LIFE: Italian Neighbors

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 13^th/12^th 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.

LIFE: It's a Waiting Game

SARONNO, Italy - Here’s some good news. The President of the Republic of Italy was in Vernazza, over the weekend, to witness the changes that have taken place since the disastrous storm last October. The last time he was here, the town was buried under a river of mud 14 feet deep (4 meters) and people in his group were telling him, “the village pharmacy was here, the tobacco shop was over there and next to that a restaurant, and so on and so on, but all he could actually see was mud.  

 Vernazza, Italy

Gone were all of the places everyone had seen a thousand times in the photos and postcards sent by enchanted visitors as they marveled at this wonder of this village wedged between the sea and the sky. Even the underpass that once went to the train station was gone, the only reminder was a crooked blue Stazione sign pointing the way.

But that’s all changed. It’s not perfect yet, but the residents of Vernazza have been digging themselves out and on Monday, under a bright blue spring sky, Piazza Marconi was once again crowded with people sitting and having a drink by the sea. The old folks were out too, sitting on the village benches enjoying the warm spring sun and talking about the this and that of everyday life in the Cinque Terre.

Lunch in the Sun

And, as I said before, the President of the Republic was in town too. Officially he was there to attend a conference on protecting resources in an emergency, but I suspect he really wanted to see for himself what the people of Vernazza, and the many volunteers who came down to help, have done. One thing they didn’t do was wait around for the government’s help. They stepped up, got to work and made it happen.

I found a charming video of Vernazza on You Tube and if you’ve never been to Vernazza you'll get a good idea of what it's all about. Of course you won’t get to eat focaccia or smell the sea, or feel the warm breeze coming off of the water, but, you'll have to go there for those extras.  By the way, the church was built in 1310, just to give you a sense of the place, and because I know you are wondering, the total population is 974.The music in the video is coming from Piazza Marconi.

No, I haven't forgotten that it’s Thursday and it’s supposed to be Auntie Pasta’s turn to talk, so here’s an easy pesto recipe I found on the internet.

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

• Prep time: 10 minutes

 Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• Special equipment needed: A food processor

Method

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.


Yield: Makes 1 cup. (enough for four portions)

Of course if you are like me and you don't own a food processor, you can also use a mortar and pestle, no reason why you can't And what do you think about making some pesto, cooking your pasta and eating it while you watch the video. Sounds like a good idea to me. You'll have to eat fast though. 

LIFE: Bombs Away

Liguria, The Targeted Area

SARONNO, Italy -  On Friday, 10 August, 2012 a 500 pound (227 kilos) aerial bomb was found in Genoa. It was uncovered in the Bettolo quay in the city’s harbor during a dredging operation to expand the port facilities. All terminal traffic was halted. The red light was on for all ships, including cruise ships and ferries. Then an evacuation of the area was ordered as the Port Authorities arranged for the disposal of the 70 year old bomb identified as an American made AnM64. Once the bomb, which contains about 200 pounds (91 kilos) of the explosive TNT, was neutralized, it was transferred to a nearby quarry for detonation.

 Port of Genoa

The following Monday, August 13th, a 250 lbs. (114 kilos) aerial bomb was found in the harbor of Sestri Levante, and once again, as in Genoa, the sea around the discovery site was cordoned off and sea traffic was brought to a halt. This time the location of the bomb was dangerously close to Sestri’s two beautiful bays: the Baia delle Favole (Bay of Fairy Tales) named in honor of the Danish writer of fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen, who lived in Sestri Levante in 1833, and the Baia dei Silenzio, (Bay of Silence), commemorated by the flamboyant and romantic British poet Lord Byron who declared  it a piece of paradise on earth.

In charge of the bomb removal operation is the Deputy Vice-Prefect of Genoa, Paolo D’Attilio, the same man who, last year, oversaw the removal of three other unexploded aerial bombs found in the seaside town of Recco. Most notable of the three was the bomb that weighed 1,0000 lbs. (550 kilos).That bomb, the 1,000 lb. bomb, was discovered on Sunday, 13 January 2011 and 5,000 local residents had to be evacuated before the authorities would even touch it.

Bird's Eye View of Recco

There are many other relics of World War II in Liguria, none quite as dramatic as the 1,000 lb. bomb found in Recco, but still grim reminders of the death and destruction that ravaged the now peaceful and beautiful sea side region. It started in February of 1941 with the announcement by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill of an imminent all-out attack on Genoa. Before it was over more than one thousand tons of bombs would be dropped on the city of Genoa and other towns along the sea.

The Italians had built twenty-five stone artillery bunkers into the hills creating a fifty kilometer line of defense along the coast between Genoa and the city of La Spezia. I first saw them when I took a boat one Sunday morning from Genoa Nervi, where I lived, to Portovenere in Cinque Terre. But the twenty-five artillery bunkers against more than one thousand tons of bombs were about as effective as pitting a fly against a fly swatter.

Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa

You can still see one of the bombs that was dropped from a British plane (and didn’t explode) in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa’s historic center. It’s on display in the right hand corner of the Cathedral as you walk in the door. It’s hard to imagine just how big – and scary -  an aerial bomb really is until you stand next to it.

In the end, the Italians did come through for the Allies.  By 1944, the Americans had landed in Sicily and were making their way up the boot to liberate Genoa,  but they were still more than 100 kilometers away when a group of civilians, daring the crossfire of German artillery, captured the city's radio station and informed the world that the city was in their hands. Even worse news for the Germans came when their division en route to Genoa was waylaid by another group of partisans.

 Bay of Silence, Sestri Levante

In the face of further humiliation, at 9 a.m. on the 26th of March 1944, the German General Gunther Meinhold, commander of the Wehrmacht in Genoa, surrendered to the partisan group, the National Liberation Committee (CLN) for Liguria, and Genoa became the only Italian city where the Nazis surrendered to the partisans before the U.S. Army arrived. It was also the first time a fully equipped army corps ever laid down its arms to civilians. 

The Genovese paid a heavy price for that honor. Out of 20,000 partisans, 2,500 died and approximately 2,700 suffered serious injuries, and every time another aerial bomb is uncovered, the people of Liguria shudder, remembering the horrors and the glory of those days.