LA FESTA IN THE HARBOUR

There was a small festival last night in Nervi in the small boat harbour, at the end of passegiata Anita Garibaldi. We saw an advertisement promising food, drink and music and decided to wonder down the harbour area in the early evening to have a look.

   The local fishermen's association had transformed the tiny square into an outdoor restaurant with long tables  and benches. There was an air of informality. Tables were covered in plastic cloth, secured in place with brown packaging tape. Simple, but efficient.

   Even though the weather - which has been absolutely gloriously sunny and hot for couple of weeks now - turned into a thunder storm with light rain later, it did not spoil the festive weekend athmosphere. People still came to the party: families with small children, elderly couples, teenagers...

  After buying a ticket, €8 per person for food and drink, we found a free table  and sat down to enjoy the evening. Teenagers volunteering as waiters and waitresses came to inspect the tickets and then brought us a plastic plate of freshly cooked fish with pieces of bread covered in tasty tomato sauce and a glass of deliciously cold white wine.

   Then the rain started and everyone ran to seek shelter in a covered area. We found another table and met a very nice Italian family. We even managed to have a conversation in Italian with them. Luckily, they also spoke some English so we got the basics covered.  

  A Rwandan band was supposed to be performing but sadly that was cancelled due to the weather.  Neverheless, the evening continued in all the other small restaurants and bars along the harbour.

   We went home happy. 

   This was the first time we had a strong sense of having participated in something benefitting the whole community.  After last night one other new feeling has started to take shape as well: perhaps this is now a little bit our neighbourhood too.

  

  

  

  

  

  

PILLARS OF SHAME

Everyone has heard about monuments built in honor of something or somebody. But the Genovese have gone one step further: in this city there are monuments in order to remember something that is shameful or disgraceful. There are at least two pillars of shame (colonna infame) in the city centre. My friend Mary took me to see one of them and it has actually been put there to shame the city of Genoa itself.

This pillar of shame can be found very close to Museo di Sant'Agostino in Piazza di Sarzano.

This particular pillar is a reminder of the fact that when the city of Genoa decided to re-built a specific part of the historical centre, they destroyed a whole neighbourhood in the process, including the birth place of violonist Niccolo Paganini. Even though a new house has been built nearby to mark Paganini's birth place, it is not quite the same say those who would have preferred to visit the original one.



On top of the pilar, there is a proverb saying "Do no evil, have no fear". There is also list of all the original neighbourhoods which were destroyed in the building process: Marina, Via Madre di Dio, Via del Colle, Portoria, Sarzano e Ravecca. At the end there is a quote from Franz Lizt:  "There will never be another Paganini".

GONE TO THE BEACH!

It's hot. It's humid. No air in the apartment.
It is easy to understand why the whole of Italy is practically closed in August.
For the past couple of weeks day temperatures have reached well over +30C every day in Genoa and some days even  up to +40 C in the afternoon. We have tried to keep one room cool with the air-conditioning unit and windows open everywhere else. Keeping the window shutters down helps too, but who wants to sit in a dark apartment with lights on when there is bright sunshine and glittering waters nearby?
There is only one remedy. Must find a beach.

This is not a difficult mission as there are beaches everywhere. One of the best things about Genoa is that it is so close to all the pretty little villages/small towns along the Ligurian coast, all easily accessible. Yesterday we went to explore Camogli - pretty little seaside resort town only 20 minutes from Nervi by train and simply followed the crowd. Bingo! They were all going to the same place as us - the beach.
   Once you have found a beach that looks promising, there are usually two options - paying for sunchairs and an umbrella or trying to find a free spot in the sun. The Genovese are famous for being careful with money. Basically, nobody wants to pay and therefore the search for a free piece of beach is a popular sport.
   The paying option becomes pricey very quickly, if one wants to meet the waves more than once a week. There is normally an entrance fee (say €10 euro per person). A sunchair is another €7 per person and an umbrella €5 optional extra for half a day (from 9 am to 2 PM or from 2PM to 7PM). Yesterday it cost us €30 for the family for a half-day in this particular il bagno  but on the plus side there was a  restaurant/bar/cabins/toilets/beach shower and a life-guard on duty. The chairs were not particularly comfortable and they were in a row of ten other chairs, but the umbrella was a good size giving well needed shade.

  A beach is not always full of white sand or any sand for that matter. In Camogli the beach was made out of small pebbles which meant that the small distance from the towel to the sea became a humiliating acrobatic exercise, especially attempted with bare feet.  The pebbles were like hot coals in the heat of the day.  We made a mental note to buy cheap plastic shoes for the next time...