Rapallo log 7 - Villa Durazzo

Today was in some respects a repeat of yesterday: we awoke to rain, but fortunately it had stopped before we left the hotel. We wanted to go back to Santa Margherita Ligure in order to visit Villa Durazzo, but due to the fact that far fewer people want to visit SML than Portofino, the first ferry there only left at 11 am. 

I had done more homework regarding the villa that I had about the shop supposedly selling chocolate, so I was able to lead us to one of the entrances to the park. What I did not know was that the park was situated on the top of a hill: the distance itself was not too far from the centre of SML, but attaining the height was problematic.

The grounds were very lush, and my wife the gardener enjoyed seeing various flowers and bushes. When we came to the villa itself, the time was 12:40 pm, and the last entrance before lunch was at 12:30 pm. So we had to wait for lunch to be over before we could go in: this was supposed to be at 2 pm, but was more like 2:15 pm; as a result, we (and others) had to wait an hour and a half before we were allowed in.

To be honest, the villa itself was not particularly interesting; it was smaller than we had expected. Of course, one has to add the long walk up and the long wait to the disappointment with the villa: YIMV. In all honesty, I can't really recommend a visit to villa Durazzo.

My wife's legs were not capable of taking her back down to the seashore, so fortunately we were able to ask a local who appeared at the right moment if he could order for us a taxi. About five minutes later, the taxi turned up and took us down to the Christopher Colombo statue - for 25€! The driver claims that there is a fixed price for journeys within SML, but I think we were fleeced.

Anyway, the ferry soon turned up and took us back to Rapallo; we had a very late lunch at the same restaurant as the day before, sharing the pizza bianca tonno e cipalle between us. During the meal, it started to rain again, requiring some rearrangement of seating. By the time we had finished, the rain had eased of and the sun came out again.

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