A Day in Rapallo

After breakfast we head out to explore our town of Rapallo some more. We meet Matthew along the harbour road. He has found us a book store that also has painting, journal supplies. He gives us directions and we head in search of new 'stuff'.

We follow Matthews directions up away from the water along a canal in search of pens and paints and journals, food for the soul...fresh fruit and vegetable market, an accordian player and finally the book store. A bonanza of pens, Italian leather bound journals and Moleskine books. A few Euros lighter we are back on the road in search of a lace museum in a park above town. Found the museum but it was closed until later in the afternoon.

 

A lovely park just above the harbour. Very quiet and peaceful.

A private/ pay for use beach. Cabanas, lounges and towels are provided. This was a cooler day so not a lot of beach goers. Most places are just getting ready for the summer tourist season to come.

 

With our new art supply purchases in hand we headed back to the harbour and settled in the sun with cappuccinos. I had read that in Italy it is considered rude to present your bill before you ask for it. So it is really easy to spend an hour with only a 2 euro coffee. Because servers are paid a fair wage it is not nescessary to tip but is considered acceptable to round your bill up to the next euro. For example if you bill came to €10.4 (approx $15) you could leave €11... Which would be less than a dollar tip.

So for €10, 2 Cappuccinos each, we spent almost two hours sketching, people watching and relaxing. Our view from the café was The Rapallo Castle. After walking for a couple more hours we returned to the same cafe for a late lunch. I was a little surprised that seafood wasn't a bigger menu choice being on the Mediterranean. It's a little like Mexico with a lot of variations of "whitefish" and not being sure just what that means. So I had curried prawns with pasta. Definitely not as good as our gulf prawns from Texas and Louisiana.

Shops are open til 7:00 so we shopped our way back to the hotel. I bought a pair of suede sandals and some bracelets for the girls. A bottle of wine for €4.90 and back to the hotel to work on our journals. I love having the doors and windows open listening to the sounds of the night but tonight was an especially loud night with Vespas and motorcycles racing up and down the road. Our last night in Rapallo.

 

 

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