Italy one

We left La Canada in the afternoon on Aug. 12th and after a two hour wait on the runway, we settled into really comfortable seats and a good book. The flights on our trip weren't bad really. American made us wait on the tarmac for 2 hours coming, and going for 1 hour with engine trouble, but Alitalia was very efficient and comfortable.

We took a taxi to our hotel in Manhattan because it was so late at night at a cost of 40.00 and so after that we just found the subway transfers to come and go to JFK at a considerable savings. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Manhattan from a travelzoo promotion both coming and going to Italy. We didn't want to fly directly to Italy from L.A. because that would have been a flight of what turned out to be 15+ hours.

When we got off the plane in Milano, Italy it was 8:00 am and with no sleep at all, we rented a car and got on our way to Portofino, Italy. Dad had really wanted to go there after studying his Michilin guide and I'm so glad we did. It was just beautiful.

This was the first thing we discovered after resting in the hotel for 3 hrs. This is the Port of Porofino and it was a bit of a drive from the hotel. We only saw it this one night since we stayed at the hotel only two nights. The first night was here in the Port and the second night we explored San Rocco. In the background you can see a portion of the huge yachts in the harbor.
It felt majical that first night in Italy. After planning this trip for a few months, we were really here. We stayed only a couple of hours before returning to our hotel and finally sleeping a full night. I loved getting up with the sun those first few nights in Italy.

Here is my first video after finding a store that sold us a disk for our camera. The streets were filled with tourists. My first impression of Italians was that they dress up for the evening. Americans have become so casual about our dress. The Europeans still dress up to go out for an evening. Also I was amazed at the percentage of Europeans who smoke. Smokers everywhere.

Very sad.