Saturday 22nd May, Varazze

At last, we’re back on board Zaffina!

We arrived in Italy ten days ago to discover that the winter work was far from complete. Unsurprisingly, we were somewhat irritated, having given several months notice of our intended departure date, but there was little we could do except rant and rage a bit. Then we hired a car and went to Tuscany, which was simply breathtakingly beautiful, for a few days and on to Lake Garda for a few more. Weather was rubbish in Tuscany, rather better on Garda but we had an absolute ball and enjoyed every moment of our unexpected trip.

We got back here on Thursday fully intending to book into a hotel for another night. I had earmarked a place in town, which looked elegant but faded, but when we went to investigate a little closer it actually looked really cruddy, (which elicited a knowing “I told you so” from Frank!) A reception area in shades of dark brown with fake wood panelling is never a good look and we decided that the Italian star rating (this was a 4) is obviously somewhat different to the rest of the world! We then popped down to see how work was going on Zaffina and have a meeting with various people involved, and discovered that it was almost finished so the natural thing to do was to move on board. It's lovely to be back on her, although we'd forgotten how hard the mattress is in our cabin and we'll have to get used to the equivalent of sleeping on a board again!

Today is just perfect, no wind, no cloud, guess the temperature is somewhere in the mid twenties. All being well (provided the last jobs are done and there are a few to be finished and no sign of any workmen yet) we'll set off this afternoon. We had a sea trial on Thursday and while I was driving her and Frank was below, I spotted the first dolphin of the season - a good omen, I hope! We are starting to address those important chores like buying food - the fridge had champagne, ketchup and a small cheddar cheese in it during our first night. Even masterchef contestants would have a problem with coming up with something appetising from those ingredients! (Although they could add in some marmite rice cakes and custard from the store cupboard...yummy!)

We feel we’ve got to know this part of the Ligurian coast really well and we love it now; there are any number of quaint coastal towns and hilltop villages, beautiful countryside and a backdrop of mountains. It’s been great to see Varazze in the summer when it really comes alive, but we’ve been here long enough and the rest of Italy beckons. We’re already worried about the problems we may encounter with finding berths through the height of the summer, as we’ve heard that it gets even more crowded here than in Mallorca or the South of France, but we hope to spend nights at anchor whenever possible. We’ve already called 2 ports for places but just got a vague “try later” which isn’t overly encouraging but we’re keeping fingers crossed and hope to be somewhere near Portofino by tonight or tomorrow at the latest.