Don't Go to the Italian Riviera, Live there.

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We didn’t visit the Italian Riviera, we lived there. Great, we got our AirBnB quote out, but we were very fortunate to have lucked out immensely with a truly awesome AirBnB spot. It was a shared room with our own private bathroom, and it was half the price of any hotel in the area. The apartment was located in Chiavari, kind of the commercial hub of the Italian Riviera Levante. We spent six glorious days in the area and really felt like we began to understand the life of the Ligurian people.



Chiavari



This place simply grew on us. It kind of felt like a younger sibling, as the city had some annoying tendencies, however, deep down you grow to love the place. First, we arrived at 9:55pm, and literally everything was closed. Our first impression was a town filled with marvelous white marble buildings, powerful towering churches, lush gardens, and literally no people. It was a renaissance ghost town. This carried over for a few days, until we realized that the Ligurian people are essentially very active in two different time slots in the day. From 8 to 12, they are all over the place, Chiavari is a humming, bustling city. From 12:30 to 3:30, everything is closed again, and only reopens from about 4 to 8 in the evening, when again, everything shuts down. It is hilarious. Once we realized this cycle, our love and appreciation for the city grew. The people are very friendly, and look to help you. It is easily traversed and very friendly for the pedestrian because they have so many covered alleyways with great window shopping, focacia cafes, gelato, di tutti! The produce is so fresh, and one thing I personally fell in love with was the smell of the city. It was a combination of so many rich, encompassing smells, that you just wanted to sit and breathe. The fresh foccacia bread mixed with simmering espresso and sweet, fresh produce. It was simply heaven. As for location, Chiavari sits right by the sea, but is more of a port city and we didn’t see any nice beaches in the vicinity, however, it sits perfectly in the middle of the Levante side of the Italian Riveria. We took advantage of this and really were able to explore the region, our first stop, Sestrie Levante and our search for my cousin Antonella.



Sestrie Levante



Sestrie is a postcard, a town that can’t possibly be real. My vocabulary fails miserably in trying to describe just how beautiful this place is. Unfortunately, our journey there started off quite poorly. We remembered from our last trip to the area, and really Italy in general, that they lack on checking tickets whether in buses or trains. So we took the train, and I decided not to pay a very minute ticket fee of 2.10 euros each, and risk getting to Sestrie for free. Welp, our luck from previous adventures has not lasted, because on the only stop between Chiavari and Sestrie, a conductor comes right up to us and says, Tickets please! Laura looks at me like are you freaking serious and I just fuddle around pretending I couldn't find them. The guy has obviously seen this before and is ready to charge us a 50 euro fee…each, but Laura starts talking to him in Spanish/Italian and is somehow able to get the fee from 100 euro to only 50. Unfortunately, 50 is quite expensive for us. Not a good way to start, but luckily our end destination was Sestrie, and walking around the town, all of your problems, worries, stresses, simply leave and you remain suspended on this cloud of alternate reality. The streets are narrowly cobbled, no cars or bikes, just Italians walking around. The smells erupt in a cacophony of heavenly bells. We find a pasteleria for some fresh focacia and drink some delicious latte con cafés. We almost forget to ask around for my cousin Antonella. We begin our search with the cafe owner, who then sends us across the street to the jewelry dealer, who then talks to a friend in the store, and after about 15 minute deliberation, they say, “nope, don’t know an Antonella from Campegli.” We ask a few other spots but again, nothing. We get distracted from our search when we begin taking in our surroundings. The town sits on a peninsula, with a giant rock sitting out and two bays on either side. We relax on the beach of Baia de Silenzio and put everything out of our minds and relax. Appreciate the beauty, that is our goal. The day passes idly by. I jump in the freezing water just to say I did, and otherwise we relax and explore. We find a path which takes us up a hill and we get a panoramic view of the city, which just enhances the majesty of the place. Our return to Chiavari is sad, this time with a train ticket but without any knowledge of the whereabouts of Antonella.



Portofino / Santa Margherita





Our last day spent in the Italian Riveria we decided to go to the place where the rich of the rich reside, Portofino. First stop though, is Santa Margherita. The weather, which the previous few days was cloudy, finally opened up to some brilliant sunshine. Santa Margherita is a town from a movie, like a 1950’s romance set in a Mediterranean paradise. We struggle trying to describe the place, and unfortunately photos don’t quite do the proper justice. It just simply is a heavenly place and there is a reason why many of the locals have never been further than 20 miles away, just why would you, its all downhill. Needless to say, we instantly fell in love. We decided to walk to Portofino first, and then return by bus to check out Santa Margherita. The start of the walk, along the wharfs and bustling cafes of S.M. was beautiful. The water is a shimmering aquamarine and a perfect contrast to the colorful buildings, many of reds, yellows, and oranges. After twenty minutes you leave S.M. behind and walk along a newly built walkway that edges over the cliff sides, giving perfect views of the water and shore below. Every step we are tempted to just jump over because the water just seems so inviting. We do find a very cool, secluded spot about halfway between S.M and Portofino. We climb down some narrow steps to a rocky beach, with about ten other people, and claim our space. We instantly jump in, because we are addicts to the ocean blue. Again, the water is very cold, which is probably the one and only negative thing about the place, because while it was hot, the temperature wasn’t quite hot enough where it would be refreshing. Instead, we shiver ourselves dry, lay in the sun, and move on. Not ten minutes later we find a better place for a swim, if we at all thought possible. The water here is about ten different shades of blue/green. We hop down off the path and again, jump right in but are surprised that the water is a little warmer. We enjoy a great swim and head back to lay in the sun. Eventually, after about 2 hours we hobble into Portofino to again be rejuvenated with pure beauty. If S.M. is a town made for movies, than Portofino is heaven. I mean, wow. We just stood, stared, awkwardly moved about trying to take every inch of the place in. The buildings, the wharf, the cafe’s, the mansions, the vineyards, the castle, the hotels, everything breathes a heavenly elegance, as if it were floating on the clouds. We are hungry but of course everything is crazy expensive so we grab some very delicious focaccia bread and sit down on a jut of rock sitting out in the wharf and take the view in. It takes a serious force of will to get us up and moving again because the day is quickly fading away and we still have to check out Santa Margherita. The bus is packed and we get stuck next to a group of very annoying American kids who really put a bad name for all of us which is unfortunate, but luckily its a ten minute drive. S.M. has a beauty to itself, although after Portofino, it does lose a little luster. Our greatest achievement in S.M. though is finding a restaurant that serves Risotto Marinara, which was sooo good. All in all, it was a total success and the six days were fabulous. We did leave out the Cinque Terra which will be our next blog post, because that needs one all to itself.

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