CHIAVARI, Italy – As those of you who follow me know, I
talk a lot about the town I live in, Chiavari, and have barely uttered a word
about the other towns in this part of
the Italian Riviera. Well that’s about to change. Today I would like you to
meet some of my neighbors.
Fishing Boats on the Beach in Chiavari |
There are some things all of
these towns have in common, the first being that they have been here for a long
time, a really long time. Most date as far back as the 13th/12th
century B.C. (Late Bronze Age ). The newer ones were settled by the Etruscans who
were followed by the Romans and so on and so on down through the centuries,
until now.
The second thing they have in
common is that not much has changed since those days of the Romans. Even the road, for there is only one, still
follows the route of the original Roman road the Via Aurelia, that runs along
the sea connecting one town with the other.
It still has the same name and it still goes to the same places – all
the way to France. And the third thing is they are all on the sea.
If you stand in Chiavari facing
the sea, turn left and go down that road, in 10 minutes or so you will be in a
town called Sestri Levante. And that’s where this journey begins.
Sestri Levante |
Sestri Levante is actually more
interesting that the travel brochures let on. They seem to concentrate on the
beauty of the two bays – The Bay of Poets and the Bay of Silence that Sestri
sits between. And while the bays are nice it must be said that Sestri is more
than just a pretty face. When the Romans
conquered Sigestri, which is what it was called in 148 BC, they built the road
that led to the development of the coastal towns of Portofino, Lavagna and
Chiavari. Sestri has changed hands more than once since those long ago days,
but it still sits between the two bays and everyone who comes here including
Hans Christian Andersen and Lord Byron, who called it paradise on earth, thinks
it is beautiful.
Cavi di Lavagna |
Between Chiavari and Sestri
Levante is the little town of Lavagna. I once heard a young American start to
laugh when his Italian friend told him the name of the town was “blackboard”.
“How weird,” said the American, “to name a town after a blackboard.” But he had
it wrong. The town wasn’t named after a blackboard, the town is where the slate
came from that blackboards used to be made of. And boy did that cause a lot of
problems over the years. The Fieschi were the ruling family of Lavagna and they
made a lot of money selling slate, megabucks actually, but they needed it. They
had two popes in the family, Innocent IV and Adrian V, 72 cardinals, a saint,
Saint Caterina Fieschi Adorno , not to mention all the admirals , generals and
scholars, and they do not come cheap.
The Castle/Fort of Rapallo |
If you are still standing in
Chiavari facing the sea and you turn right, in 10 minutes you will be in
Rapallo. Poor Rapallo, it’s a lovely place but historians can’t seem to make up
their minds if it was named after a turnip – a rape, or a swamp – a palluda. It
doesn’t really matter though because throughout its history it’s been attacked
so many times I think it is happy to just be left alone. In fact, there were so
many attacks the Rapallese finally built a fort on the sea to protect their
little city. If you look at it today and compare it to the mega-forts other
towns have built to defend themselves, you might start to giggle for the fort
in Rapallo is just a dinky little thing. But make no mistake, it served to fend
off some of the fiercest pirates that ever sailed the Mediterranean Sea,
including Dragut, the king of the Barbary pirates.
Villa Durazzo, Santa Margherita Ligure |
Just past Rapallo are the two
towns of Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino. The towns are linked together
because you can’t get to Portofino without going through Santa Margherita,
unless of course you go by boat. Personally, I love Santa Margherita, or Santa
as the locals call it. In 1813 when the area was controlled by Napoleon
Bonaparte, Santa Margherita and Portofino were combined under the name of Porto Napoleon. Two years later, in 1815,
when Liguria was given to the king of Sardinia, the towns each got their own name
back and Vittorio Emanuele II renamed the town Santa Margherita after his
mother. Santa is one of my favorite places on the Riviera. My first year in
Italy I took an Italian language course there through the University of Genoa’s
summer program and the classes were held at the villa Durazzo in Santa, the
villa you see in the photo. It was a dazzling summer is all I can say.
Camogli |
A little further down the road,
heading toward Genoa, is the town of Camogli. Some historians claim that the
name Camogli comes from
the Etruscan god Camulio or Camulo , also known as Mars. For others it comes
from the people of Casmonati who inhabited the region before the Roman
conquest. But my favorite name story is that is comes from Ligurian dialect
which takes “Ca” which means home and “mogli” which means wives and puts them
together to form the “house of the wives” which referred to the fact that the
men of Camogli were never home. True. They were sailors and fishermen and that
you can’t be a sailor or a fisherman if you stay home.
So there you are, now you’ve met some of my neighbors. There
are actually many more, but there’s no point in going overboard with this idea,
now is there.
You've certainly perked my interest in seeing this area of Italy...good job, great article.
ReplyDeleteThe history of these towns is so interesting, and endlessly complex. In researching Michelangelo in Carrara, I found that he had to contract with boats from Lavagna to move his marble to Rome. Some tough sailors!
ReplyDelete