Life in Chiavari

 

It is easy to settle into a good life in Italy. Everything from the view off the balcony to the food we eat makes us feel good. We can walk to everything we need, including the trains that can take us all the way across Europe. We got into a routine of going to the local pool for swimming - the ocean is still very cold - and mom and dad have invited us to their exercise class and even Tai chi.

 

During the day, we hang out at the beach, go shopping at the market or go explore a nearby town.

The weather has been mostly wonderful and at the end of ever day we go for our passagata (a slow walk to see friends and enjoy the sea) with mom and dad along the promenade. This usually ends with a spuntino (before dinner drink) and more socializing with friends. Tim and Angela look younger every time we see them and we are feeling younger just being here.

On  one of our day trips (Thursday, May 17) we caught a train with Tim to the little seaside town of Camogli. It's only 10 minutes from Chiavari, but upon stepping onto the platform, we felt like we'd been transported to another time.

Tall, brightly painted buildings separated by narrow, winding cobblestone paths faced the ocean. Unlike Chiavari, whose wide streets lined with portacis (covered walkways) are built around a central plaza, Camogli is built right into ocean cliffs. As the story goes, Camogli was an ancient shipbuilding town (they built the boats that made Genoa great) and all the buildings face the sea so that the wives could wait for their husbands to return. Not sure how true it is, but it's a nice story.


We worked our way through the narrow streets and alleys of Camogli, moving south until we found ourselves on a steep and narrow path leading out of town and up into the surrounding hillside. Soon we were hiking along the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean.
 
The air was warm, the skies clear and down below us the blue stretched seemingly forever. Every so often a power boat would cruise by, leaving a bright, white wake behind it, etched in the azure water. The trail led up and over rock outcrops, many of which were exposed to the 300' foot cliffs below.

To keep wary hikers like us from losing their footing and finding themselves plunging towards the ocean, some very kind and intelligent people bolted stainless steel chains into the rock face. This via ferrata, or iron trail , came in handy - pun intended - many times as we inched our way along the route, peering over the edge at the depths below us.
 
After the kids had left
After a few hours, and a couple well-deserved breaks, we arrived at San Fruttosso. As an American, it's hard to describe San Fruttosso; we lack a sense of history deep enough to comprehend a one thousand year old monastery nestled into a cove smaller than many of our backyards. Not only is there one thousand year old monastery (one that has it's own art gallery), but there are several restaurants, a ferry dock - we could've taken a boat from Camogli, but the views from the cliffs were better - and a beach filled with about two hundred school kids on a field trip. Nothing against American public schools, but we never had anything like this when I was growing up. The beach was teaming with kids playing games, splashing in the waves and generally have a fun time. Moreover, they all seemed to get along and the teachers didn't need to do any disciplining in the two hours we stayed at the beach. Not bad for 10 year olds. We caught the 5:00 pm ferry from San Fruttosso to Porto Fino. Tim continued on while Giovannina and I got off to explore this famous little community.

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Porto Fino has earned a reputation for sheer class and glamor and it certainly deserves it. It's a perfect little harbor nestled between two sheer cliffs, one topped by a castle AND a cathedral. The harbor is filled with multimillion dollar boats moored alongside small, one-man fishing vessels. The streets of the town are charming, taciturn pathways that stretch up into the hills above the harbor. Movies - glamorous movies - have been filmed here (James Bond films even) and walking around we felt like we were in one of them. But it was getting late and we had a ferry to catch. We got on the 6:00 pm boat and made our way back to Rapallo where we caught a train back to Chiavari. We were home by 7:00 pm, just in time to have a delicious meal prepared by Angela.

Now that's what I call a good day.

Arriving in Chiavari, Italy

Giovannina writing-

Chiavari is a small city on the Italian Riviera that I  have been visiting since my first birthday.  It is situated between Rapallo and Sestri Levante with tons of other great little towns nearby.  Portofino and Cinque Terre are two of the best known spots, but there are many other favorites that our family loves to visit as well.


Woody and I will be staying here for three weeks with my parents in their apartment two blocks from the sea.  I am named after my Nona [Grandmother] Giovannina, who along with her husband, Nono Attilio, bought the apartment in the 1960s for their retirement. When Nona Giovannina passed away, the apartment went to my parents who now live here for at least six months a year, typically January through July.


With the beach just down the street, a lovely open air market nearby  and great restaurants within a couple of blocks, we rarely leave Chiavari.  But since it is still spring and the weather is a little "fresca", Woody and I decided to spend our first day in Italy by going for a short hike in the mountains just outside of town.


The old way of travel here was to walk, and the towns are designed around this mode of transportation.  Path ways through the towns and villages lead to trails to the next town and so on. Recently the local hiking club - Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) has been fixing up many of the trails so it is very easy to go from town to town. There are trails all through the mountains of Italy. If you wanted,  you could hike from Chiavari all the way to Switzerland or France, or even head south along the "Backbone of Italy", the Apennines Mountain Range, all the way to the "end of the boot."  

We left the apartment and with in minutes were in the mountains behind town, enjoying a bit of a work-out after spending the last couple of days on airplanes. Soon we found ourselves on a ridge looking down upon Chiavari whose white stone buildings shone in the sunlight and contrasted with the green hills that rose from the sea behind it. Though the air was cold, the sun was bright, and the ocean glowed a deep blue, highlighting the curved edges of the mountains.

 

As we traveled farther out of town, we encountered  farms that had been trellised for olive orchards and gardens. We passed over bridges hundreds of years old and walked by ancient homes, some abandoned and some still being lived in, mostly by the older population that has not left for the cities.


All the while, the deep blue sea glowed beneath us.

  

New Dehli (almost)

All airports look the same, cool metal beams over head with large tinted windows and long couridors some times with flat escalators if they are more modern.  On our trip we have found our way in, out and around many airports. We estimate that in the last five months, we have spent almost three days of our lives (about 65 hours) in airports. The longest of these layovers was in New Dehli, India on our way from Bangkok to Milan.

When we originally bought our tickets for this trip, we planned to spend three days in New Delhi. But sometime in the middle of our stay in the Philippines, we decided to extend our time in Thailand, which meant only spending a day in New Delhi, 17 hours to be exact. We'd arrive at 9:00 am Sunday and fly out at 2:00 am Monday morning. We figured that would give us enough time to store our bags, catch a taxi and see some of the city, the Taj Mahal and maybe even grab some genuine Indian food for dinner.

However, when we checked into our flight in Bangkok we were informed that because we didn't have a visa for India, we could not leave the airport...for 17 hours. This was, to put it simply, a bummer. The thought of spending all day and half the night in an airport - in a country we've never visited and would love to see at least a little of - made us antsy and we were really upset at ourselves for not looking into the visa issue earlier.

That is, until we arrived in New Dehli and saw this sign.

The outdoor air temperature was 38 degrees celsius (100 degrees F) and the air pollution was so thick we couldn't see more than a mile outside the airport windows. We both agreed our first real visit to India could wait, at least until the monsoons cooled things down and cleared the air a bit.

Bangkok

Bangkok - The City of Angels



After a two hour ferry and six hour bus ride from Koh Tao, we arrived in Bangkok at 9 pm without a place to stay. The bus dropped us off at Khao San Road - aka backpacker central - and we wandered through the throngs of partiers and amid street vendors selling pad thai, fruit shakes, obscene t-shirts and tickets to the late night sex shows. Neon signs were glaring overhead like Vegas and we could hear at least three different bands, all playing American cover songs, mostly rock and roll, mostly from the '90s.

I watched our gear while Giovannina searched for a room. After 10 minutes she returned with a 700 Baht/night (about $23 USD) room with its own shower and air conditioning. It sounded like a great deal to us and we proceeded to check in for our final three nights in Thailand.

We had wanted to spend a couple of days in Bangkok to get more of a cultural experience, something lacking on Koh Tao. The cultural experience we were after was not the the one in front of us in the festive streets of Khao San Road, but in the Buddhist temples and monasteries around the city. So the next day we got up and headed out to explore this ancient city.

We found a temple about two blocks from our hotel and decided to wander the grounds for a bit. We were both struck by the contrast of a holy place in the midst of the city. All of the alters were open to the public and the paths between the shrines were clean and well-maintained. The offerings of food and drink that were left for the spirits were not touched by anyone, even those without shelter begging on the street corner.

 
We were approached by an off-duty police officer who told us about a promotion sponsored by the government in which foreigners could be driven around the city by tuk-tuk for only 20 Baht (about 60 cents). The tuk-tuk driver got coupons for bringing the tourists to state sponsored outlet stores and the tourists got to see the city and maybe do a little duty-free shopping. We had heard of scams like this from other travelers, but honestly it seemed like a decent way to see the city for pretty cheap. So we flagged down a tuk-tuk and headed out to explore the city. Our driver, Joe, was very kind, teaching us some basic Thai phrases and drove us to several different temples, including the Lucky Buddha - I love that name - and the Standing Buddha, which was over 40 m tall. He also took us to a suit shop and a jewelery store, both of which we strolled through quickly and politely exited. We were also able to book a tour of the Floating Market for the following day. Next, Joe took us to see the Black Buddha, but it was closed for prayers. While we waited a Thai man who claimed to live in the U.S. tried very hard - and spoke very loudly - to get us to buy jewelery at the state-run store and then sell it in the states for a 195% profit. This, we found odd and politely ignored him as best we could, wondering if this really was some sort of elaborate scam.

 
We got lunch at a great little food stand where Joe told us a bit about his life. He had worked many years as an engineer making very good money (>$1000 USD/month) but was laid off when the company went under. Now he drove tourists around town in a suped-up tricycle. We paid Joe the 20 Baht, for which he was very pleased and he dropped us off at the Royal Palace. If the whole thing was a scam, it seemed to work out well for everyone involved.

These are just a few of the many buildings in the compound

The Royal Palace was stunning. The architecture is a blend of traditional Thai and Cambodian designs, complete with demon statues, golden domes and vast murals depicting ancient stories. In these murals, the most important characters are painted in gold-leaf to make them visible even at night. The holiest part of the palace is the chamber for the Emerald Buddhas, which are actually jade, but are dressed in solid gold and diamonds. There are three of them (one for each season: Summer, Winter and Rainy) and the are rotated in a ceremony directed by the King. Pretty special.
 
















We got to see the Summer Buddha and doused ourselves with lotus blossoms dipped in holy water to honor the event.




 
After the Royal Palace, we walked over to the Reclining Buddha, which is 45 m (about 150') long and about 10 m (30') tall. Massive. The statue has its own building, which was built around it after its construction over a century and a half ago. The still serenity of such a massive personnage was breathtaking. Although there were at least twenty tourists in the temple, it was almost silent.
 
We walked in awe down the length of the figure until we got to the feet, which tell another ancient story etched in mother of pearl.

At this point, it was late afternoon and the temperature was approaching 100 degrees. So we headed back to the cool of our hotel room to nap a bit and take a shower before heading out again to explore the Khao San Road night market.


The night market was like one huge festival happening in and amongst the city buildings. In alleys, on sidewalks and all over the street, vendors set up their wares and sold them to the throngs of passing tourists. For $1 USD each, we got a delicious curry and pad thai dinner. We then decided to have a snack of deep fried frogs, crickets and grasshoppers, which weren't nearly as bad as you might think, and looked a lot better than the cockroaches and maggots that were also available. We met an American doctor named Joe who had been working in Cambodian and bought us a beer in exchange for a deep-fried frog. We headed off to bed around 1 am. It seemed like the party was just starting, but we had to be up early for our trip to the floating market.

The Floating Market of Ratchaburi is about 90 minutes north of Bangkok and dates back to when the Chao Phraya River was the main means of transportation from the farms to the city and vice versa. Ratchaburi became a little trading post where vendors could sell their goods coming from or going to Bangkok. Now, everyone uses the highway, including the Floating Market vendors, who leave their boats in the canal and bring their goods via car and load up before the tourists arrive each day.
 
No fear, it's still really cool to watch vendors hawk their wares from a long-tailed boat. The town itself is built along a maze of canals, similar to Venice.

 
The houses all have boat launches so folks can leave from their yard and head down river.


We got back to Bangkok around 1 pm Saturday, took another air conditioning break in our room and headed out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This involved a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride across town by a mentally unbalanced driver who seemed to enjoy driving on both sides of the road at random intervals (He didn't get a tip.) The Weekend Market was huge, with vendors selling everything from pants and shirts to bedding and furniture, electronics to kids toys. The key here was to haggle, which we learned to enjoy. Often a price would start at 500 Baht, but if we were dilligent could get down to 300. This made us feel like we were getting a bargain, but probably we were just avoiding getting ripped off too bad.


We headed back to Khao San Road for our last night in Thailand and our last mango shake, which we will miss sorely. And so we ended our time in Thailand with more delicious, cheap food, loud, drunken backpackers and a hot, humid night.

To see more images from our time in Bangkok, check out our web albums for Bangkok and the Floating Market .