Republic Day

Today was a Public Holiday in Italy to celebrate becoming a Republic in 1946...and the sun was shining!

Expecting the boats still not to be operating due to the rough seas, we set off this morning to do what we didn't do yesterday...visit the other Cinque Terre towns by train. However as we walked to the station we noticed a board out for the boats and the next departure was soon. A quick change of plans we thought, and we were off to catch a boat...but there was one problem. The seas were still quite rough and the boats were not calling in the Cinque Terre other than at Monterosso...they would be bypassing all the towns and calling at Portovenere...a town further south.

We had been told that Portovenere was worth visiting but other than by boat, you needed to catch a bus from La Spezia to get there. Needing to make a quick decision, we chose the boat as we would get to see Cinque Terre from the water and visit Portovenere as well. As it turned out, it was a good choice. Even though it was too rough to dock at each town, we were taken in close up to each harbour so we got to see the towns from the water. 

It was a lovely sunny day in Portovenere and we enjoyed wandering around.  It was very busy as you would expect for a Public Holiday...but it seemed to be mostly locals from La Spezia and other independent tourists like ourselves. Our wanderings took us to a couple of churches, the Grotta Di Byron and to the Castello Doria on the top of the hill overlooking the town.

When we set out we had been undecided about whether to return by boat or catch the bus into La Spezia so we could return by train and visit some of the Cinque Terre towns along the way. As it turned out, we had spent most of the day in Portovenere so we quietly took a boat straight back to Monterosso to end our visit to the Cinque Terre.