Santa Margherita

Elle - Lausanne alum 2008 - came for a visit, before starting intensive Latin in Ireland. We visited Santa Margherita, Italy, taking advantage of warmer temps - finally! - and sunshine.

 

4.5 hours away, through the St Bernard tunnel, you hit a Mediterranean climate, reminding of So Cal, in terms of foliage, cactus growing wild near the sea.

Spotting for jellyfish

in a protected cove.

 

 

A NYT write-up has increased American visitors, despite the terrible exchange, but generally still a destination for Italians, while the world frequents more famous Portofino - rich & famous port east - and the Cinque Terre villages perched on craggy stone cliffs to the west.

Loads of pasta. Michael has become adventurous, cracking pepper on dishes and eating seafood spaghetti.

  We spent a few hours in Portofino to gawk, then boated back - beautiful highlight.

Portofino.

 

Table linen stands with magnificent Italian embroidary no longer seen, replaced by t-shirt vendors. As in Lausanne, the remaining tearooms & china/linen shops signify another era's repose - like the grand department stores of my SoCal youth and postwar affluence whose unprecedented wealth only now coming unglued.

 
Seafood was everywhere, but porcini mushrooms were in season, served

on fresh pasta

while pesto was Jack's standby. Nearby Genoa is credited with inventing pesto ("pasta Genovese"), but mixed with potato and green beans (interesting what doesn't make it across the Atlantic). Usually ground in a mortar and pestle on the spot, the resulting sauce is bright green.

Pastry desserts took a backseat to gelato every evening. I sadly noticed a trend to use generic cylinder tubs, rather than the traditional oblong pans of colorful creams, brightly adorned with appropriate fruit or chocolate or nuts, showcasing various flavors.

This church celebrated its 500th birthday with a parade and impressive fireworks display, albeit in midday.

 More recent history would include Regiment 442, the celebrated Japanese-American combat troop which liberated Carrara, opening roads to La Spezia & Genoa near the end of WWII.  Our own touristy love of this sea coast made possible by that other achievement which, though largely lost to us, is visible in the flavors and vacation pattern that surfaces in our lives, our tastes.