking American.

Why are we passing this statue again?  Because after the pool Barbie and I are headed to drop off some laundry.  Pack less, launder more.  That is the key to pleasant travel.

Inside the lavenderia.  It feels very good supporting local businesses.

After dropping off some laundry, we stopped at a sports store and I got the exact clima-cool sleeveless athletic shirt that I mentioned yesterday.  I predict better comfort in the hot-hot-humidity tomorrow.

Barbie got in a long nap  before dinner, which is good because she still has not gotten a proper night's sleep.  While she napped, I finally got The Waste up to date. 

We walked over to Hostaria Vecchio Rapallo, recommended by the hotel.  And, amusingly, the restaurant was filled with the people we had seen around the pool.

They shocked us by offering prosciutto and fruit salad instead of melon.  In this case, fruit salad is strawberries and pineapple.  And let me tell you, it was still great.  And the pineapple with the prosciutto, divine.  Maybe better than melon.

My dinner: grilled baby octopus and vegetables.

Barbie's dinner: Branzino ravioli.

Ordered for the table by Lon:  the house specialty, pear ravioli.  It was, as the Italians would say,  superba.

After dinner we went on a gelato walk and came across Rapallo's main piazza, where for the first time we see the town's church.

The gelato walk took us by this outdoor concert, and this lovely gazebo.

Il concerto gratuito.

Barbie with baccio and extra dark chocolate gelato.  I married a two scoop kind of woman.

I have just one scoop of my all-time favorite flavor, extra dark chocolate.

We had no idea that Rapallo has such a lovely night scene.  There were young people everywhere.  I am not sure it gets more pleasant that a warm, Mediterranean night in a small, coastal town.

And with that... it is time for bed.  

No comments:

Post a Comment