Riviera… Italian style

Riviera… Italian style

Chiavari, Italy, Europe

For our first full day in Italy, we saw A LOT! We started out by taking the metro into the center of Milan from our hotel. It was only meant to take 20 minutes, but considering we took the first metro going the wrong direction and had to turn around and go back, it ended up taking a bit longer, but not bad. It was definitely worth it when we walked out of the metro to the stunning Duomo of Milan. It is easily one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen. The pictures can’t even begin to describe the size and detail in this architectural feat. We walked around the city for about an hour, walked through the grounds of a castle and had a look at some shops before heading back to the hotel to hit the road again.

We started our journey toward Portofino, which was an hour and a half away. The highway driving for the first 45 minutes was very easy for Ryan, who is still trying to get used to driving a standard, on these tiny Italian roads, with these CRAZY Italian drivers! The last 45 minutes consisted of winding roads going up and down the hills on the coast of the Italian Riviera. Most of these roads looked like they should be single lanes or one-way roads, but then a bus would come around the corner and you had to find a way to get out of his way.

We eventually made it down to Portofino and it was well worth that harrowing journey. Easy for me to say, I wasn’t driving! Portofino is one of the most picturesque villages I’ve ever seen. We walked around for a couple hours, up into the hills to get a view from above. We grabbed some lunch down in the village and then decided to make our way to our hotel in Chiavari, which of course required us to back-track up the deadly road again. It seemed like Ryan was getting more used to driving in these conditions and the return journey proved much easier.

The town of Chiavari seemed like a great place for us to stay a night in the Riviera. A small town, right on the coast and loads of little restaurants. It wasn’t until later on that we realised we ended up in the Italian Riviera’s retirement community! We had a walk down the boardwalk to see what was happening on the beach, and then grabbed some dinner. The average age in this town must be 74, so it didn’t offer much of a night life for us. We decided to call it a night after dinner and we will try the beach again tomorrow. Maybe the younger crowd are only out earlier in the day…we hope!

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