summertime goes south

19th June: Genoa to Lavagna
We left Genoa for Lavagna, passing the very chic and expensive resort of Portofino. We anchored off one of the beaches adjacent to Portofino for a very peaceful lunch. We were joined by a number of super-yachts. We watched their uniformed crews decamp an extensive collection of toys, like jet-skis and ribs, from their stern garages for the owners' pleasure.
Portofino has a very elegant waterfront with villas dotting the hillside behind. We didn't venture into the harbour which is very small and full of expensive floating real estate.
We stayed at the marina at Lavagna and were placed immediately outside a multi-storey car park which was all we could see from the cockpit. The showers left much to be desired once we had figured out that they were underneath the municipal car park with access controlled by the car park attendant. One night was enough.

20th June: Lavagno to La Spezia
We left at 8.00 am for the trip to La Spezia over 30 miles away. The town lies at the head of a large bay and we had to negotiate a narrow entrance between the mainland and a small island. The headland on the mainland side was marked as Cap Byron on the chart and has a prominent ruined castle and old church giving it a romantic air(see photo)
Just hehind the headland lies Portovenere where we anchored for lunch along with a whole fleet of boats out for the day. Portovenere is where Byron began his famous swim to Lerici, approximately 3 miles across the bay of La Spezia. Poet, libertine and now long-distance swimmer, what a romantic!
Lerici has a more tragic connection with the romantic poets. Shelley set out from here on his fateful sailing trip to Livorno. On the return journey off Viareggio, about halfway back, the boat was hit by a sudden squall and capsized, drowning Shelley.
La Spezia itself is a large town with a naval base. On Sunday morning, we witnessed a parade with band and flags of the Alpine League, or so we deduced from their Alpine hats and legends on their instruments. It was a rather comic sight, reminiscent of Roderick Spode's 'brownshorts', as documented by Wodehouse but from their expressions they take their cause very seriously. Part of the parade consisted of a number of middle-aged women dressed in starched white nurses' uniforms. Woe betide any of their patients who didn't get better when told. In the evening the Alpine League band gave a concert of rather martial music on the seafront, but the standard of their playing and uniforms couldn't be faulted.