Italian Memories Part 2: Portofino and Porsches!

Once leaving Cinque Terre, we headed slightly north along the Liguarian Sea to the yachting town of Portofino. While geographically it was not too far, or different in appearance, it was like entering another world...Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!

We are neither of those, but part of the anniversary surprise was a tour, put on by Porsche, where basically you drive all around the beautiful Italian countryside- mountains, sea, wineries- and break regularly to eat 4 course gourmet meals. I am talking dessert with breakfast. This was serious spoilage! I was glad that they only weighed my luggage at the airport on return...imagine if they made the passengers do a before and after weigh-in on a holiday??

Anyways, all I can say is- DECADENT. We stayed at a place called the Hotel Splendido, which was so gorgeous, and we had our own private courtyard with a view like this: The cars of course were the highlight for my hubby...do you think he looks happy??Did I drive? Why yes, I did...about 5 minutes into "my turn", I was nearly run off the edge of one of the skinny mountain roads by a tour bus, causing lots of drama and a big old traffic jam. Learned some fun Italian hand gestures! Luckily, no damage done (you-break-it-you-buy-it becomes expensive in regards to a sports car), a very handsome Italian taxi driver helped rescue me and the car off the hill, and all is well that ends well, right? Sorry, no photo ops of that adventure!The great thing about the driving tour is that we got to see so many country landscapes not visible by train, like these:

And did I mention...4 course meals? Three times a day? And some of those courses had 2 plates each? How will I ever readjust to simple toast and tea for breakfast again???

Thanks so much to our tour guide, Sabine, and to the great people that we met on this tour! It was amazing!