Thursday, July 22, 2010

Bertolotto Cova Apartment, Levanto
0911 EET

Compared to the two air-conditioned nights in Venezia, our first night back was warm and humid. But other than a brief use of the bathroom at 0315 during the night, I slept fine. Strangely I awoke thinking of a storyline of an original Gargoyles tale and characters, when usually if plotting, it is about Stargate SG-1. I think I shall blame it on the gargoyles I saw from the balcony of Basilica di San Marco on Tuesday. That and all the history I am absorbing. Reasonable fault because the concert in Chiesa di Sant’ Andrea and in particular the piece Let the bright Seraphim had me working out a scene in my head for my SG-1 and Indian Jones fic for the past few days. Even though I have already decided to discard the story element in question as being too outlandish.

Before I forget, again, about an element of Basilica di San Marco, Venezia, but that more comparisons have been added to; the staircase in the museum is very long and steep and when descending it, I remarked to Mom that at least it did not compare to the Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze’s four flights. Then last night when comparing the basilica’s staircase to the flight of the apartment’s, was that in Levanto the steps are slightly less steep and the landings are all that interrupt the directness, otherwise, they are very similar.

One other thing about Venezia, which really stood in contrast with Levanto up on our return, are the streets. In Venezia the canals are the only motorised transportation, like in the morning beneath our hotel windows we watched them unload produce, some from refrigerator boats, sometimes three boats getting roped together to unload and then the act that occurred when the docked first boat wanted to leave. But on the streets of Venezia, there are only people. Making a notable change in the speed of pedestrian traffic and a freeness that is not there with the bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, and cars. Venezia does indeed move at a different pace then any other city I have been too.

Bertolotto Cova Apartment, Levanto
0911 EET

In the later half of the morning, we went on a self-tour of Levanto with mainly two goals in mind, another memory card for my camera and to restock our fridge. While we did not have much success with the first as the one shop we found had only 4GB cards that in retrospect are I believe too large for my camera. The second goal was met and we even picked up a set of three Kinder Surprises as the packaging in Italia intrigues us. The other purchase that I am not sure what we are going to do with is a bottle of Limoncello Tosco. So on that, I will see.

We returned to the apartment at pretty much 1200 and were hearing a buzzer as we reached the door for our landing. It confused us, but checking we found Zio James at the bottom ready to guide us to the Cinque Terre ferry ticket booth and to examine the schedule. We put our groceries away and joined him. It was short walk and the booth was before the path leading to the lava rocks where a ferry was already docked. Tickets were €18.00 [$24.0676] per adult to Portovenere down the coast, where we decided to go over the other destination option, Portagino, which is up the coast. Our departure was at 1430 so we returned to make lunch, basil futacha bread, prosciutto, Swiss cheese, and spinach sandwiches and rested until 1345.

While we had invited Nichola along he declined, so we boarded the ferry and sat on the open top deck on the left side as recommended by Zio James for the Cinque Terre scenery. The area and its five hamlets of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore on the west coast of the Riviera have been turned into a national park and proclaimed a heritage site by UNESCO. The views of rugged forested coastline of soaring cliffs, the hamlets clinging to the cliff face or within small inlets, and the agricultural terracing that surrounds them are very picturesque. I of course took many pictures of the scenery as the ferry moved parallel to the coastline and docked for a time in each hamlet. One thing I spotted in most locations, besides the standard Italiano or medieval architecture is that all of the cemeteries are situated on high ground above the hamlets.

Leaving Levanto, pink building is on the lava rocks and the cove between is the pebble beach I first went swimming in.

A hamlet.

A hamlet.

Terracing.

We arrived in Portovenere to the sight of Chiesa di San Pietro dominating the point of the peninsula and Castello Doria above the town. Disembarking we purchased gelato cones with a generous amount of whipped cream for €2.20 [$2.9416] per cone and my choice of flavours was cherry and stratectala. Observing a tourist map we believe we could access the castle by climbing a staircase which actually followed the castle wall and took us around and behind, not into the interior. But it was an adventure that gave us another view of San Pietro church and the cemetery off the side of the castle. As we reached the top at 1650 and the ferry departed for Levanto at 1720 we made our way back down and to the harbour dock. While boarding I happened to glance into the water and saw a good amount of fish.

Chiesa di San Pietro.

Chiesa di San Pietro, left; Castello Doria, right.

Castello Doria and town of Portovenere.

Chiesa di San Pietro from behind Castello Doria.

On the return trip, we were on the right side up top, and I simply enjoyed the sights and left my camera in my sling-pack. We got back into our Levanto apartment at 1901 and, while Mom showered, I began preparing super of spinach-filled pasta. As a bit of extra, I dumped the remaining spinach leaves in the colander and drained the pasta over it. Then afterwards I cleaned up myself and finished journaling the day’s events.

Well, I laid down on the bed at 2020, but had to get ready for the archery contest in Piazza Cavour at 2100. We waited for some time for Zio James, Zia Michela, and Nicola to appear and went down as a group. When questioned, Nichola showed and described Levanto’s colours, blue and white, and coat of arms, blue and white Genova cross with an eagle atop. The entire event was in Italiano, so while I of course did not understand a sentence of it, I enjoyed what was to be watched. After announcements the trumpeters and drummers followed by the archers, street performers, and others paraded into the piazza in period costume with the musicians wearing the blue and white uniform of the town. After circling the piazza once, the musicians departed and the archery contest began with introducing the world gold medalists and Italian champion.

Piazza Cavour with festival stage.

Archery contest poster.

The contest was a bit of an obstacle course of six different targets. The first was a keystone on a castle, which opened the door and presented a balloon target. The second was a target that triggered a wheel divided into a pie pattern painted different colours for different points, then it was stationary upper chest and helmet of a knight, a fox, a very peculiar looking ‘sea gull’ on a zip line, and lastly, a vase that swings like a pendulum. Each target was worth certain points.

The archery was combined with performers, such juggling and largely and most visually striking, fire dancers to, as Nichola said “again with the Scottish music” and it did make me think of Deep Blue Sea music without vocals. Nichola remarked that he is interested in fire dancing so I will investigate in fire poi for him, as well as starting up myself again as the performers rekindled my interest. The archery contests and performers concluded at 2330 and I suspect tomorrow morning’s wake up of 0730 for our quest to climb Rosola will be a trial.