Regina Elena

Santa Margherita Ligure

by Bregman

This area is one of the most beautiful in Italy. A beautiful coast with many picturesque little towns all over. No point in writing much, just go and see the images, and more images and even more images.

Zena, ma se ghe pensu

by alza

"A place to long for Genoa"

This won't be useful in the usual sense, in case you wander in here. You're very welcome nonetheless.

I went back to Genoa one day, all my memories intact and hoping to corner that hermetic city. Fate decided otherwise and I spent a week along the coast, nearby. All the while, I imagined Genoa. Soon I'll be walking in Sottoripa -- Fate, let me have my way!

Meantime, since I recently found my pictures of that melancholy week on the coast, I had fun scanning them - to remind me not to go and do it all over again this next time, as is my habit. Zena calls, through thoughts of friends and Eugenio Montale... 'La speranza di pure riverderti m'abbandonava'...

(a Modena, tra i portici,
un servo gallonato trascinava
due sciacalli al guinzaglio).
--(under the arches at Modena
I saw an old man in a uniform
dragging two jackals on a leash).--

So anyway, my hotel in Santa Marguerita Ligure was great. They lent me a bike and I made my way back and forth to Rapallo a couple of times. I stopped everywhere along the way, the views and my happiness were too awesome to put into words. The hotel is Il Conte Verde. :-)

"At a turn on the road, I saw a palazzo"

The gate was open but it looked private... honestly, the place was so big I thought it must be a museum. So I walked in and explored the garden silently, half expecting to meet an Etruscan spirit to talk to. Silenzio totale... and the red palace looming above

'Si trovo in un magnifico palazzo tutto di cristallo. Da tutte le porte uscinvano servitori di cristallo : - Buondi signo padrone, cosa comanda?'
(-- He finds himself in front of a magnificent palace, all in crystal, and from all the doors come crystal servants. 'Good day, master. What is your wish?') - Fiabe italiane, Italo Calvino.

"There was a stone bench"

In antique times, Hadrian must have sat and talked or loved there, with Antinoos. That was my dream, in the garden. I kept stretching out towards the coast below, trying to measure the road travelled from Santa Marguerita, and wondering how long I had to pedal before I hit Rapallo.

It was just around the corner, finally. And what a thrill to get to a real little town, with bookshops and life! I ran from one place to the next, got some new clothes, ate a yummy pizza at Monica's on the promenade, walked to the Castello (utttz tells me it's called 'Il Castello' -- a rare piece of information indeed) and called everyone I could reach back home from a big phone centre, to tell them I was in Il Paradiso.
Then it was 'passeggiata' in Ravello and I felt like I belonged, so I reserved a room there for the next few days.
That's how I never got to see Genoa.

"Is this San Michele?"

hope you won't be upset with me gigante... I forgot the name of this lovely hamlet. Well, it was much lovelier in real life than this panorama pic shows. On the road from Santa Marguerita to Rapallo, a beautiful, quiet stop. Tout seul!
(dedicated to Cyrano)