Hike with a side of vino
Morning bread and wine are the preferred refreshment on this Italian Riviera excursion
It’s the breakfast of champions on the Italian Riviera.
A chunk of focaccia bread washed down with a glass of white wine launches the day with flair for dock workers and tradesmen as well as slightly hungover tourists.
In the case of the tour group my wife and I are hiking with from Santa Margherita to Portofino, we’re enjoying mid-morning sustenance of the typically Italian bread with Raggio di Sole Bianco wine.
“Of course, it’s OK to drink wine when you take a break during the hike,” said our guide Enrico Chierici in a charming Italian accent.
“It’s the traditional breakfast in Liguria.”
We’re happy to oblige tradition.
But, for the record, we also hydrated with water.
Not that this hike was long or arduous.
We signed up for this six-kilometre adventure on the Emerald Princess, the elegant 947-foot-long, 3,573-passenger cruise ship we’re calling home for a week.
The port we’ve pulled into is Genoa, the city in northwestern Italy that’s the gateway for the Riviera punctuated by the charming Mediterranean trio of towns Rapello, Santa Margherita and Portofino.
The excursion starts after a 45-minute drive on the minibus from Genoa to high on the hill above Santa Margherita.
While we’ll get a mediocrity of exercise, it’s not really about the distance or technical difficulty of this hike that’s important.
It’s about trekking high above the Riviera in Portofino Regional Park, soaking in the stunning views and anticipating lunch, with more wine, of course, in Portofino.
But first, we pass through the arch of the Nozarego Church to follow the Via Partigiano Berto Solimano and immediately there are 80 steps up the steeply terraced hillside.
The path evens out and we hike through olive grove after