Bonassola, Baby

Monday morning we are up and excited to see the area.. Jim heads to the shower...there's a problem ...Jimmy can't fit in the shower, Jimmy can't wash his feet, Jimmy's gunna stink! Top that off with the fact we can't find the right channel for Starsky and Hutch and Jimmy's not happy! We finish breakfast and head off for the footpath to Bonassola. Bonassola is a small beach town and the walk is beautiful. There is also the hike to Bonnassola, but we chose the flat, level walk along the Ligurian sea. We scouted out the town and possible houses for sale and then had an amazing lunch right on the beach; fresh anchovies, gnocchi with pesto and green beans and of course an Aperol spritz for me! We had a lovely walk back to the hotel. On our way back we noticed smoke in the distance; all afternoon the helicopters flew (very low!) over the hotel to scoop water out of the sea and dump it on the fire. Later we met with Valeria, her husband, Angelo (who looks remarkably like an actor whose name I can't quite place yet) and her son Andrea, who is eight. We had drinks in the hotel with Carlo ( Valeria's brother and the hotel owner) and Daniela, Carlo's wife. More spritz, more laughing and lots of Italian. We go to dinner at Le 3 Cantare...amazing is the only word. We each had a different dish and all shared...we had gattafin, a local antipasti; pansotti con salsa di noci, a sort of ravioli with walnut sauce; acciughe ripieno, stuffed fresh anchovy; and grilled calamari which arrived at the table on a huge hook. Andrea decided that Jim should play Monopoly in Italian on the iPhone (it's an app!) with him and chattered away in Italian as if Jim were born here....maybe he heard about the dual citizenship! Jimmy really wanted to buy Park Place but there wasn't one.....there was a lot of pagare, pagare, pagare for Jimmy and now Jimmy is broke!! It was a wonderful evening, but way too much food....we stumble off to bed.