The main street, the beautifully arcaded Via dei Martiri, was built in the 14th century and was lines with wonderful shops. The porticoes are made of locally quarried slate. Via dei Martiri leads to busy Piazza Matteotti with a view of the sea in the distance.
On the northern side of Piazza Matteotti is the Palazzo Rocco and its garden, the Parco Botanico de Villa Rocca. The Rocca family, Chiavari natives, who found success in Argentina, returned and purchased the palazzo in 1903 and the garden was added a few days later.
We walked back towards Piazza Mazzini, looking for a place to eat a local pasta dish, Trofie al pesto (hand made Trofie pasta, pesto sauce, green beans and sliced potatoes) and found the Tavolo: 15 Rist. No one spoke much English but we were able to order and even carry on a little conversation with our friendly waiter, who came by our table at the end of the meal to offer us each a glass of Limoncello "on the house".
We then walked back through town toward the water and walked 20 minutes towards the neighboring town of Lavagna. A bridge links the two towns which today can seem like one, but in the Middle Ages they were quite distinct. Lavagna was the fief of the Fieschi, a litigious family who began to play a leading role in Genoa in the 12th century. Their fortunes soared when Simbaldo Fieschi became Pope Innocent IV (1243-54). Innocent's brother, Opizzo Fieschi, married the Sienese Countess Bianca dei Bianchi in 1230 in Lavagna and made such a splash by ordering a cake large enough to provide a slice for each his subjects that the party is annual re-enacted every August 14th, climaxing in the eating of 1,500 kg Torta dei Fieschi. At 8:45 PM on the night of August 14th partygoers buy tickets at the entrance to Piazza Vittorio Veneto -- blue tickets for males and pink ones for females -- and the lucky couples who manage to find in the crown the mystery person who holds a matching ticket in the opposite color are entitled to a slice of cake and who knows what else.
It was getting pretty warm and everything was closed for the mid-day siesta, so we walked to the Lavagna train station to catch the next train to Rapallo. We kind of let our guard down getting on the train and were met by two nice looking high school aged girls asking if this was Chiavari . . . while they were trying to pick Mike's pocket! Luckily he felt the girls hand on his fanny pack and we don't keep our money or credit cards in an outside pocket so they didn't get anything but it reminded us that you can't relax even in beautiful Liguria.
As the train was going around a bend on the way back to Rapallo, Mike who was looking out the window gave a big groan -- he could see the harbor and there were two big cruise ships in Rapallo! Rapallo has the only large, protected harbor in this part of Liguria, but it does not have a dock so the people would have to be shuttled on and off the cruise ships by smaller boats -- what a hassle so that they can see Portofino. The cruise ships were not the large seven or eight story ships, but it looked like they still held 2,000 to 3,000 people each!
Back in Rapallo we stopped at Bar Cavo in Piazza Cavour to split a gelato of half hazelnut and half chocolate with prosecco and beer. We were surprised when we also got peanuts, chips, carrots sticks and dip! After relaxing on our terrace, we went back to Hostaria Vecchia Rapallo for dinner and split a tuna tartare appetizer and each had the veal Milanese with roasted potatoes and a nice 2011 Villa Martis Langhe Nebbiolo wine. Since it was Friday and the day before a big holiday, the restaurant was much busier than usual so they brought in a cute young girl to help serve. She spoke very good English and told us she was originally from Tanzania where they speak English and Swahili. We were having trouble placing Tanzania (Africa) and kind of got it mixed up in our mind with Tasmania in Australia!
No comments:
Post a Comment