From the Archives

 One from the archives of 2015 in Italy, Hubby ( sccollections) making a picture.

Genoa

Another one from 2012 in Genoa Italy. The teacher was making a photo of her school class after visiting the Basilica, so we did the same.

Temperatures are still mediterranean here...

Whish I was there...

It is raining like mad here at the moment and it is 13 degrees C (55.4 F)! Doesn't really like summer, so I return to my holliday. Only 1,5 week ago I was in Portofino a lovely little village in Italy. Around the harbour are dozens of restaurants with terraces.

 We had a nice cool beer at first.

And I had a Salade Nicoise with tuna for lunch

We always amuse ourselves with finding look-a-likes, hee mister Bean?

I would love to sit on this balcony now.

Taphophile Tragics

 The cemetery Staglieno in Genoa Italy is gigantic with sculptures at almost any grave. It dates from 1851 and fills 160 hectares. There is a even shuttlebus to drive people around. I was stunned by the realistic and exuberant sculptures, it was like you walked through the lives of the people. This one I suppose was a father of a young family as there are little children surrounding him, or maybe the grandfather. There was no further information, only the family name.

The sculpturers are made with so much details. The children seem to play with water.

It looks like she is playing with ducks.

See for more Taphophile Tragics here

Weekend Reflection

In Portofino Italy sccollections and me watched the weird watch in a shopwindow.

See for more weekend reflections here.

Genoa

Genoa is an old surprising harbour city I didn't know. It reminds me a bit of Barcelona with old buildings, palaces and churches. In 2004 Genova was the cultural capital of Europe and the famous architect Renzo Piano made this "Bigo"in the harbour, inspired by the masts of a ship. There is a rotating elevator in which you have a panaromatic view over the city. It was out of order helas.

Two lions flank the church stairs to the San Lorenzo Church.

 Piazza De Ferrari with a big theatre on the left.

This was so funny, we turned around a corner and saw these school children sitting on the stepps of a chapel. Their teacher was just making a photo of them and our group joined her, so the children had suddenly a whole battery of cameras in front of them.

We visited a cemetery "Staglione" with amazing sculptures. I made many photos there which I will show you later .

One of the most beautiful streets is the "Via Garibaldi" with only palaces on both sides from the 16th and 17th century. It was difficult to photograph, because the street was so narrow. You could imagine how it must have been to walk there long ago.

Cinque Terre

One of the highlights of the tour was the visit to "Cinque Terre" (Five countries). Five small villages are built against the vertical rocks and you only can reach them by train, boat or feet. It is 20 km coast and hinterland and placed on the Unesco World-Heritage list. We reached the first village Riomaggiore by train and climbed all the way up to have a view over the place with the narrow streets.

You can see the "Via dell'Amore", (path of love)  along the sea we had to walk 2 km to the next village Manarola.

Look at this, you can hardly believe how they could built houses here.

The main street of Manarola. Because they can't leave their boats near the rocks below where they would be damaged by the waves, they have to parc them in the street.

Terraces are cut out in the rocks to cultivate olives and grapes.

This village Corniglia we only passed by boat, it lies 100m high on a mountain ridge.

All looks very fairy-like, but nature can be dangerous. In October 2011 a terrible flood with mud rushed from the mountains through the village Vernazza which left many buildings damaged. They are still repairing the streets. Look here for a film "http://www.youtube.com/embed/bBoCfey0ueg"

Albenga

Albenga has a medieval centre with at the left an amazing high tower from the 13th century. In front you see a baptizing chapel which was built in the 5th century. The Romans had already founded here a harbour city called "Albingaunum".

"Piazza dei Leoni" ( square of the lions) has three stone lions which were brought from Rome by the local graves Costa.

A view through the small alleys.

It was a Sunday morning and the locals came together at the church square to go to church, some of them well dressed up.

Streetviews

We didn't only watched buildings, I also like to spot people in the streets. In San Remo a Johnny Depp look-a-like passed by. Have no idea why, probably promoting something.

The Italian policemen wear nice fitting costumes and a very big A4 white leather bag at the back on their hips. You can see it with the right one, to keep their tickets in?

And all those scooters, what the bikes are for Amsterdam, are the scooters for the Italian cities. They have special parking places on the streets, marked with white stripes.

I am fond of shoes, but these were a bit above my budget and the heels are far to high for me.....

Back again

After a flight to Nice in the south of France we drove with a tourgroup to the Italian Riviera where we visited the Hanbury gardens. This magnificent botanical garden was founded in 1867 by sir Thomas Hanbury, a rich english businessman and his brother Daniel a botanist. The palazzo dates from the 14th century and has a great view over the Mediterranean sea.

The Dragon Fountain with turtles and goldfishes. The garden is situated against a very high mountain and we had to climb and descent many heights which we had to do many, times this holiday. I have very strong fibulas now...

Then we visited San Remo a seaside resort with the famous Casino Municipale from 1906, the belle-epoque period. As you can see the Italians are still driving scooters.

This is the Russian Orthodoxe Church from 1920 with the onion formed domes. During medium 19th and the start of the 20th century tourism from the Uk and Russia expanded here with all kind of grand hotels and villas.