Walking to Rapallo

 Tuesday  

20 August 

Day 51

45 to go

The apartment was surprisingly quiet given the location on the water front and above the restaurant strip. The only noise we had, was the coming and going of the neighbours in the early hours. 

We were awake by 8am, I remained in bed being lazy while Paul got up and into it. By 830am, I was up to. We threw open the shutters to a new day, enjoyed breakfast with a view and thought about the day ahead. We were going to do a trip to Rapallo, another town on the coast between Portifino and Levanto. 

We were ready to head by 9.45am. Our first mission was to walk up to the church and retrace some of last night’s steps, as I was unable to find my waterproof camera cover this morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t come across it. 

We returned to the centre and then the bus stop, catching the 10.15am bus to Santa Margherita. This will be the same one we catch on Thursday, when we head to Genoa. We followed the curves  of the road, watching the pedestrians do the walk and figured we could do the same tomorrow. 

Once reaching the main centre of Santa Margherita, we alighted the bus and proceeded to walk. There is an 8km path, which was known as the red carpet walk because they laid red carpet for the whole stretch  when it was complete. The path runs between Portofino and Rapallo. Today we would complete half of it. 

The walk was surprisingly easy, it is flat for most of the journey and the hills are only slight. We admired the various beaches, the beach clubs, the castles and the fancy cars that all appeared during our walk. 

We reached Rapallo by 11.45m beginning our explore of the large centre. We walked to the Rapallo castle which sits on the beach and then moved amongst the bright terracotta coloured buildings. 

We found a bakery for a focaccia snack and then went in search of a supermarket, so we could stock up on essentials at a more reasonable price. Paul was laden with a full backpack afterwards. 

We continued our wander, stopping for an aperol spritz and beer at a small bar. We enjoyed the cool breeze funnelling up the street in front of us. It was pleasant just sitting and people watching. We then went in search of a more substantial lunch, finding a cafe selling squid and salad. Perfect. 

We returned to the front, locating the ticket office for the ferry and buying a ticket to Portofino for 11 Euro each. It wasn’t scheduled to depart until 3pm, so we had plenty of time to continue to explore the beyond the castle and to another headland. There were no shortage of tourists in the water, but it looked a little green in places.

We made our return, stopping for a more reasonably priced gelato and then joined the queue for the ferry, finding a space on board in the shade. The ferry took 30 minutes to return to Portofino, stopping at Santa Margherita along the way. Being on the water, gave a great view and different perspective to what we had already seen. 

Once docked, we made our way through the crowds to our room, unpacked our shopping and relaxed for a few hours. It had been a fabulous way to spend the day. 

At 5.30pm, we decided to back track to the lighthouse again, in the hope of finding my camera cover. We made the trek up and down stairs, scanning everywhere, but it was not to be found. When we reached the lighthouse, we opted to go down to the piazza and take in the view and have a drink along with a delicious selection of bites. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as expensive as we thought. 

When we were finished we began the walk back, just as the sun was sending its yellow glow across the landscape. It was very pretty. Back at the apartment again and Paul put together a delicious pasta for dinner and then we enjoyed watching the world go by from our window.