Finale Ligure

After the two night stay with the wonderful hosts in Genova I decided I wanted to see the other Italian Riviera. There are two one goes south from Genova (Riviera di Ponente – coast of the setting sun) and includes renowned places such as Portofino and The Cinque Terra. The other stretches west from Genova to France (Riviera di Levante – coast of the rising sun). I had stayed a number of days in the former several years ago so I headed west by train. I decided upon Finale Ligure. Since I was going by train I had to settle for a hotel so I found the cheapest one that I could on-line that was not far from the train station. While on the train I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She was Iranian but had now lived in Genova for many years. I was involved in the conversation and didn’t notice the announcements. She got off at a stop and I didn’t see any signs until we were pulling out of the station and saw that we were just leaving — Finale Ligure. Oops. So I got off at the next stop. I went to buy a ticket. There were no human ticket sellers, only machines. One machine took cash and the other only credit or ATM (Bankomat here) cards. The credit card machine demanded a pin for my credit card which I don’t have. The cash machine was broken. Oh well. Another train was about to leave and I asked the conductor and he said that I could buy a ticket on the train at the first car (il capo del treno). While waiting for the train to arrive I began to think. Heck, maybe I can just explain that I missed my station and not have to pay the lousy 2.3 euros for the 6 minute ride back. So I got on the correct train. Nobody came around for the 6 minutes, so problem solved.

The hotel was nothing special but clean and comfortable. So I had really one full day to look around. I must say that beach towns can be pretty boring, especially out of season. I’m not a huge fan of beaches to start with but it was a pretty town and nice scenery. I didn’t really do it justice with the two photos that I took from the pier where there were a few patient fishermen trying their luck. Inside the town it was much any other. Small streets, some pedestrian only, with shops everywhere.

So the focus of the trip became dinner. I asked the guy at a bar (coffee shop) for a recommendation. I went there to look it over and was not impressed. It’s like asking a truck driver. So I found a wine store and asked him. Much better. I had two wonderful dinners at Sapore del Mare. Reasonably priced and well prepared food. It’s very much off-season there now so there are only two guys there, the chef and the waiter. Good food always makes me happy.

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