Middle-aged flash packers

Eager not to overdo the walking and save something in the tank for our foray into France, we decided a quieter day was in order. La Spezia is a port and naval town with not too many attractions, so it seemed just the ticket to have a wander around without exhausting ourselves any further.

La Spezia is actually a lot nicer than I was led to believe. The centre of the town is bustling and has a superb fish market. Lots of cafes and restaurants line the pedestrianised areas.

We made our way to the waterfront where there is a nice promenade and you can cross the Ponte Thaon di Revel bridge and have a gawp at the super-yachts moored at the exclusive end of the harbour.

Searching for a lunch stop was a bit painful as I had earlier seen a cafe serving focaccia pizza slices and I really fancied one for lunch. I don’t know if it’s specific to this area or not but I haven’t seen it anywhere else and wanted to try it. To cut a long story short, after looking everywhere we couldn’t find the cafe or anywhere else selling it. It transpires that this is only for elevenses or a mid morning snack, as you are expected to eat a much bigger meal at lunchtime. Steve was very patient but the look of extreme hunger was beginning to show in his eyes so we stopped at a cafe where he had Parma ham and a ball of mozzarella as big as his head.

Next stop – the castle. Determined to save our legs we discovered a lift/funicular that bypassed the many,many steps to the top and spent at least 5 minutes looking at everything. Admittedly we didn’t go into the museum which would probably have taken another 5 minutes, but the castle is a bit short on content. Still, the views were nice.

The final stop was to buy a fan. This was of course Steve’s idea. Sounds extreme I know, but the hotel we are going to in France has no air conditioning and apparently a mega heatwave is due to hit at anytime. Now we’ve bought a fan, there will be a mini ice age and I am most certainly not carrying it up to the hotel room, I think I would most probably die with embarrassment. I will however share the benefits of it with S. This is one of the good bits of married life.

S had a very long nap (2 beers at lunchtime plus an industrial quantity of mozzarella have that effect) while I did all sorts of useless stuff then wished I’d been more productive. I did book a restaurant though.

It was our first expedition into La Spezia’s night life tonight and Friday is fun night . Absolutely buzzing. This is fairly typical of our past experiences but this time, with the addition of dogs. As in the UK, the covid effect has meant every other person has a dog. The dogs are not particularly well controlled with some trying to bite innocent bystanders feet and reluctant little French bulldogs that have to be dragged rather than walked. Other than that, all was harmonious and very enjoyable. Our restaurant tonight was a heavy metal establishment serving suitably heavy but hearty and delicious food. The Taverna del Metallo comes highly recommended by us. The trip down memory lane listening to Deep Purple and AC/DC was great.

Tomorrow we head off to France again. This time we are meeting some of our walking group friends to explore the Mercantour national park, close to Nice. I’ll be offline for a while, so for now – arrivederci.