Vertigo
Saturday, August 4, 2007, 1:23 PM
Updated Saturday, August 4, 2007, 1:32 PM
A week of sailing on the Vertigo along the Italian Riviera, sun, sea, excellent Ligurian food and a couple of new shoes later – I come back home tranquil and tan... only to belly flop right back into the confusion that is my love life. Oh well. I suppose the world would be boring without it.
But let’s save the perplexity and disorder for later, shall we? I will now swiftly advance to jot down a mouth-watering summary of my six magnificent days of rest and relaxation. Envy me if you must.
Serene and I took a train down to Savona, where we met her mother, Judy, with her boyfriend, Capt. Ashy, on their boat. We sailed over to Genoa, where we stayed two days and I (unable to accept my miserable financial situation...) did some shopping, natch. Oh, I shall praise the day Sephora finally opens a store in Switzerland. Visiting one every time I go away on vacation is always a highlight. Like a kid in a candy store.
Genoa, I must say, is a lovely little city, but somehow I couldn’t enjoy it as thoroughly as I would have liked. I feel as though it’s tainted for me, by reminiscences of P. and our last vacation there together with his brother. I felt like everything I saw was tinged with a lovely memory that now feels so… misleading. I stopped having romantic feelings for P. after I got my exquisite revenge, but being there again it came back to me how in love I was with him the last time, and I was relieved when we finally sailed out of the port.
The next stop was Santa Margherita, where we stayed for one night. Serene and I found a pebbly little public beach amidst the glamour and froufrou of this hotspot, to hang out for a few hours and immerse ourselves in the final Harry Potter book. I also got to show off my new, customized, pimped-out bikini. A polka-dotted creation. I’ve always loved going wild with a needle and thread. Galliano, watch your back.
We spent the next day anchored in a little cove between S. Margherita and Portofino, amidst a few sailboats flying British aristocrat colors. I was amazed that night when Serene suddenly ran off to the stern of the ship during a freak bout of seasickness. It’s usually me who’s prone to motion sickness; a few minutes on a swing set are enough to make me turn green. And yet I didn’t feel any worse than slightly queasy all those days we were on the Vertigo. Amazing, it is.
The last two days we were in Chiavari – my favorite stop. We enjoyed the shops and lovely little streets to stroll along; the best thing though was a mischievous ploy of ours involving Capt. Ashy and a Sacher cake. Serene’s a lovely best friend; somehow every day turns into an adventure when we’re together.
On departure day, the two of us were quite bummed out by the prospect of another onerous and monotonous 7 ½ hour journey back, so of course we welcomed the surprise and exhilaration of the air conditioning breaking in our train from Chiavari to Milan. By the time we arrived at the main station, there were literally drops of sweat running down our bodies. Not the perfect ending to a perfect week, but hey: at least we got to lose a few pounds of water weight to balance out our gluttonous holiday ways.
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