Freya & Us

We stayed in Portoferraio for a few more days exploring the island by bus. We went to Napoleon's country house which wasn't as grand as we'd expected with small rooms but amazing trompe l'oeil on the walls and a lovely position with views over the port in the distance. Rio Marina was another lovely old port surrounded by the scars of the old mining industry where we had a particularly delicious lunch. The anchorage which usually had hundreds of boats in it every night was suddenly very empty that night (26th). The summer must be nearly over with all the boaties heading home - phew! We also walked around the citadel in Portoferraio which was remarkable for 2 reasons, one it's size - it was truly huge and on lots of levels. The other thing was the stunning views over the port and surrounding island. The rest of our time was passed doing practical things like water safaris - at anchor water is always a problem. We can usually fill up in marinas or on the fuel pontoons for a small charge but here there's always a long queue, often super yachts which take hours, and as we found a tap in small park near a beach we would take water carriers ashore in the dinghy.

As the end of August was approaching we thought it was time to come out of hiding and move on. There was no wind at all and we had a perfect glassy sea as we motored the 30 miles to Isola Capraia. There are very few anchorages on this island as the sea is incredibly deep very close in as the cliffs go straight down - we were still in 100m of water just 150m off shore! We anchored in 8m very close to the shore with crystal clear water over a white sandy bottom - brilliant snorkelling. But it was clearly going to be a rolly night if we stayed there - I still don't understand how in no wind and a flat sea you can have the most uncomfortable nights at anchor - and went a few miles up the coast to anchor just outside the small port.

In the morning we went ashore. Very pretty village with castle and views. Had lunch and headed back to Freya where we decided we'd head off to the mainland. An 18 hour overnight passage. It was the most amazing night at sea with a huge full moon lighting our way - unfortunately no wind but you can't have everything. We're now in Genoa after just over a year on the islands - ready to start a new chapter.......

Coming in to Genoa's port the first thing you see is the very sad looking Costa Concordia being dismantled for scrap.

Genoa is a fascinating city - so much history. The old town is huge and as the city doesn't seem to have completed its journey into a fully commercialised tourist centre it's a nice mix of trendy and seedy - you can loose yourself in it for hours but it does start to feel a little dodgy as the sun goes down. You can see how wealthy Genoa once was with palazzos everywhere, whole streets of them plus the most ornate churches.

There are funicular railways dotted all over the city as its built on a strip of land between sea and mountains and the only way to expand is up. We took one up into the mountains for great views over the city. We decided to walk down! The first part was lovely down the mountain through the woods. We thought we'd be fine as long as we kept going down and so we kept going through the city. We passed the city gates and where Christopher Columbus was born. Then we could see the sea and so nearly back we thought - except we found ourselves on top of the raised city bypass with no way down! We ended up walking miles and eventually found a turning back into the city and had to do a big loop back - interesting though with lots of churches, the cathedral and lots more old town - yet another magical mystery tour!

Click here for the interactive map of our travels