Think of all the joy you’ll find …….. Update - January 06

[momof3princes]

The scenery is so beautiful! My boys would love that inflatable slide that was on that boat!
Your fried parcels looked like what we have here that we call Pierogie, the inside of those are potato and cheese though. We have a local company that makes ones with all kinds of fillings, cheese and broccoli, spinach and feta, sweet potato and more!

 

[perfectmatch300]

It has taken me a couple of days, but I'm caught up now - at least on this TR! I see that you and Tom have been busy! I was sorry to hear that you had to change your plans for this past summer, but your alternate plan was a very good one and I am enjoying reading about your adventures. I was also glad to hear that you were able to change your airfare and you will be able to come here in the spring for F&G, one of my favorite times in the Disney Parks. Now I will have to go catch up on your other TR's.

 

[Pinkocto]

Portofino is breathtaking! I love all the water shots. And the church is so lovely. I really like that candle idea, very neat. I'm afraid I would have had to go down to the beach. Depending on how hot it was of course.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow the scenery at Portofino is amazing , the church is so "light" , not like most English churches that are dreary looking in side . That breakfast at your hotel looked mighty tasty. Just loving all this travel you are sharing !!

Many Austrian churches are a bit dark on the inside, so we were surprised at how light that one was. It had such a "light" feeling to it, in every sense of the word.

Hotel was good. Given that it was included with the price for the hotel room we were both surprised how nice all of the hotel breakfasts were.

OK, know I haven't been around here for quite a while. I'll spare you the long story. I am here now, and I'm determined to catch up. I am way behind so I expect it will take me some time, but I will get there.

Welcome back!
I am very happy to see you here again. Hope everything is okay and your absense was not triggered by something very serious.
Take your time catching up on all my TRs. It took me quite some time to move forward - things have happened here as well.

Portofino is just gorgeous! I would agree about not climbing up/down those stairs to the beach!

Jill in CO

It is a really beautiful little town. Very touristy during the summer months, but still had that small town charm. I would not have minded climbing down those steps so much, it was climbing back up that made me shy away from it. Especially since it was such a hot and sunny day.

I have seen pictures of portifino before and it amazes my now well universal did their hotel. Again more amazing pictures. I am enjoying all your touring.

I was in awe at how well Universal did with it. And it is such a beautiful place - lots of tourists, but still had that certain charm.
Glad you enjoy - there is lots more to come.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Welcome back!
I am very happy to see you here again. Hope everything is okay and your absense was not triggered by something very serious.
Take your time catching up on all my TRs. It took me quite some time to move forward - things have happened here as well.

Thanks, I have missed being here. Part of my absence is due to the fact that we haven't been on, or plan to be on any Disney cruises in a while. We did sail on Independence of the Seas this past spring, and are sailing on Oasis of the Seas next year, so that is where my cruise fix is coming from. I was thrilled to see oasis moving to Port Canaveral, so much so that we hare sailing on her first cruise out of PC.

I also have been a bit distracted due to hip replacement surgery right after our Indy cruise this past spring. Both hips now work really well, I will find out next week when my surgeon wants to start on my knee replacements. Yes, I really am falling apart at the seams, but once the knees are done, Ill be the Bionic Woman and I'll be good to go.

I still don't do well with these not-so-new-anymore Disboards on my tablet, so now that I'm a bit more comfortable sitting here at my desktop, I will try to get back here more often.

 

[perfectmatch300]

OK, I finally feel like I'm back here now! Managed to update my signature and get a new cruise countdown timer!

Hate to tell you how long this took me!

 

[dizneeat]

The scenery is so beautiful! My boys would love that inflatable slide that was on that boat!

The scenery was stunning. We were really impressed how neat everything was as well.
And that slide was just unbelieveable. Must be fun to be able to stay on a ship in Portofino and be able to slide into the water.

Your fried parcels looked like what we have here that we call Pierogie, the inside of those are potato and cheese though. We have a local company that makes ones with all kinds of fillings, cheese and broccoli, spinach and feta, sweet potato and more!

Ah, we know Pierogies here. They are very common in Eastern Europe. They are yum yum.
The parcels we had, had a different kind of dough, but nevertheless they were really good.

It has taken me a couple of days, but I'm caught up now - at least on this TR!

Yeah! Great you were able to catch up here .....

was sorry to hear that you had to change your plans for this past summer, but your alternate plan was a very good one and I am enjoying reading about your adventures.

Well, there was no way around it. We just could not go to the US last summer and I was pretty sorry to let our cruises (both with discount) go, but it was what it was. Once we had made our mind up I started to explore what to do in Italy a little more, but only after school was out for the summer did I do some real research. I changed about everything on the vacation, but in the end I was so happy with how it turned out.

I was also glad to hear that you were able to change your airfare and you will be able to come here in the spring for F&G, one of my favorite times in the Disney Parks.

Now, losing that airfare was a huge concern. I could not believe that they didn't make more of a fuss and we are so lucky as we are now going for F&G! We had two half days of it last spring and we loved it. So a whole week, especially with staying at BCVs should be heaven, even if going during Easter week.

Portofino is breathtaking! I love all the water shots. And the church is so lovely. I really like that candle idea, very neat

It was so beautiful, just picture perfect and we have seen many church candles lighting ideas, but this one was really great.

I'm afraid I would have had to go down to the beach. Depending on how hot it was of course.

I guess I would have enjoyed going down as well, but with the heat and having to climb up again, it was a big no no.

 

[dizneeat]

Thanks, I have missed being here. Part of my absence is due to the fact that we haven't been on, or plan to be on any Disney cruises in a while.

Totally understandable! It takes a while to get over that initial "Disney Blues" when you don't have a cruise booked with them. Took me a while to get over the shock of not doing our back to backs and having to push our next cruise back until next summer.

I was thrilled to see oasis moving to Port Canaveral, so much so that we hare sailing on her first cruise out of PC.

That is awesome news. The Oasis is such a beautiful ship. Where are you going?

I also have been a bit distracted due to hip replacement surgery right after our Indy cruise this past spring. Both hips now work really well, I will find out next week when my surgeon wants to start on my knee replacements. Yes, I really am falling apart at the seams, but once the knees are done, Ill be the Bionic Woman and I'll be good to go.

Yikes, that sounds pretty major and painful. And a knee replacement as well.

I still don't do well with these not-so-new-anymore Disboards on my tablet, so now that I'm a bit more comfortable sitting here at my desktop, I will try to get back here more often.

It took all of a while to get used to it and find all those little shortcuts and "helps" again. Don't worry, you will be on top of things in no time.

OK, I finally feel like I'm back here now! Managed to update my signature and get a new cruise countdown timer!

Yeah, for a signature change and a new countdown timer. Don't worry about how far out it is, that's when we started to count down to our Panama Canal cruise and we only have 9 more months to go.

Hate to tell you how long this took me!

You did it! No one asks how long it took! And I bet, you were done within a few minutes.

 

[dizneeat]

7

Day 4, August 19

More than one beautiful view … Part 3

We actually had just wanted to go to Castello Brown, but we saw a signpost for a lighthouse and bar and decided to go there since the signpost said it was only 300 metres. Well, 300 metres it might have been, but it went up and down

and there were lots of stairs involved and it took us about 20 minutes to finally reach the lighthouse.

There we were rewarded with the most stunning views of the sea

and a

closed bar. You could even see parts of Santa Margherita where we stayed. We stopped for a while until we had taken in the amazing view and caught our breath again, before we slowly slowly walked back to Castle Brown.
We took our sweet time and stopped to look at some of the buildings along the way, smiling at the painted on windows on some. Finally we made it to the Castle, walked up to the entrance and paid for entrance and then set out to explore.

The castle sits on top of a hill and is surrounded by well kept up gardens. We walked around then inside the castle, which was really well preserved and you could go from room to room and some of the windows would even open to surprise you with wonderful views of Portofino and the sea.

To be continued ..........​

 

[dizneeat]

7

Day 4, August 19

More than one beautiful view … Part 4

We walked around then inside the castle, which was really well preserved and you could go from room to room and some of the windows would even open to surprise you with wonderful views of Portofino and the sea.

We then went out to the rose garden and over to a little stand overlooking Portofino again.

It is pretty hard to pull your eyes away from the view of the city, as it is truly beautiful.

We then walked up to the upper floor and explored the area,

then on the way down stopped to use the restroom and finally we were through and walked back down. And we were lucky we did, as when we left a lot of people were arriving at the castle and we had just experienced it empty and kind of to ourselves.
Soon we found ourselves walking past the church

we had visited earlier and it was swamped with tourists. We used the small road down to the town instead of the stairs and soon found ourselves on the town square.

To be continued ..........​

 

[dizneeat]

7

Day 4, August 19

More than one beautiful view … Part 5

We used the small road down to the town

instead of the stairs and soon found ourselves on the town square.

We explored a bit more, looked into some of the shops,

but we were thirsty and a bite to eat could not have hurt, so we were looking for a restaurant.
The ones that were open were pretty full, so we decided to just get a drink. There was a nice bar right at the sea’s edge and it offered seating in the shade,

so we walked up and got a seat towards the back of the outside seating. A woman handed us a menu and we decided to share a

bottle of still water to quench our thirst, and each one got a cocktail as well. Tom ordered a

Mojito, while I stuck with something I knew and liked, a

Pina Colada. When the waitress came out with the water, she also brought out a tray of

black olives, small Pretzel sticks, peanuts and chips. And while we then sipped our drinks we kept munching on the chips and stuff and when we had finished our drinks we had had a nice nibble meal as well. We finally paid our bill and walked out into the town as well.

And while we walked around we came across a second church and walked up to it as well.

There were the same beautiful mosaics made out of stones

as well and soon we found ourselves inside the beautifully decorated church.

They had real candles to light, so we went and bought four more to light. After checking out the church we were ready to head back to Santa Margherita, but while we walked towards the town square we saw the boat leaving.
Ups, remembered the departure time wrong.
So what are we going to do now. Well, I had not had any ice cream in Portofino yet, so we looked around for a Gelateria which had outdoor seating. We finally found one, but it was all empty. Thought about it for a moment, but then decided to just sit down and have a break.

We went through the menu and Tom decided to order an

espresso and a small mixed ice-cream,

Pistacchio and Lemon, while I got a

Diet Coke and a sundae, the

Paciugo, a traditional local speciality with vanilla ice-cream, strawberry sorbet, fresh raspberries and strawberries, Morello cherries and whipped cream. Sounded good, looked good and was delicious. And it took us just enough time to get ready in time for the next boat back to Santa Margherita.

To be continued ..........
​

 

[dizneeat]

7

Day 4, August 19

More than one beautiful view … Part 6

And it took us just enough time to get ready in time for the next boat back to Santa Margherita.
So we slowly strolled towards the pier and another boat was just leaving. We stayed back in the shade for a while and then walked up to the man who was in charge to ask if the next boat was ours and he told us it was and why not get right in line here as it would be here in just a matter of minutes. That was what we did. Soon, a line had formed behind us and it did not take much longer, the boat came in and lots of people got off and we were first in line to get on. Score. Needless to say we secured a great spot at the front of the ship

and had a great view on the way back to Santa Margherita.

Once back we headed for the hotel

for a little break and a shower. About an hour and a half later we were ready to brave the heat again. This time we wanted to check out the large church that was just at the beginning of the main shopping street,

which had been closed the day before. Now we were in luck, it was open and it again was another beautiful church.

We spent quite some time exploring it before we walked around the town

a bit in search of the “other” hotel that I had had booked before I had decided to change to the Lido Palace.

We had a bit of trouble finding it, but finally did and it looked nice enough but were happy to have changed as this one did not offer AC. Next stop was a speciality shop where we found the Portofino Lemonade I had had and had so enjoyed the day before. We picked up four bottles to take home as a souvenir and then strolled around a little more. By then we were ready to have dinner, but as it turned out, all the restaurants only opened at 6.30pm and we still had 45 minutes to kill. So we took our shopping back to our hotel, took another little break and then shortly before 6.15 we headed out again.


To be continued ..........​

 

[dizneeat]

7

Day 4, August 19

More than one beautiful view … Part 7

So we took our shopping back to our hotel, took another little break and then shortly before 6.15 we headed out again.
We wanted to try a pizza place opposite the restaurant we had had dinner the night before, but they still looked closed while Angolo 48,

where we had had dinner the night before was already preparing tables. Why not ask if they had a table for two.
And low and behold they did and we were seated immediately,

which resulted in a lot more people asking for tables.
We ordered our drinks and started studying the menu and soon our drinks,

a bottle of still water, another local tap beer for Tom and the Portofino Lemonade for myself and a basket full of wonderful, freshly baked cubes of

Focaccia were put on the table. And after asking a few questions about the menu we placed our order and waited for our yummy dinner. Tom had ordered the

Caprese Salad, slices of fresh tomatoes, topped with a whole Buffalo Mozzarella and some Basil leaves. The server brought out some salt and pepper and some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress it. I had asked about the

Aranzini and decided to only order one as the server had mentioned they were pretty big and she was right – it was the size of my fist and super yummy. For our main course we both had ordered Gnocci, Tom had the ordered some that came in a

mildly spiced curry sauce with king prawns. I was less adventurous and ordered

Gnocci with Gorgonzola Sauce and radicchio. I was both pretty happy to only have had one Aranzini, when our mains were brought out, as the portion was pretty big. And both of them were delicious. Needless to say that we cleaned our plates. I had my heart set on dessert that night, so even though I was already pretty full I just wanted to try one.
Tom just decided on having an

Espresso and a

digestive, which was a liqueur made from olives. It sounded interesting enough and he absolutely loved it. My heart was set on trying the

Tiramisu, which was out of this world tasty, but pretty filling and I only got through half of it. After dinner we slowly strolled through the little village again,

before making our way back to the hotel. When we got back the sun started to set and we had an awesome view of the sunset from our hotel room. Since we were moving on the next day I started packing and Tom tried some of his new

Italian beers while I did so. Later we watched a little TV and after a last peek out the window to see the lovely lit village we called it a day at around 11pm.



To be continued ..........​

 

[jedijill]

What a lovely day! The views from the castle were beautiful. You dinner looked pretty tasty too!

Jill in CO

 

[Flossbolna]

You really make me want to plan a trip to Italy now!! It all looks so wonderful - especially the food!

 

[Pinkocto]

Too many gorgeous things to comment on but I'm going to try and remember.

I loved the trees on the side of the hill, they were very cool.

The views from the lighthouse were gorgeous!

The castle looked very quaint and how fabulous to practically have the place to yourselves.

The churches were gorgeous, we don't have many churches like that in the U.S. so it's always a treat to see all that detail.

Dinner looked fantastic!

Oh, and that one yacht dwarfed all the other boats

 

[Leshaface]

which left both of us a bit clueless. But soon the server was at hand to explain. You order what kind of beef you want and how much and the burger is prepared to order. Every burger comes with a bun, bacon, cheese, tomato, lettuce, onions and thick cut fries and you put it together the way you want. They also put four small pots of sauces on the table and you can experiment which and how much of any you want on your burger. So we both ordered our burger and

What a neat concept!

I just now noticed that your Diet Coke says Light on it, how funny!

Gorgeous view!

OH dang, that looks yummy.

Then we packed up the rest of our stuff, checked the room for forgotten items and finally rolled our luggage to the elevator and went down to the front desk. We checked out and I settled the bill and while he explained it to me, I added up our bill and they had missed the wine and water from the dinner the day before.
The front desk clerk went to the back room, then came back and told us that the wine and water would be on the house as they did not have the order slip. Well, thank you very much again.

I love how honest you guys were. Even better that they didn't have you guys pay for the items!

That is very cool!

Fantastic view!

and another window which opened up into a typical Italian street with laundry hanging out.

Yep, that is exactly what I would expect to see!

ravioli filled with herbed cream cheese and served in a walnut sauce. It was one of the house specialities and it was melt in your mouth good.

This sounds amazing.

Wow the views are incredible.

That looks like fun!

That one yacht in the back is MASSIVE!

as we always do for the family members that have already left us and these candles were special. You paid for the candle and it was an “electric” 24 hour candle. When you put it in the holder it would start to glow for the next 24 hours. Never seen it that way before but what a neat idea, no pollution and no waste.

That is a very great idea.

Wow this is a very different cemetery. It's pretty neat!

Beautiful!

Perfect snack!

This church is amazing.

But so is this one! Geez, I love how gorgeous all the church's are in Italy.

Ugh!

Double ugh! That looks fantastic.

This glass makes me super nervous

Yes! I love me a good tiramisu and what better place to get it!

 

[jenseib]

Wow! It's just beautiful there! And the views from the castle are amazing.
Dinner looked yummy and I am now wanting an afternoon snack!

 

[momof3princes]

The views are beautiful! Some of those "boats" are huge! Your dinner looked delicious!!

 

[perfectmatch300]

Portofino looks beautiful! All the hillls are a bit intimidating to my bad knees, though.

Strangely enough, I am not a big fan of tiramisu, but that tiramisu you had for dessert looked really good!