LIGURIAN GHOST TOWNS PART 1

There are places in Liguria impossible to explore properly unless you have a car. So, my friends Mary and Chantal had a great idea: let's hire a small bus, get a small group together and explore the Ligurian countryside. Who knows what we may see? Armed with various guidebooks, we left Genoa early on Tuesday morning. None of us had ever been in Albenga, Cisano sul Neva, Zuccarello, or Castelveccio before. Mary had done a lot of research on the places we were expecting to visit, so we had some idea of the history and main sights. The sky was bright blue and the air crispy and cold, a perfect day to be a tourist! 

An hour and a half later we arrived to Albenga, 46 km from Savona. This town has one of the most well preserved medieval city centres in Liguria, dominated by four impressive towers. The Cathedral of Albenga, dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, has a very unassuming and modest entrance from the main street, but the interior is full of interesting art work and historical details. 

Frescoes on the wall and paintings on the ceiling of the Cathedral in Albenga - watching them was like being in a time machine, catapulted back to medieval times. It was particularly nice to see that this ancient church was by no means preserved for historical purposes only. Quite a few locals were coming in to have a quiet moment. We were definitely the only tourists. 

Very close to the Cathedral is the early Christian Baptistery (built between fifth and sixth century), said to be one of the oldest Christian monuments in Northern Italy. There is a rare mosaic of a blue, starry sky inside the Baptistery. The Museo Diocesano was just opening when we got there and even though we did not have a lot of time inside the museum, we did manage to see the copy of Caravaggio's work of John the Baptist. The original is in Kansas City. But there were many other interesting paintings too and three walls were covered in large tapestries, full of rich details. 

After this suitably large dose of art and culture, we strolled along the streets of Albenga for while. I came across this ginger cat, which definitely had seen a camera before and happily posed for photos.. 

We were soon back on the bus and continued towards Cisano sul Neva, a walled city since 13th century. The 8-seater bus was parked in a tiny piazza and we got out. An old man stopped to say hello and pointed us towards an alleyway with his walking stick (first, I thought that he was telling us not to park on the piazza, but he just wanted to make sure that we not miss the most beautiful part of this little village!!). Have to say, that it would have been a pity to miss the view from this bridge.

There was a small private garden on one side of the bridge with a persimon tree....

....and the cactus with a tiny flower looked so exquisite in the November sun.

Cisano sul Neva might be a tiny dot on the map of Liguria, but it was one of those delightful places, where you would like to photograph every inch of it. Interesting details - such as this stone bench - everywhere.

For example, this dark and mysterious alleyway (see below)would be a perfect back drop for a murder mystery or a horror story. The old wheel and all! Location scouts for Hollywood movies should not miss this place.

Eventually we had to leave and get back to the road. We stopped to view couple of pretty castles from outside and then drove on to a tiny place called Zuccarello, established in 1248, with many signs of medieval structures preserved to this day.

This lady is Ilaria Carretto. She was born here and was daughter of Carlo, 1st Marquis of Zuccarello. She married Paolo Guingi, Lord of Lucca. The wedding was a society event of the year, I guess, as it lasted 3 days and 3 nights according to the sign next to the statue. The couple had 2 sons, but tragically Ilaria died after giving birth to her second baby. She was only 19 years old. Paolo must have been beside himself with grief and he commissioned a monument in her honor. The original monument, made by Jacopo Della Quercia, was  in 1407 and can still be seen in Cathedral of Lucca. The bronze statue  in Zuccarello is a much more recent creation by Flavio Furlani (2007).

Zuccarello's streets were totally empty, but there was some signs of activity: Christmas decorations were on display on the bridge and around the piazza. Couple of workmen were putting in the final touches. Again, all shops were closed with shutters and big padlocks. What else would you expect on an ordinary Tuesday in November? I think it started to unnerve us a little bit: the fact that we did not see any people about. 

We were clearly visiting Zuccarello couple of days too early, as there is going to be a big pumpkin/harvest festival this weekend, on 1st December. 

  Zuccarello may definitely be one of those places where Italians from the big cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa come to relax during the summer months, possibly having a second home there. On this November day it looked so totally dead and deserted. But little did we know that the Zuccarello was not the only "ghost town" around this area on winter time... (to be continued tomorrow).