We thought we would try to make an early start today. The plan was to go to Finale Ligure,
about 24 miles away and going towards Genoa. The forecast was for no wind, but we put the main up just in
case. But there was no case. The wind never got up to more than 4
knots. The sea was glassy. But the weather was a bit
disappointing. It was quite cool
and overcast. For most of the
morning I needed a long-sleeved top and even then I wasn’t overly warm.
As we approached our destination we were going so well we decided to
just carry on. The next place we
were recommended to is Savona. I
knew nothing about the place, but the books and a German couple we met said it
was well worth a visit. So we
decided to go. The only problem
was that we could not get through to the port on the telephone. Each of our books gave a different
telephone number for the harbour office and none worked. The most recent book’s number just had
a man who kept saying ‘Pronto”- Hello.
Richard decided to go for it anyway on the basis that this is not high
season.
We approached the harbour and it did not look very inspiring. On reading the pilot book I find that
this is the 5th largest commercial port in Italy. We also can still not make any contact
with the port. We are near enough
to call them on the VHF and although I am certain I have the right channel I
can get no reply.
The entrance to the old port, the place we want to go, is through a
lifting bridge that opens every half hour. As we approach the bridge, about 15 minutes before it was
due to open we see a number of other boats all waiting for the bridge. I still cannot get hold of the harbour
office to see if they have a berth.
I then have a brain wave. I
shout to one of the boats next to us waiting to go through the bridge and find
someone on it who can speak some English.
I ask how we get in touch with the harbour to secure a berth. He tells me I have been calling on the
right channel and when I say I can get no reply, he telephones them for us and
confirms that they will have a place for us. The Italians are really charming.
Finally the bridge starts to open and a man from the harbour gestures to
us to call him up on the VHF, which I do.
At first he seems to say he does not have space, but after I tell him
about the phone call he confirms there is a berth and directs us to it. He is there as we come in and takes our
lines, gives us two lines for the forward chains and connects our
electricity. Again no one could be
more charming.
We can now see why this harbour has been recommended. It is right near the centre of the old
town. It is charming in itself and
has all the facilities you could want.
The shower block is just at the end of our pontoon. So we seem well settled in. We even celebrate with a cocktail at
one of the numerous portside cafes.
I could have made dinner on board, but we decide to go out. We try to look up restaurants in the
Michelin guide but can only find one that would be suitable and is in this part
of town. So we decide to go and look
for it and sus out the town a bit.
The old town has a lot of cute streets and many old churches. We also find that we have just missed a
huge Sunday market which appears to have been selling everything from food to
clothes and to antiques. But they
are all packing up as we get there.
We do finally find the restaurant only to discover that it seems to have
gone out of business! So we go
back to the area around the port where there are lots of restaurants. All are really touristy, but we chose a
fish place right on the harbour front.
The food is OK, but nothing special, but it is nice being out.
We find there is a nice little supermarket right at the end of the
marina, which will be useful and note that there are fishing boats at the end
of the port that seem to sell off the quay. Maybe we can buy some fresh fish tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment