Success......almost

Mon 3/26/18

Another beautiful, sunny day with a cold start but a promise of some warmth to come. We headed out for another try at Camogli. No crowds, plentiful parking and blue skies showed real promise of success. It IS a beautiful little town and the sun made walking a pleasure.


The walk along the ocean is a bit touristy but there were very few of us tourists enjoying the views. We walked along the promenade and found the ferry ticket office which was closed but a helpful coast guard officer pointed out a man sitting nearby that we were told was the captain of the ferry. Unfortunately, he wouldn't operate until 3 PM and we were there at 11 with not much of anything to occupy us for the next 4 hours so that ended the idea of visiting the nearby abbey by ferry.
Plan B involved driving in the direction of Genoa along the coast where we enjoyed the views of the ocean and the gorgeous villas. Then we turned inland in the direction of home and took a route through the mountains and enjoyed the mountain scenery which brought us along a huge river gorge for many miles.
Still pretty wintery looking in the mountains with snow on the peaks in the distance.
As we attempted to get back on the autostrada to head home, we totally screwed up by going into a lane that didn't have a ticket machine. We were backing up to get into a proper lane when the gate opened so we drove through before realizing with horror that we wouldn't be able to get OFF the autostrada without a ticket. We got to our exit hoping that there would be an actual person in one of the lanes but, of course, there wasn't. Dick parked in one of the unopened lanes and I went in to try to explain in Italian to the non English speaking agent our problem. He was quite sympathetic and came out to let us through and gave us a ticket that potentially has a fine of 75 Euros that we have to address within 15 days at one of the autostrada offices. Our landlord thinks that we won't have to pay anything......let's hope he's right!
We came home for a late lunch then went out to see what was happening in downtown Busalla. Nothing!! Most businesses are closed on Mon. but a produce market was open and we bought a vegetable we had never seen or heard of called catalogna spigate and some really excellent strawberries.
Catalogna spigate. 

In addition to the exciting produce market visit we looked at the windows of several patisserias where EVERYTHING is Easter. The Italians make a big deal of giant, elaborate chocolate eggs that have some kind of gifts inside. You can even bring your gift to the patisseria and they will custom make an egg with the gift inside. They also have all kinds of other Easter sweets in addition to the eggs.


We came home for a snack-y sort of dinner and tried some of our catalogna raw with lemon juice and olive oil as a salad. It was good, slightly bitter and crunchy but mellowed out by the oil and lemon.


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