After a night in Porto Venere we had planned to head off to Viareggio, but again a bad weather forecast interrupted our plans and we decided instead to nose further into the sheltered waters of the Gulf and visit La Spezia itself.   We found a berth at the marina in the middle of town in front of a wide palm fringed boulevard.   The town is nothing special, it’s the home of the Italian Navy and as a consequence was bombed flat during the Second World War, but Sue and I both really fell for the place.   The Gulf itself is very wooded and attractive with small hillside villages and pretty little ports and there are good views of it from parts of the town.   It’s also good for day sailing as the Gulf is wide but very sheltered with lots of interesting places to visit.   The town has excellent shops and a market and is a very relaxing place to simply stroll or sit at a cafe table and watch the world go by.   There was only one disappointment – the Italian Nav...

Indifferent weather and fatigue kept us at Lavagna for four days.   We finally got an OK weather forecast on Sunday 20 th October and headed off in the general direction of La Spezia, about twenty five miles away.   The wind was on the nose yet again but we had bright sunny weather and moderate seas.   The coast to La Spezia is very rocky and much of it is the land of the Cinque Terre, a group of isolated coastal villages, some perched spectacularly around small natural harbours.   La Spezia itself lies at the bottom of a large gulf, a bit like two outstretched arms.   The last four or five miles of the rocky coastline we travelled that day is actually the outside of one of the arms.   About where the wrist would be our charts and pilot book showed a narrow channel about one hundred metres wide and less than three metres deep in places, by a small village called Porto Venere, which leads directly into the Gulf of La Spezia, thus avoidin...

When I last wrote we were in Genova.   In the end we stayed four days, despite the cost of mooring there.   Generally, Sue and I tend to like the same places, but over Genova we disagreed – I loved it and Sue didn’t.   Genova is an ancient port (the hometown of Columbus) and the docks are physically and spiritually at the centre of the City.   These days it has become a major stop on the itinerary of the Med cruise ships and at any one time there are several, each the size of a small Council estate, tied up in the docks, with at least one or two entering or leaving daily.   Over the last decade the City has had a major clean up and the docks are becoming more sanitised, with a new Aquarium, marinas and the inevitable warehouses converted into flats and shops, not to mention the pirate’s galley from “Hook”.   Like Glasgow, Genova has also hitched its wagon to the European Community heritage gravy train and is to be European City of Cultu...

It’s a bright sunny day here in Porto Antico, the Genovese St Katherine’s Dock and I must say I’m finding it hard to get my head round the extremes of Med weather, two days ago in Finale Ligure it was like a wet weekend in Bolton, dark cold and depressing, now we have sunshine which if this were July in England would have the cars bumper to bumper all the way to the South Coast.   Even today you can take your pick and go out in boots and an overcoat or shorts and flip flops, depending on which side of the streets you decide to walk.   Still, I mustn’t complain, this City is rather delightful.   Here in the marina we’re surrounded by smart yachts, cargo ships, cruise liners and most improbably the very baroque pirate’s galleon built for the film “Hook”.   We arrived yesterday and can probably afford to stay only another night or two as the mooring fees take up half our daily budget.   But, heck – who needs food anyway.   The port is amazi...

Now that we are well and truly travelling “in” our chosen cruising ground there is a constant tension between travelling to the next place and enjoying the place you are in.   Also, although we have set aside months or even years to travel in this way, one cannot go everywhere.   After five days in Juan les Pins we therefore decided to move on and although Nice, Menton and Monaco were all just up the coast, we felt that Italy was now called for.   So on Monday 7 th October we set off for San Remo, with the weather still holding good.   Again letting the autohelm do most of the work we watched the last of the French Riviera and Monaco slip by in warm sunshine, arriving in San Remo in mid-afternoon in the wake of a big British super yacht.   Just to be on the safe side Sue had telephoned the marina in advance, having prepared the appropriate Italian phrases, this wasn’t necessary and she was advised in impeccable English that “yes, we do have...