We made it

Friday 3/23/18
We had the usual long but uneventful flight (Tues, arriving Wed) with very little sleep and arrived in our usual exhausted state to our hotel near Linate airport.
View of the Alps from the plane

We had a dinner in the hotel restaurant (a decent pasta Bolognese for Dick and a risotto Milanese for me) and managed to stay awake until 9 PM. Had the usual night of a few hours sleep and a lot of awake time before we gave up and got up at 6:30. We had some breakfast at the hotel then went to the airport to pick up our rental car, return to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head out.  We managed to do the usual "miss a vital turn, spend way too much time recovering from it and waste a lot of special language in the process" and then we drove to our new home in the hamlet of Mignanego near Genoa.
Did the orientation to our place, unpacked and went out for a little exploration of the town of Busalla, near us which is also the place for any type of shopping.
Bedroom
The place to hang out and leave stuff on the couch

Dining/Kitchen area



We picked up some groceries and came home to struggle to stay awake until a respectable bedtime. Dinner was fresh trofie, a local pasta specialty, with pesto, a specialty of Genoa. Both were purchased in the local grocery and were excellent.

Sat 4/24/18
A better night's sleep and we were ready for some real touristing today. The day was sunny and began as very cold, about 39 degrees but improved to a comfy mid to high 50's over the day. We drove to Levanto which is just north of the last town of the Cinque Terre and the neighboring towns of Bonassola and Framura. The area is very similar to the Cinque Terre with mountains that go down almost to the sea and cultivation on almost perpendicular fields.
We walked along the ocean in Levanto a bit then went to Bonassola where there is a nice paved path along the beach.
Requires no explanation
Attempt at selfie

Random strangers enjoying the sunshine

More random strangers


Lunch was a piece of focaccia at a local focacceria, another Ligurian specialty.
Dick had a salami and chard focaccia and mine was tomatoes and anchovies, both really good, and we bought some plain focaccia to have with our dinner.
Of course I took a bite before the picture was taken
We made it to the town of Framura but just couldn't take more of the ridiculously narrow road or another switchback to drive down the mountain to the beach.
This road is "wide enough" for buses and for two way traffic!

And this is how ONE car looks on it!

We tried an imaginative route to get home that worked badly and wasted a lot of time but finally made it in time to stop at a local produce stand and the grocery for a few more items including some great veal chops that we had for dinner along with the focaccia and some roasted romanesco. Now we're fighting to keep our eyes open until a respectable deadline as the jet lag strikes again!.

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