Landed in Genoa from Rome. My suitcase didn’t \240make it :(

Checked into the Marina Place hotel. Had a wonderful view of the marina and all the luxury Yachts

Spent the afternoon touring the marina and checking out the boats. Had lunch (awesome pizza) on the patio.

Had an afternoon nap and tried to climatize to the 6 hour time change

Went back to the same restaurant for dinner.

Checked out of the MarinaPlace hotel. Walked the Marina for a couple hours and then took a cab to our AirBnB.

Checked in our AirBnB. Great place with an awesome view.

Found a grocery store near by and stocked up on some initial supplies

Headed out to explore the area. Took an outdoor elevator down into the main city area (very cool). Toured around old Genoa and checked out the local sites.

Found a nice little outdoor area (Piazza Lavagna) and had a nice dinner at Osteria Contemporanea.

Walked back to the AirBnB and took the wrong route and ended up walking up hill all the way instead of taking the elevator :(

Woke up to a rainy day. My suitcase arrived (WooHoo)

Just spent the day inside watching TV (raining all day)

Just waiting for Megan, Michael, Andrew and their Mom to arrive.

The rest of the gang arrived in the afternoon and unpacked and settled in. Showed us all the pictures from their cruise. Looked like they had an awesome time

Went for dinner at a local restaurant (La Barcaccia) had rabbit ravioli for dinner and then walked over to Don Paola for some gelato:)

Stopped at the grocery store on the way home and grabbed some groceries.

Spent the rest of the night planning our excursions for the next couple days.

Had an Awesome day. Took the train to Santa Margherita Ligure and then the ferry to Portafino.

Spent the day exploring Portofino. Had a drink with a snack and then a bowl of fresh raspberries and strawberries with ice cream. Then had a late lunch of pizza and drinks.

Took a cab along the cost back to Santa Margherita and then back to Genoa on the train.

We all had a rest and got cleaned up and then went to Trattoria Rosmarino for a kick ass dinner.

Took the elevator back to our AirBnB and relaxed and watched Luca :)

Had another fantastic day.

Took the train to Milan… very cool place. Took the Hope on-Hope off bus and got to see lots of the city.

Got off at the Duomo and toured around some of the shops. Stop for a drink and awesome lunch.

Got back on the bus and headed to the canal district. Very cool area. Long canel lines with bars and restaurants on both sides.

Put a lock on the bridge (TM+AC) xoxo and threw the keys away :)

Stop at one of the bars and had a drink (lemon cello spritz) and some snacks :).

Took and Uber back to the train and headed back home. Got back late, but still had time to grab a gelato and then we stopped in the store and grab some pizzas and salami for a late night snack :)

It was another long day, but a great day. weather was awesome, sunny and humid.

We took the train from Genoa to Santa Margherita with the plan to catch the ferry to Cinque Terre, but unfortunately we missed it :(. So we took the train, instead.

We got off in Monterosso and walked around for a bit and found a place to have lunch and buckets of Aperol Sprits :). Lunch was also fantastic.

We then took the Cinque Terre train and visited the other towns. Our final stop was Manarola where we had a wonderful dinner.

We took the Cinque Terre train to Le Spezia and then hopped on the express train back to Genoa.

Got home around midnight and everyone one was exhausted and went straight to bed.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Genoa, so we are going to relax in the morning and tour around Genoa in the afternoon.

Last full day together. Kids head home in the morning and we are off to lake Como.

Unfortunately it was a rainy day so we spent most of the day hanging out in the AirBnB, which wasn’t all bad as we were all tired from the past couple of days.

The skies cleared around 4:30pm and we headed out on a tour of \240Genoa.. The city is very interesting with a laberath of small streets and allyways \240

We made our way down to the marina and walked around and checked out all the big Yahts.

We headed back up into the city and looked around for a place to eat. After an hour or so of searching we weren’t having any luck :(

A few of us were getting hangry, which was surpriseing since it felt like all we did was eat :). Just then we came to the end of the alleyway and walked right into the main city center, where the awesome restaurant, that we eat at the night before was :)

We manage to get a table on the patio, which was good and bad as it was a cool night and the boys didn’t bring sweaters. The food was just as fantastic as the night before and despite the cold It was a wonderful last supper.

We checked out of our AirBnB and said goodbye to Anna and the kids :( \240and head to the train station to begin that next part of our journey.

The train to Milan was delayed which meant we were going to miss our connection to Lake Como, but fortunately that train was delayed as well, so all was good.

The views from the train into Lake Como were incredible.

We took the train to Varenna-esimo and then the ferry to Bellagio. The wind was crazy…

Our place is up the mountain and although we tried to find a taxi to take us, from the main town, we were unsuccessful and had to drag our bags all the way up (good workout to help burn of all the pasta \240we had eaten).

We settled into our new place and went to a small restaurant, just a short walk from our place for dinner.

Woke up to a windy and cloudy day, but it was a bit warmer then yesterday. Made our way back into town and spent the day walking around town and checking out all the shops.

Unfortunately do to the high winds the water taxis and the ferry boats were not running. The bigger ferries, that carried the cars were the only ones that were running, so the line ups to get on very crazy.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants in the town and Angie had risotto, which she claimed was the best she has ever had :). I took a break from the Italian and had a great club sandwich.

We then went on a little 40min train ride which toured up the hill so we got to see some of the sites.

We headed back to our place in the late afternoon and relaxed for a bit and did a load of laundry… Which took for ever as the machine was in Italian and I most have selected the super/take for ever mode… lol

We headed back down into town and had a wonderful dinner.

Had another awesome day…

Wind was still pretty strong, but the sky’s were clear and full sun and warm.

We took the ferry over to Tremezzo and toured Villa Carlotta and the gardens… the views from the Villa were incredible. We had a nice lunch ( caprese and procutia pizza).

We then took the ferry over to Menaggio which was a cool little town. We checked out the shops and sat on the patio and had drink and listened to a live orchestra. We then walked along the shore line to a beach club, which was very nice.

On the way back to the ferry we stopped for another drink :)

We took the ferry back to Bellagio and had dinner berfore the long climb back to our place.

It was sunny with some clouds but the wind and calmed down

We took the ferry to Como, which took just over 2 hours but it was worth it. The views were incredible and the ferry stopped at several of the towns along the way so we got to see more of the picturesque town. We also saw George Clooneys villa

In Como we had lunch at one of the many restaurant that are along the lake front. After lunch we walked around town and did a bit of shopping.

We took the fast boat (which took just under an hour) back to Bellagio. The boat back was all enclosed, which was good as the wings started to pickup and it got a bit chilly.

Once back in Bellagio we decided to grab dinner in town as it was late and we didn’t have the energy to walk up the hill twice :(

We got back to our place and packed as it was our last night and we are heading to Nice in the morning.

Early start to the day.

We lugged our bags down the hill(it was much easier going down then up:) ) to catch the ferry to Varenna.

We managed to catch an early ferry which gave us a little extra time before the train came, so we were able to sit down and have breakfast.

However we did run into a small issue boarding the first train. The station is really small with only one track that serves both directions and there were lots of people and we unfortunately got on the train going in the wrong direction:(. We were able to get off at the next stop, which was only 5 mins away, however this meant we missed the correct train, which meant we had to wait for the next one.

We took the correct train to Milan. We had some time in Milan so we grab some lunch and walked around outside and got some fresh air. This train was just over an hour long.

We then took the train from Milan to Ventimiglia. This was a 4 hour ride but it was very relaxing and the train ran along the coast and views were beautiful. All beach with beach club after beach club.

From Ventimiglia we took the final train to Nice. It was a quick 45min ride and we met some nice people along the way.

It was a 15min walk from the train to our hotel and although it was dark it was warm.

We checked into our hotel and crashed. It was a long day.

It was a cloudy day with some light showers but we were still able to tour around and see some of Nice.

We walked along the boardwalk and noticed that they were setting up for the 2024 women’s Ironman, which is happening on Sunday. Very cool to see.

We followed the boardwalk up to a lookout point and around to the marina. It started to rain along the way so we ducked into a patio for a drink.

We toured the marina and checked out some of the yatchs. There was a cool Club Med sailing cruise ship and a $100 million private yatch (Mimtee)that is owned by Lebanese billionaire Najib Mikati.

We then wondered into the old town area were the streets are lined with restaurants. It starred to rain again so we grabbed a seat at one of the patios with a seat under the awning with a nice view of the street. We had a couple drinks and a snack and people watched, until the rain stopped.

We then headed to the shopping district (street) and did some shopping.

After shopping we headed back to place we ate lunch at and had drinks and an awesome hamburgers:). Stop on the way back to the hotel at the Haagen Daz for an ice cream cone.

Last day…

We got a slow start to the morning and once we got going we stop for a quick breakfast on the way to the train station.

We took the train to Monte-Carlo. We checked out the Monte-Carlo casino and walk along the upper water front and checked out the marina and some more of the huge yachts.

We were tired today so decided to just head back to Nice before it got to late. Once back in Nice we stopped on the way back to the hotel at a shoe store so that Angie could pickup a couple pair of shoes, that she was looking for.

Nice back we headed the other way down the boardwalk and found a place to have lunch. We then head back along the boardwalk and checked out the progress, they had made on the setup for the Ironman event.

We went back to the old town area and decided on a place for our final meal (Momma Mia). Dinner was delicious and of course we had to stop for one final ice cream :)

That’s a wrap. Trip home was easy, with no issues. A little jet lagged…

So here is a summary

Visited 3 countries

- Italy

- Nice

- Monica

Visited 14 cities/towns

- Genoa, Portofino, Milan, Santa Margherita Ligure, Monterosso, Vernazza, Riomaggiore, Manitoba, Bellagio, Tremezzo, Menaggio, Como, Nice, Monte Carlo

Walked a total of 160,000 steps