Barabara, an American who Philippa met at the Benvenuto Club, has moved to Rapallo for a couple of months before returning to America with her husband and 4 month old son. Philippa met them for lunch just before Christmas and mused with them that it would be nice for us to visit them for New Years.
We'd kinda forgotten about this idea, but remembered it when we got back from our 'white christmas'. Fortunately, this was in time to book accommodation in Rapallo (it gets rather busy in the Christmas-New Year break).
So, on the Monday night (December 30th) we set off straight after work. The motorway is dead straight until you reach the coastal mountains; then it becomes VERY windy - not really like a motorway at all.
So, we wound our way through Genoa, and tunneled along the coast, and eventually zigzagged into Rapallo. Fortunately, Rapallo is very small. It only took us a wee while to find Barbara and Joe's place.
It rained most of Monday night, but fortunately stopped by Tuesday morning, so we explored Rapallo under overcast skies.
The town lies in a narrow valley between wooded hills.
The focus of the town is at the waterfront. There is a small medieval fortress (the 'castle') right on the beach. Heading out into the sea all along the beach are long wooden platforms, which are used for setting out deckchairs in the summer (because there is very little sand onto which to put deck chairs).
There are a number of grand, brightly-coloured hotels standing back from the beach. In behind the hotels are narrow streets full of small shops and cafes. Rapallo, like several of the towns along that part of the coast, is renowned for the painted facades on it buildings. Most of the buildings in the town centre have had their flat walls painted to look as though they are made of chiseled stones. A number of the buildings also have window-frames painted on, and carvings, columns, etc. The effect is very convincing, and makes the act of walking through the town a real delight.
After exploring the town in the morning, we to visit the library, which is at one end of the waterfront, and famed for a collection of international books including some donated by Ezra Pound. On the way to the library, we walked through the botanic gardens, and found notices pointing to mini-golf. Not really sure whether it would be open, we followed the notices anyway, and fortunately it was open. 18 holes of red-painted concrete fairways, with little yellow pipe railing around the edge. Various challenging jumps and loops etc.
Post-golf, we went down to the library, but it had shut hours earlier. We went down to a little concreted bay on the beach below the library - it had a really intense 'seadside spot in Winter' feel about it - really reminiscent of films we'd seen of English seaside places.
There were some kids there letting off crackers. When we went back up into the park, there were even more kids letting off crackers - big loud ones. A pall of smoke hung over the park. The boys stayed at Barbara and Joe's place so we did manage to see in the New Year. Barbara and Joe have a 4-month old, so staying up to midnight was a bit of an effort for them.
Midnight was greeted by a full battle's worth of crackers and sky-rockets. The whole town was at it, and kept it up for the best part of an hour. People were letting rockets off, and throwing crackers, from their balconies, and in the street, and on the beachfront.
Wednesday morning greeted us with the cloudless sky. The waterfront was dense with promenaders, including the ubiquitous 'old ladies in fur coats', and the fairground was in operation. We had a brief walk along the beach, the boys had a ride on the dodgems, and then we were back off to Milan.
Christopher Columbus statue.
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