Eurotrip2011: Day 49

Rome - Borgio Verezzi

After farewelling our Swedish travel companions, my beloved and set off towards Rome Termini station to commence our five hour journey from Rome to Genoa. We arrived at the car hire company in Genoa at around 1:30pm and noticed that they were closed until 2:30pm. Fortunately, there was a friendly and cheap restaurant next door, where we spent an hour devouring lunch. One of the waiters took particular interest in my beloved and I, telling us that his dream was to one day visit Australia. He took it upon himself to explain all of the Italian desserts on offer in great detail - a very sweet touch!

After a very filling midday meal, we headed next door to pick up what we thought would be a small vehicle. The owners apologised profusely that none of the smaller cars were available and instead offered us this shiny, black beast:

Needless to say, my beloved was on cloud nine!

We drove the easy one hour coastal route to Borgio Verezzi and very much enjoyed the view. The drive up the windy, mountainside to reach our accommodation (the holiday house of some very dear friends) was gut-wrenching to say the least..but the view was well worth it, don't you think?

Our neighbours were a elderly Italian couple, who spoke no English. The wife was, however, able to converse fluently in French and was more than happy to allow me to practise my language skills with her during our three night stay. She suggested that we head down to the coast to explore the beaches and purchase some "survival rations".

We heeded her advice and first visited the beach below. Sadly, this is a pebble beach and was far more polluted than its Australian counterparts. My beloved ventured into the water, but remained immersed for only a couple of minutes, citing floating rubbish as the reason for his quick return to shore. This did not seem to deter the many other tourists in the water....each to their own.

After our brief stint on the beach, we headed to the centre of the small town and found a delightful pasticceria that was full of locally made delicacies - fresh pasta, cakes, breads, organic fruit and veg and even a bottle or two of wine. We purchased fettuccine, tomato/basil sauce, salad, olive panini, cake and wine (all made/grown within 50km of the shop) and finally enjoyed some "home cooking"(or at least it felt that way!) on the spectacular terrace - bliss!