I went to my room to get the hundred and fifty lire of spending money I had saved up by not buying anything at all yet on this vacation. Rachael woke up and asked where I was going, but I pretended I hadn’t heard her question and slipped out the door.

Chapter 14

IN THE COLD RAIN I COULD NOT SMELL THE WALK as well as at night when the path was warm. But it was just as exciting in the day to come to the high point on the walk halfway between Portofino and Paraggi and to look into the bay with all the yachts at their moorings. During the night when the rain had begun to fall there had been a storm at sea. The swells that were rolling in from the horizon were much bigger than usual, and the boats in the harbor were bobbing up and down so hard you could see the violent movement as they bucked against their anchor chains.

Portofino was empty. The rain had driven the little old ladies, who sat in their doorways making lace, indoors. Half the boutiques had their blue or green shutters up. The tourists who walked around taking pictures of famous people coming to and from the yachts were back at their hotels in Santa Margherita and Rapallo. The red and white excursion tour boats were bobbing at anchor, all tours canceled, a large “Chiuso”sign hanging over the clock that showed the time of the next boat’s departure.

The waves were crashing so hard on the high rocky narrow peninsula of land protecting the port to the southward seaside that flumes and jets of spray were coming right over the top of the peninsula on which the church of Santa Christaforo sat and were splattering in big puddles on the granite docks and jettys of the town below.

People who had to walk around that side of the port would time their movements in order to stay dry. They dashed from a doorway to a boat or from a storage shed back to the main square, to avoid the spray from the pounding surf on the rocks below the church.

Sometimes they miscalculated and would get a good half a ton of water dropped on them as it arched up in the air, at least one hundred feet, then fell with a loud, machine-gun splatter, on the flagstones of the port.

Then they would stand there and look all around to see if anyone had watched them get soaked. And if no one had they just went on to wherever they had been going. But if they caught somebody’s eye, then they would make a big show of shaking off the water and looking down at their ruined clothes, cursing and shaking their head as if they could not understand how such a thing could be allowed to happen to them.