Roscoe King - mob: 0439761815 - a/h: 07-54446000 - email: Roscoetfdq@gmail.com - PO Box 505 4557

Chew Ate Eat - for your party menus

Food Torque - try the recipes from our food engineers

Travel Lobotomies - sort your flash packing and triptological travels

Looters Locker - buy from the dilly bag of collectivity

The wicked, weird and wonderful - as the cool-chaser

 picks up the new and traks the webs developmental sites

Crash Pads - Check your baggage into flashpackers’

heaven - villas to cabins at mates rates.

Day-trippers delight is to stay where you want and

have sorties into the chosen lands and return to base

reasonably able to holiday with little collateral wallet

damage. A trip from our home at Monterosso in the Cinque Terre

is easily embarked upon with only a modicum of organisation as the day is in the hands of Trenitalia. It seemed we were on a fully

‘retarded’ day; all late trains in Italy come up as retarded on the communications board, as trains were determined not to connect,

but everything is palatable on a fine sunny day.

Monterosso Stazione serves a great espresso to kick start day-trippers onto the Santa Margherita Ligure train onward up the

Ligurian Coast to the first stop of the day. Santa Margherita is a glitzy little beachside star that prompts the search for the first of

many grazing halts as the bustle of morning greets the walk from the train.

The triptych of Camogli, Santa Margherita and Portofino makes a luscious portrait of the Italian Riviera as the forgotten holiday

venue is now bursting back into current vogue. This was the glamour capital of the film industry and all followers of Loren, Fellini or

Ponti have a mental picture of Portofino inscribed on their brain even if only three stalls back.

Movie memories of dastardly crims running down through narrow streets out onto a waterfront of archetypical Italian cafes

surrounded by colourful white, wooden craft bobbing on a perfect sea are still entrenched in a celluloid memory.

Santa Margherita mid morning tarts and warm pastries of carciofi and gattafin are Ligurian tasty delicacies which compliment the

doppio lungocoffees as the ease of seeping into glitz tourism commences.  The shops have a Rodeo Drive aura and the Mucci,

Pucci and Gucci compete with Diors, Dolce & Gabbanas inveigling the Italian elite passing here on their way to Portofino. This is

only a cursory visitation with limited icon infusion at the duomo and a wander through an opening commercial area prior to

broaching routes further afield.

Far better to join the touristy mob and go by boat past the

steep Cypress and pine covered steep promontories taking

in the luxurious mansions bedecking the rocky landscape. 

The second way to get to Portofino by road carries the risk

of entry refusal as the difficulty of access is exacerbated by

the vetting of traffic by carabinieri. In times past the

conquering Romans also gave the place a miss as no doubt

the line up of chariots at Portofino entrance rebuffed their

intentions on the way to nowhere. The entry by sea into the

boating haven of the former small fishing village is

archetypical of every movie shot of the tiny port as the pink,

red and yellow buildings fringe the dock. The ferry steers

through the mass of boats past the behemoth floating

palaces of the mega rich suppurating on varnished decks

whilst sucking in the sibilant sounds of awe struck gelato

lickers. The sheer audacity of even parking these leviathans

in this small cove adds the quantity of them and us to the

romantic equation of battle zone Riviera.

In the 1860s the British consul Yeats Brown transformed the

fortress on the promontory into a villa which today in the village’s hands still goes under the Castello Brown nomenclature. The walk

around the cove up to the Castello is along scented well planted

walkways and reveals a spectacular view of the whole

Portofino Bay down the coast toward the Cinque Terre. The

alternative walk in this very compact cove is to the chapel of

San Giorgio an 11thC plaster and marble edifice which

provides the complete viewing platform for the area. The

pathway lent itself to a relaxing cold Arruzo and Parma ham

Panini as perched above the cocktail decks the wares of the

tycoons were exposed to the prurient perusal of the

Portofino unwashed.

Well it’s all true and real to life but the style of clientele is

now the Nuevo Euro with a capacity to pay but in return

diluting the quality quotient with no added value for the day

trippers to pry on.

The restaurants are twittering as the lunch trade ramps up,

tables facing out to the bay, purveying all who pass by into

the small commerce areas at the back of town. The painted

facades of very simple buildings around a piazza blend this

compact victualling haunt into filmset quality and the seen

can be seen. The rumour mill tells tales of the religiously

adhered to local provision for no noise after 10pm, not even

loud clothing. Evacuation through town is via the bus station at

the rear of the buildings and provides the alternative exit of about 15 kms to Santa Margherita. The road passes homes of, now

three times new Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a well heeled owner who fits in amongst the Pirelli, Couturier and Football

team magnates in precipitously perched layered villas provocatively spilling in tiers down to the water.

The road back into Santa Margherita is an anti climax as the sprawl of the waterfront seems quite cosmopolitan after the tight

configuration and more Italianate Portofino. The day is not over as the next train stop on the way back is to Comogli the village of

high buildings set on weather worn rocks down steep stairs from the stazione. This town has born the brunt of mighty sea surges

and a history of fishermen leaving the port to chase the catch. The medieval centre is still intact with very tall and slender houses,

alleys and porticos arranged around the little port. The houses are said to have been built to compensate the loneliness of the wives

as they waited looking out to sea for the return of the fishermen. A massive tower which survived from the Dragone Castle built into

the cliff houses 20 giant tanks of the Acquario de Tirreno fed with sea water.

Comogli is a good departure point to see the Abbey complex of Santa Fruttuoso the 10th century church of 3 knaves and cloisters

on two levels. This trip is better organised on its own and intrudes too much on a three stop day trip as il traino beckons to be

caught and the ride stops in Vernazza in time for an evening meal. The search ends at the very last building at the rear of Vernazza

at Il

Pirata the quirky busy Sicilian Café www.ilpiratadelle5terre.com  with the

irrepressible owner twins hustling trade with a nonchalant but omnipotent air.

The boys tout all products made on premises with a superb aubergine

parmigana, great Sicilian bread, good casa rosso and the piece du resistance

the genuine made to order ricotta connoli. A fitting finale to a train day out as

the final stagger to the stazione soon brings a passing train only 2 minutes

home to Monterosso New town fringed by the lights beaming onto the bay.

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