Finally Moving Again! Edition 2022

[BandB]

Wifey B: Scott knows his cities, marinas, and his food.

And for those less familiar, notice med mooring here.

 

[ScottC]

Anchored off of Vernazza.
Vernazza is one of the "Cinque Terre" (five lands). They are five towns established ages ago (11th c) in the cliffs and crags. Until recently, the only way to travel between these towns was by boat or on foot. Now there is a train. A few of these towns have harbors, but they are too small for most pleasure boats. They accommodate only the smallest of fishing boats. Furthermore, the entire Cinque Terre area is a national park -- so lots of rules about what you can and can't do -- with emphasis on "can't".


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[Peter B]

Great pics Scott. 'course you're killing me with envy of you being over there amongst all that, and the associated history of those places.

 

[BruceK]

I thought pic1 post27 was of a urinal! Stayed in Levanto in/near the Cinque Terra years ago, way less touristy than the Amalfi coast, more for Italian tourists. There was a train back then. Captivating region!

 

[ScottC]

I thought pic1 post27 was of a urinal! Stayed in Levanto in/near the Cinque Terra years ago, way less touristy than the Amalfi coast, more for Italian tourists. There was a train back then. Captivating region!

I'm afraid the area is more touristy now. About 20 years ago, we visited all of Cinque Terre for a week. Flew to Genova, took the train to Manarola, which is sort of in the middle. Then, every day we WALKED to one of the other towns to visit. Yes, there are nice paths, but still, most of the walk was VERY UP & DOWN.



Now, I recognize many of the names as Nespresso capsule coffee types ;-)

 

[ScottC]

Now in Portovenere. Very nice port & town. Very nice weather too!
Panorama-mode picture distorts a bit...

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[BandB]

Wifey B: Perspective is so funny. In Buffalo, an old home building was built in 1890's to 1920's. In NC, 1930's. In TX, 1960's, in Arizona, 1970's.

But then you travel Europe and it's 1800's and occasionally even 1700's. Then some older. A reminder how young the US really is as a nation.

 

[ScottC]

Portovenere

Love Portovenere & its marina! Some more pictures:

1. Burrata (a soft cheese), tomatoes, anchovies, capers, olives & basil with focaccia. A subtle, but complex set of flavors. It tasted as good as it looks!
2. A view of the Med.
3. Another view of the Med.
4. We’re starting to notice that cemeteries seem to enjoy some of the best coastal views.
5. A view of Isola di Palmaria from the fort in Portovenere. Also in the photo is the church of St. Lorenzo. Dates from 1130.
6. A View of Portovenere from the fort on the hill. We are the tiny boat with the solar panels in the middle of the far-right side of the picture.
7. A view of the church of St. Pietro from the fort on the hill. Dates from 1198.

We have yet to offload and use your bicycles, as it seems everything is "up" and not very bicycle friendly.



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[Peter B]

Wifey B: Perspective is so funny. In Buffalo, an old home building was built in 1890's to 1920's. In NC, 1930's. In TX, 1960's, in Arizona, 1970's.

But then you travel Europe and it's 1800's and occasionally even 1700's. Then some older. A reminder how young the US really is as a nation.

So true, but even more-so if you come to Aus or NZ..!

 

[BandB]

So true, but even more-so if you come to Aus or NZ..!

Long ago I did a business trip to Sydney, but we do hope to come boat in both Australia and New Zealand one day. Either charter or ship a boat to the area. We are lovers of the countries and often feel close to Australians in attitude and lifestyle.

 

[ScottC]

Lerici

1) Lerici harbor in its entirety. Focus is mostly on sailing.
2) Lerici harbor. We were the only guests this week. Not so busy this early in the season! Erixx Sailing Club agreed to let us stay, even though we left our sails at home…
3) Night view of the fort at Lerici from our boat at Erixx Sailing Club. Fort dates from 1152.
4&5) Small car for parking-challenged towns
6&7) Museum exhibit inside the fort contained various fish sculptures. This one, I found unusual, as the fish “bones” are actually piano components.


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[farniente]

Nice ScottC, do you plan to come in Corsica ?

 

[backinblue]

The picture below was taken on our drive from Sweden to France in order to meet up with our boat. Specifically the location was Germany. From a timeline perspective, it should have been the start of this thread. I could not bring myself to start this thread with this topic, however. But it does deserve comment -- so here it is. My, oh my. What has our world come to when a urinal requires a reboot!?!???
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Even worse, it's a racist urinal to boot!

 

[Peter B]

Long ago I did a business trip to Sydney, but we do hope to come boat in both Australia and New Zealand one day. Either charter or ship a boat to the area. We are lovers of the countries and often feel close to Australians in attitude and lifestyle.

Scott, please excuse tiny wee thread hijack.

Brett, I have often thought the definition of heaven for a keen boater who loved to see the world would be to have, say a Nordhavn, or similarly seaworthy vessel downunder, and to do the whole coasts of Aus and NZ, and especially spend some time at Stewart Island, the often 'forgotten' third island of NZ, which is still a veritable paradise. Some might well call it NZ's best kept secret. I've gotta get back there one day..!

 

[ScottC]

Nice ScottC, do you plan to come in Corsica ?

We plan to be in Bastia - Port Toga 23-29 May. Expect we will rent a car and drive around the island for a few days, using our boat in Port Toga as a base.

 

[farniente]

Ok, if you sail on the west coast, perhaps you'll see us !

 

[ScottC]

Viareggio

Viareggio is a large, fairly modern marina at a beach resort location with some stunning early 20th century beach-resort architecture. Deco.

Viareggio is also the home to a number of well-known super yacht builders, including Benetti.

1)A portion of the Benetti Yacht Yard

2&3) Gorgeous! A vintage Riva refit in progress at the Benetti docks (don’t know if it’s actually Benetti doing the work, however). Saw work in progress even when walking by at 10pm on a Sunday. They must be behind schedule…

4&5) Oops! Departing Viareggio, we saw this large yacht, along with some sort of assist or salvage vessel. Apparently it had run aground on one of the infamous shifting sandbars. My current Navionics chart indicated ~15 meters depth where this yacht was aground, but also indicated risk of varying depths due to sand bar changes. Moral? Go slow in such situations. He clearly didn’t. The salvage/assist vessel was spinning the yacht around, trying to work it free. Hmmm…I hope there were no stabilizing fins protruding from the hull! An interesting side point is that all the windows were covered with plywood or something similar. My guess is that this was in case a storm arose before tow/salvage operations were complete, but I really have no idea…

6) Rosemary growing outside the marina office. Rosemary grows wild and in abundance. The plants can become very large. We've even seen hedgerows 3-4 feet tall of rosemary!



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[ScottC]

Ok, if you sail on the west coast, perhaps you'll see us !

Hi Olivier, we did manage to get to Ajaccio on one of our driving tour days. Our driving tour of the island was not so well planned. As such, we ended up in Ajaccio at 21:00 having to eat a quick dinner, a quick walk around the historic portion of the port, followed by a 3-hour drive back to Bastia. Got back to Bastia in the middle of the night. On the plus side there were not many people driving over the mountain roads at that hour of the night.

Ajaccio port area is stunning. Before arriving in Ajaccio, I thought we would walk around a few docks and find a nice CHB34 trawler! Upon arrival, we discovered how simply HUGE the port area is.

Corsica is certainly a beautiful Island, but given the distances, traffic and terrain, one cannot go anywhere "fast" by car (unless driving like a Corsican). If I were to plan a trip here again, I would make the following change in strategy: Increase time in Corsica from 8 days to 2 weeks. Tour around the island on our boat, instead of by rental car. It's a lot of work and tedious to try to tour the entire island by car. I think touring the sights with our boat would be much more relaxing. Maybe a rental car for one day to take a drive into the mountains.

 

[farniente]

Yes, it's a good way to visist with a boat, most of the beautiful places are not reachable by road (luckly).
Another way is the trail bike tour, lot of trails to reach the old genoveses towers, but you must be a good enduro driver....
Your right, the drivers are crazy, and the ate a lot of animals on the roads.
So sad, I was at ancorage at the south ou the bay ! (Cacalu)
See you next time !

 

[BandB]

Viareggio is a large, fairly modern marina at a beach resort location with some stunning early 20th century beach-resort architecture. Deco.

Viareggio is also the home to a number of well-known super yacht builders, including Benetti.

We loved Viareggio and all the nearby area. In addition to Benetti, builders there include Sanlorenzo, Mangusta, and Fipa (with Maiora and AB and CBI-Navi), plus large yards like Francesco Del Carlo and Codecasa and that's just the ones I remember. We were there once in early 2020 and four times last year. Took delivery there.

 

[ScottC]

Finally getting around to posting some pictures of Pisa, even though it might seem to be a bit of a touristy cliché.
We first saw Pisa in the early 90’s, but it was on a grey day during the winter. Now, after many years of tourist-oriented improvements and fine weather, we decided to visit again.
Truly awesome architecture and very interesting stories behind preserving it over the centuries. One can climb the tower again!


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[ScottC]

We loved Viareggio and all the nearby area. In addition to Benetti, builders there include Sanlorenzo, Mangusta, and Fipa (with Maiora and AB and CBI-Navi), plus large yards like Francesco Del Carlo and Codecasa and that's just the ones I remember. We were there once in early 2020 and four times last year. Took delivery there.

We actually spent the first couple of nights wandering around the "wrong" side of town. Local and a bit "gritty". We dined on local dishes at astonishingly cheap prices. We only realized how cheap when we discovered the "right" side of town a bit later, where it cost twice as much to dine on far less interesting and far less tasty dishes. We liked the fact that on the "wrong" side of town, decent tasting table wine often cost less than, for example a Coca Cola !!! Not much more expensive than diesel...

 

[backinblue]

We actually spent the first couple of nights wandering around the "wrong" side of town. Local and a bit "gritty". We dined on local dishes at astonishingly cheap prices. We only realized how cheap when we discovered the "right" side of town a bit later, where it cost twice as much to dine on far less interesting and far less tasty dishes. We liked the fact that on the "wrong" side of town, decent tasting table wine often cost less than, for example a Coca Cola !!! Not much more expensive than diesel...

Sounds like you need to change your definitions of "wrong" and "right" to me!

 

[ScottC]

Marina di Grosseto

Seen -- and eaten -- in Marina di Grosseto.
Proscuitto crudo e mozzarella di bufala.
So simple. So tasty!

 

[ScottC]

Byob

Bring your own bottle!

Saw this device at the local supermarket in Marina di Grosseto.
€1.99/liter, filling your own bottles with table wine. It could very well be ok, but I have not tried (yet?)...


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[koliver]

Bring your own bottle!

Saw this device at the local supermarket in Marina di Grosseto.
€1.99/liter, filling your own bottles with table wine. It could very well be ok, but I have not tried (yet?)...


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Recently, pre-Covid, when in one of those small seaside towns near the Civitavecchia Airport we came across the same offering in the grocery store, but alas, like you, we weren't brave and bought a much more expensive (maybe €5) wine that was disappointing.
I hope you are brave and will report back.

 

[Peter B]

Scott, it looks like you are having a great time cruising in those beautiful places. It makes me a bit envious - envious, not jealous. Enjoy..! That tower does indeed, lean, doesn't it..? Quite a bit in fact. Loving those photos..!

 

[ScottC]

Scott, it looks like you are having a great time cruising in those beautiful places. It makes me a bit envious - envious, not jealous. Enjoy..! That tower does indeed, lean, doesn't it..? Quite a bit in fact. Loving those photos..!

Indeed, it does lean quite a bit. Not just an optical illusion.

They spent many years on a slow process to stop the leaning without "breaking" it. It was successful. The lean was even reversed a bit.


You can climb up to the top and when descending the steps, at certain points you are putting your foot on the next step "down", but you are almost going "up". Really weird.

 

[ScottC]

Isola di Capraia

Isola di Capraia (NB - NOT Capri!)

We stopped for a few nights at the island of Capraia on our way to Corsica.
A very pleasant place with an active harbor, nice restaurants and a lot of nature.
The bastion tower in the last picture below was built in the 1500’s. Today, it is the town library!
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[klee wyck]

Really appreciate you sharing this thread. The Ligurian Coast is on my bucket list.