Wednesday 27 August 2008. Santa Margherita turned out to be a wonderfully picturesque town in the bright sunshine of the Italian Riviera.
A small fortress nestled between the hotels and businesses on the coastal road, a defence against the pirates that plagued the Mediterranean during the 13th to 16th centuries.
We walked east from the jetty where the tender boat had dropped us off and came to a fountain with a statue of Christopher Columbus (Santa Margherita was his home town) which had a cannon standing guard in front of it. We didn't go looking for his house - we've done that before in Genoa and know from experience that he's never in when you call... Every statue of him seems to have him pointing towards the New World. He'd have been better advised if asked to pose studying a map of course!
They have a recipe for pumpkin here apparently, although we didn't get to try it. Pumpkins were introduced into Europe by Columbus. These days I suspect most pumpkins are cut up into faces and have a candle shoved inside whilst being ignored as a foodstuff, but I have tried pumpkin soup before and it is delicious.
We carried on walking, coming to a small but popular pebble beach, before turning round to head back towards the main part of town.
I sat and sketched the castle whilst Fran and Mum went for a wander around the shops. I attracted a bit of an audience doing this - something I've got used to now but it really used to put me off when I was starting sketching and wasn't sure whether it would turn out hideously or hilariously.
Quite a few people watched me start and then came back later to see how it was getting on and as I was sitting on the jetty where the tender boat dropped off, I had quite a few conversations with people who were either arriving or about to leave on the tender boats. It felt extremely hot and I was quite relieved when Fran and Mum turned up with a bottle of water.
I finished the sketch and showed it round the remainder of the audience and we headed back to the tender boat ourselves for an afternoon on the Island Star's pool deck.
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