Maison de Charme

Today I captured a view of the Maison de Charme where we are currently staying in the Italian Riviera town of Chiavari. Grandpa’s bedroom window is in the middle of the green building and with the shutters wide open.

We literally tired ourselves out this morning walking to the recently improved Port of Chiavari and stood for ages lusting over the big sailboats and mega yachts which were all docked up at the marina and in plentiful supply.

This made us think about possibly hiring a boat and skipper to take us out to the Cinque Terre but at €500 for a half day trip without including the fuel costs we both very quickly decided against it.

Instead, this afternoon was spent chillaxing in our wonderful apartment de charme whilst looking on the internet for affordable properties within a 50 miles radius. Whatever could have been any better?

Why is it that when we come on holiday to such wonderful places we always want a piece? ie: we must have an apartment or small house here. I don’t understand the logic to be honest. It’s like an automatic and compulsive feeling.

Tomorrow is the last full day of our holiday and Tuesday will see us heading back towards the United Kingdom with a stop over at the bottom of France on Tuesday night and another stop over closer to Calais on Wednesday night. We will take the Le Shuttle around midday and then we will have a couple of days to recover from our journey before we will have to open the bookshop on Saturday morning, (conveniently for me) not until 10:30 though.

Grandpa has replaced his money purse with a slick new Italian leather version from a proper leather shop. The equivalent he purchased from a shop back home just before Christmas is falling to pieces already. Comparing both of them together the new acquisition looks to be of much better quality and will hopefully last him a lot longer than the now old and defunct one.

Dinner this evening will be taken in a small burger bar aptly named Go Go Burger. It apparently sounds better than it’s name suggests and has lots of raving reviews on Trip Advisor. We need to start conserving the cash flow. €90 a night meals can’t go on indefinitely.

I’ve had a great holiday but I’m keen to get back home and see the cats now and get back into my own bed again. Over breakfast I suggested that we leave Chiavari this morning and turn our two days of travel into four shorter days of driving but Grumps wasn’t too keen on the idea.

The noise from being in the city centre has been a real problem. I haven’t slept very well all week and therefore feel extra tired compared to normal. The noise and intrusions seem to be be 100 times as bad in Italy or maybe we are just spoilt by having the privilege of living deep in the South Cambridgeshire countryside. We have both really liked the accommodation and our hostess and her husband have been incredible but we would certainly rethink our accommodation options if we were to revisit Chiavari again.

On the upside, only two more sleeps and we will be heading on our way back to the familiar land of the United Kingdom.