Category Archives: Rapallo

Sad Time for the Heron

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Animals in Italy, Birds in Italy, Construction, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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This beautiful heron, or others of his kin, live somewhere near the Torrente San Francesco, which flows down our mountain to Rapallo.  He is frequently to be seen fishing in various spots along the Torrente, but has always especially favored this small dam, under which the little fish like to congregate in a sort of heron buffet.  I’m glad I took the above photo, because the very next day this is what I found when I came down the hill:

What a mess!  And gone is the little dam where the heron fished.

On a related topic, there is some talk of widening Via Bette, the narrow street that runs along the Torrente.  Closer to town than the section pictured above, the street is lined with shops on the non-river side. Frequently vehicles stop on the river side of the road (‘for just a moment!’) so people can do a bit of quick shopping; it can be a matter of some ingenuity to get two cars going in opposite directions past one another.  And when the bus comes: che casino!


(Note that there are pedestrians on the river side, walking in the street – it’s so much nicer to walk near the water, and people often do, not only putting themselves at risk, but further constricting the available space for cars.) What is distressing about the road-widening project is that it calls for covering over the Torrente.  That will eliminate not only more fishing for the heron (who, in fact, usually doesn’t fish near the shops) but also paddling and family-raising space for the many ducks who live there.

There are also proposals for two new tunnels – one from the Autostrada to Santa Margherita Ligure, and one from Via Bette to the Val Fontanabuona, the valley on the other side of our mountain.  I hope that the road-widening project, like the tunnel projects, will remain in the talking stage for many years.  It will be some consolation to the poor heron, who has lost his seat at the all-you-can-eat special.

All is not lost for the heron though.  The destruction in the top photo is the beginning stage of a new bridge across the Torrente to serve the houses on the hill above.  Fish like to congregate under bridges; maybe the heron’s smorgasbord will return.  I hope so.

Be Well!

30 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Health and health care, Medical care in Italy, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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(Click on an photo to see a slightly larger, much clearer image.)

Rapallo has a new hospital, an eerie place because, the two times I’ve been there, it has seemed almost empty of people. I’m accustomed to thinking of hospitals as over-crowded bustling places, but this one isn’t, at least not yet. A beautiful structure in the modern idiom, here is what it looks like from the street:

Evidently it’s one of the few places in Italy where dogs are not welcome. This fellow was singin’ the blues:


In the foyer of the building you can examine a replica of the ikon from Montallegro – the hospital’s full name is Ospedale di Rapallo N.S. di Montallegro (N.S. means Nostra Signora, Our Lady).


Once past the corridor with the very large and well-appointed gift shop you find yourself in a large interior courtyard, from which you choose to go to either pavilion A or B:


The courtyard contains a large cafeteria, closed the days I was there, and  even a play area for kids:


I was eager to ride in these elevators, but my business was in the other pavilion where the elevators are the more prosaic hidden variety:


In Italy you pay ‘a ticket’ for medical attention – not always, but frequently. For instance, I went to the hospital for a rather run-of-the-mill test, for which I was charged € 25. If I had not already paid the ticket when I made the appointment at the health services office, I could have paid at the machine on the right. No ticket, no test. If you’re short of cash there is a bancomat (ATM) right there on the left.


This is what the roof of the central courtyard looks like from above (I was on the third floor):


And this is the spookily empty cardio corridor:


There was a handful of people awaiting their tests in an interior waiting room, but no one had to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes, which I think must be some kind of record. When I returned the next day for the second part of my test I didn’t even have time to get my rump in a chair before I was called back to the examining room.

The hospital was constructed over a period of five years at a cost  € 43.9 million, most of which was paid for by the Region of Liguria.  Ours is a region of old folks – 27% of us are ‘vecchi’ – and the hospital has been assigned specialties accordingly: orthopedics (need a hip?) and eyes (how are those cataracts?).  In addition there is a cardiac rehabilitation center and a dialysis unit.  The hospital has 140 beds.

I’m sure this lovely hospital is getting much more use than I saw on my two brief visits, and I’m sure usage will increase over time… if only because, as my friend A. says, they serve the best cup of cafe in Rapallo (when the cafeteria is open, that is)!

Rapallo Goes Green

11 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in Italian habits and customs, Rapallo, San Maurizio di Monti, Uncategorized

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The Captain and I have been faithful recyclers since moving here, but it hasn’t always been easy.  Tossing garbage into the bins up here in San Maurizio (seen above) was a game – how fast could we do a drive-by throw? – but for recycling  glass, plastic, paper and tin we had to take our big plastic bag of recyclables on the scooter, clanking and rattling all the way down into Rapallo proper to find the appropriate bins.  The last, tin, proved especially difficult as we knew of only one receptacle, on a bridge out near the autostrada entrance. Oddly enough, the hole for receiving stuff was large enough to accept a tomato-sauce tin, but not large enough to accept a cat-food tin.  Go figure.

(By the way, the papers glued all over the front of the old bins gave very specific hours when it was permissible to throw away your garbage; basically it was allowed in evening, exact hours dependent upon whether it was summer or winter.  The theory must have been there would be fewer unpleasant aromas if the garbage wasn’t left to cook in the heat of the day.  Needless to say no one paid the least attention to these regulations.)

Well, better days are here!  Take a look at these beauties:


Reading from left to right there are bins for Glass; Paper; Plastic AND Metal; and unsorted garbage, for the stubborn old hold-outs who don’t want to recycle.  It’s also for really dirty stuff that isn’t appropriate for recycling, like paper drenched in olive oil (focaccia, anyone?) or the things you just don’t know what to do with, like the mysterious balls of horrible stuff that come out of a vacuum cleaner, or old globs of dried glue. The little brown bin at the end is for vegetable matter.  Up here we would need a bin about 100 times the size of this to accept all the cuttings, prunings and clearings that regularly occur in local gardens.  But it’s a nice gesture and, I suppose, a subtle hint to people to stop burning: too small a container and way to subtle a hint, I’m afraid.

These are our very own San Maurizio di Monti recycling bins, which means the Captain and I no longer have to go down the hill sounding like the tinker of yore when we have cans and bottles to recycle.  What a huge improvement in our lives!  Not everyone’s life improved as much though.  The reason is that though they replaced most of the old bins, they did not replace ALL of them, so some people who used to have conveniently placed bins now have to walk quite a distance to get rid of their rubbish.  Do they like it?  Not at all!  Will they stand for it?  Evidently not.  How do we know?


If they take away your old bin and don’t give you a new one, just put your garbage out on the street – that’ll show ’em.  There’s a certain elegant logic to this approach, but it certainly doesn’t add much to the appeal of Via Betti. We’re watching with interest to see who wins this stand-off, garbage-strewing residents or The Town.

Fireworks Addendum

23 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by in Italian festas, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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As luck would have it we made the acquaintance of Gianni Pistori last weekend.  A man of wide and varied interests (rally driving, stamp collecting) he is a pyrotechnic expert.  In fact this year it was he who lit the Castello in Rapallo on June 3.  He began his work at 3:30 a.m. and finished at 2 a.m. the next morning – long work day.

We also learned that one of the Sestieri wins the fireworks competition and one, San Michele this year, loses.  The judges are all the experts who organize and set off the endless fireworks displays.  I’m uncertain what, if anything other than honor, the winning team receives.  The losers are given a large plastic toad.  I’ve been unable to get a photograph of the toad yet, but if I can get one I’ll be sure to share it.  When last heard of, the toad had been carried (by Gianni, who else?) up to Montallegro where it will reside in amphibian splendor and solitude until next year.

Thank you Tay and Gianni for all this useful and amusing information!

Election Day

14 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Italian bureaucracy, Italian habits and customs, Italy, Rapallo, San Maurizio di Monti, Uncategorized

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Faithful readers will remember that the Captain became an Italian citizen about a month ago.  As luck would have it, there was an election yesterday, and he is now eligible to vote.  It wasn’t an election for political office, it was referenda on four questions: 1) should the law allowing privatization of the water company stay on the books?  2) should the cost of water be increased?  3) should the law exempting politicians currently in office from being tried in court stay on the books? and 4) should the plans to re-institute nuclear power plants in Italy go forward?

Will it surprise you to hear it was not a simple matter to get into the voting booth?  The Captain started two weeks ago, when he went to the Comune to request his voting card, without which he could not vote.  They were too busy to take care of him that day, and in fact tried very hard to discourage him from voting this time. But as a citizen it is his right to vote, and they were more or less obliged to take care of him, although not at that exact moment.  They grumblingly instructed him to come back a week later, which he did. They were even busier and once again they tried to put him off.  He wouldn’t give up, so they promised they would do the necessary work and then call him to let him know when he could pick up his card.

The polls were open on Sunday and Monday.  Late Sunday afternoon the long-awaited call came, and first thing Monday morning the Captain went back to the Comune where he found… that his card was not ready.  But there was a document that would allow him to vote and it was lacking only one signature.  Fortunately the hand that had to affix the signature was actually in the building, so without too much more delay the Captain received a handsome paper on Comune letterhead, signed by the man in charge of elections, and officially stamped, attesting to his right to vote.

Going to the polls turned out to be one the pleasantest experiences we’ve had in quite a while.  It began outside the former elementary school (now a Catholic social club) where we were warmly welcomed by the secretary of the polling section, Enrica Pedrasi, to whom the Captain explained his mission.

Inside we encountered the genial Gianluca from the Forestiere service. He was one of the people taxed with guarding the ballots from the time they arrived on Saturday until the polling was over on Monday afternoon. There is an armed guard on site at all times to make sure no one monkeys with the ballots.

There was a bit of confusion over the Captain’s document, because it was not the usual voting card, but the President of the polling section, Alberto Tumiati, made a quick phone call to the Comune, and all was well.


Renata Castagneto, one of the scritore normale of the polling section, entered the Captain’s name in the ledger of eligible voters.  Please note, he has been entered on the ‘maschi’ side.  Women’s names are entered in a different book kept at the other end of the table.  We’re accustomed to seeing alphabetical groupings in the States – it was a surprise to see the gender separation.

Then the Captain was given his ballots.  There was a separate color-coded ballot for each question.  The referendum question was on a strip of paper glued on the top of the paper, instructions were glued below, and two large boxes, one for Si and one for Non were glued at the bottom.

Into the booth he went, and, for the first time, voted as an Italian Citizen.  You can see his shoe in the picture below, peeking out from beneath the voting booth.


Moments later he emerged with his marked and folded ballots, and deposited each ballot in the appropriately colored box (he reports that it was complicated to fold the ballot correctly – many folds, and one section had to face out).


You can see from the expressions on the faces above that we received a very warm welcome.  In fact a cheer went up when we first walked into the room.  We were told that with the Captain’s appearance the percentage of people voting of those eligible at this voting station now stood at 51% (Rapallo, with its population of 30,000+ has 30 polling districts, each with about 1,000 voters.  Voters must vote at their own polling stations).  Well, that’s nice, we thought.  Then we learned that for the referenda to be effective more than 50% of the eligible voters in the nation must vote.  Little San Maurizio did its part.  There are about 330 eligible voters in the village, and at least 165 turned out.

As I write this the final results are not yet in.  But the evening news indicated that it seems all four referenda were passed – that is, that the laws already in place allowing for nuclear power plants, privatization of the water companies and immunity from prosecution for politicians in office, have all been overturned by popular vote.

Hurray for democracy!

Addendum:  It is the first time in fifteen years that enough voters have turned out to make a referendum valid.  All four popular initiatives passed convincingly (90%), which some see as the beginning of the end for Mr. Berlusconi.  See what the Italian press is saying here (in English).

Renata, Enrica, Alberto… if I have details wrong, please correct me in the comments or in an e-mail, okay?

Hi Pidge!




Spring Wildflower Walk

21 Saturday May 2011

Posted by in Flowers, Hiking in Italy, Italian flowers, Photographs, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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It was a beautiful spring day, not too hot, not too cool, when four of us set out to have a walk and a picnic.  We left from La Crocetta, the apex of the pass over the mountain on which the Captain and I live, and walked to Montallegro, the pilgrim church about which I’ve written in the past.  We didn’t set out to have a wildflower walk, but that’s what we ended up having.

For some of the flowers we were too early:


and for some we were too late:


but for oh so many we were there at just the right moment.

Here’s something I learned from this expedition: I am hopeless at identifying wildflowers.  I have two books on the subject, both related to flowers in this area, and I still find it almost impossible.

How I wish this blog had ‘smellovision’ so you could smell the sweet acacia:


These, by the way, are a culinary treat when fried up in a batter.  Yum.

And I wish I could attach sound to this so you would hear the wind sighing through the trees.  It sounded exactly like a Fellini movie (I’m thinking Amarcord, I guess, which I recommend you see if you haven’t already).

Here is a web album of the gorgeous flowers we found along the path.  I identified the ones I was able to, but most of them remain a mystery.  If you’d care to help identify, please, feel free!  I’d be grateful.

If you’d like a quick video of the trail from La Crocetta to MontAllegro, you can ride along here  on a February outing with mountain biker ‘guru63byric.’

Web album of wildflower walk:

Wildflower Walk from La Crocetta to Montallegro

Giro d’Italia – What’s all the Fuss?

09 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Italian festas, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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What we’ve been regarding as an A-#1 headache this week turns out to be a bicycle race with an impressive pedigree.   As Wikipedia succinctly puts it:

The origins of the Giro are similar to those of the Tour de France, a competition between two newspapers: La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere della Sera. La Gazzetta wished to boost its circulation by holding a professional road race based upon the Tour de France and similar to the Corriere della Sera-organized car rally. On August 7th, 1908 the newspaper’s founder Eugenio Camillo Costamagna, director Armando Cougnet and its editor Tullio Morgagni announced the inaugural Giro d’Italia to be held in 1909. 

On May 13th, 1909 at 02:53 am 127 riders started the first Giro d’Italia from Loreto Place in Milan. The race was split into eight stages covering 2448 kilometres, 49 riders finished with Italian Luigi Ganna winning the inaugural event having won three individual stages and the General Classification. Ganna received 5325 Lira as a winner’s prize with all riders in the classification receiving 300 lira (at the time the Giro’s director received 150 lira a month salary).

Luigi Ganna

The race has continued, with interruptions for wars, ever since and has, like so many sporting events, become ever bigger and more commercialized. Wikipedia gives an exhaustive account of the race, its various elements and many of its winners here.  Two of the three cyclists with the most wins (5) are Italians Alfredo Bindi and Fausto Coppi.

Alfredo Bindi

Fausto Coppi


Belgian Eddie Merckx also won five races.

Eddy Merckx

The Giro d’Italia is one of the three jewels in the crown of the overseeing agency,  the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale).  The other two are the Tour de France (est. 1903) and the Vuelta a Espana (est. 1935).  These three races comprise the Grand Tour of professional bike-racing.  (The UCI season consists of twenty-seven races held world-wide over a ten-month period.) Until 1960 The Italian race began and ended in Milano, the home of the Gazetto dello Sport; since then the city of departure has varied annually.  For a while the finish city also changed, but since 1990 it has, again, been Milano.  Since 1965 there have been nine starts outside Italy, and in 2012 the race will begin in Denmark.

So it’s a very big deal that the Giro is not only passing through Rapallo, but actually stopping here overnight, and then passing through again tomorrow on a route from Genova Quarto to Livorno.  Most of the downtown of Rapallo was closed to traffic in the afternoon and will be again tomorrow. 

And this is where the A#1 headache comes in.  We’ve been unable to find any definitive announcement of which roads are closed during which hours. The Captain had an errand in Sestri Levante, about forty minutes to the south on the coast road, the Via Aurelia.  When he went into town this morning he asked a policeman if he’d be able to get through and out of town mid-afternoon.  “No Problem!” was the reply.  Unfortunately when he set out he found the road was closed, so he couldn’t go.  The Aurelia was also closed where it enters town, as was the other road that connects Santa Margherita and Rapallo.  Bleachers have been erected, and no doubt there’s been no end of festivities, speech-making and shirt-presenting. But anyone who wants to get anywhere that involves traversing Rapallo is pretty much out of luck.  And because so many streets have been closed and cleared of all parked vehicles, there is no where to park even a scooter.  It is, to say the least, inconvenient.  BUT, it is a very big deal, kind of like having the Super Bowl or the World Series or the World Cup in your home stadium.  So we shouldn’t complain… well, maybe just a little.

This edition of the Giro has been described as one of the most difficult in many years.  In honor of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s Unification the route encompasses the whole boot:


Note there is even a jog to Sicily, where the cyclists will bike up Mount Etna.  The entire route covers 3,524.5 km (2190 miles) in 21 stages, which range individually in distance from 12.7 km. to 244 km.  The normal day appears to be in the neighborhood of 200 km.  I can’t imagine.  Twenty-three teams left Torino on the 7th of May, and presumably all twenty-three will finish in Milano on May 29.

Not only can I not imagine pedaling two hundred plus km in one day, I can’t imagine the kind of planning that has to go into carrying off an event that involves so many people moving over such a great distance over so many days.  As disorganized as Italy sometimes seems, it takes logistical genius to carry off this race, road closures, grand-stands, publicity and all.

So we wish them well, and, to be honest, we wish them well on their way.  It’s great they came to Rapallo, and it will be great to be able to drive out of town again.

For some lovely photos of Stages One and Two of the race, click here.

Addendum:  It’s a terribly dangerous sport.  Five to ten racers die in race-related accidents every decade, according to Wikipedia.  Sadly, the list of names grew by one yesterday when Belgium’s Wouter Weylandt died of a skull fracture coming down the hill into Chiavari.  There is an account of the incident here.  So, no – there was no merriment in Rapallo last night and the podium ceremony was cancelled.  I suppose these young men know the risks when they undertake the sport, but surely each of them believes a deadly accident could never happen to him.  It’s seems such a terrible waste of a young life.  Expatriate joins all the others who are greatly saddened by this death, and whose hearts go out to the victim’s family.

Scorpio Rising

05 Saturday Mar 2011

Posted by in Animals in the U.S., Arizona, Desert, Italy, Liguria, Rapallo

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Up my pant leg, that is…

Mother scorpion and babies, courtesy of phoenix.about.com

I went out to the garage to get something, and after a few minutes back in the house I felt a sharp sting – the unmistakable feeling of something small defending its territory in my trousers.  Ouch!

Pants quickly off and shaken, a teeny sandy, orangey scorpion trembled, terrified in the pile of the carpet.  It was literally a half inch long, or less.  Which is lucky for me.  There are many varieties of scorpion inhabiting the southwestern desert.  The Arizona Bark Scorpion, seen above, is venomous and can, in certain individuals, cause seizures.  My little guy was either a baby or an altogether different species; we didn’t keep him around long enough to ask him.  My heroic Captain whisked him away on a paper towel and set him free outside, where he belongs.  The sting site got a little red, a little puffy, and was off and on sore for the rest of the night, but by the next morning I had forgotten I’d been stung.

photo courtesy of dimackey.com

There are scorpions in Italy as well.  We frequently find small black ones in various parts of the house.  Sometimes they are dead and dessicated, sometimes they are quite lively.  For well over a year a little fellow lived under the baseboard next to Luciano‘s supper dish; we assume he came out at night to scarf down kitty scraps.  During the day he hid in the safety of his baseboard with only his larger claw partly visible, like a child who thinks he’s hiding because he can’t see you.  We got pretty fond of Blackie, especially after we checked with the vet and learned that in the off chance that he stung Luciano, there would not be any major trouble.  Little Blackie stayed with us even after Luciano was gone, and in memory of our funny cat I sometimes put down a crumb of something for his baseboard buddy to eat.  Then we had an infestation of ants, as sometimes happens in spring.  Without thinking we spread poison along the ant trail which happened to lead along Blackie’s baseboard.  That was the end of him.  We felt pretty bad about that.

So, are scorpions dangerous?  Clearly the Arizona Bark Scorpion can be, though Dr. Trisha McNair reports that of the 1,400 scorpion species worldwide, only about 25 have venom that can kill a person.  European scorpions in general are a nuisance at worst, their sting being like that of a bee or wasp.  There’s more on scorpions here from Dr. McNair.  But toxic or not, I can tell you from experience you don’t really want them crawling around in your pants!

A Slice of Humble Pie

24 Sunday Oct 2010

Posted by in Golf, Italy, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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Every golfer begins each round with a handicap, but some golfers wake up every morning with a handicap.  Recently at Rapallo we were privileged to watch a tournament for people who may not be able to jump out of bed and walk down to breakfast, but are still motivated to get out and play golf.

The Comitato Italiano Paralimpico sponsored a two-day golf tournament at the Rapallo Golf and Tennis Club, and they had a full roster of entrants. (If you’re handicapped and want to participate in a sport, take a look at the Paralimpico website – you will be amazed, I think, at the scope of activities available.)

The Captain and I visited briefly on the first afternoon, and were truly humbled by the spirit – and skill! – of the golfers we watched.  We weren’t there long enough to get too many photos, but this Italian man was kind enough to allow me to take his picture.

His shot?  It was was straight and true, and went about half the distance to the little flag you can barely see at the end of the fairway.


Isn’t that an amazing vehicle? It’s the Parabasetec by Paragolfer.  If you want to see it in action, click here for a Youtube demo.  A similar vehicle is made by Powergolfer; we saw a number of those on the course.

Paraplegics were not the only golfers present.  Some people were missing a leg or two and played with prostheses; others had muscular dystrophy.  Several, like this man, were blind.  I know!  But you should have seen his shot – it was excellent.

Of course many of these sportspeople (yes, there were some women playing too) needed some assistance to play.  For instance, in the case of the man above the volunteer placed the ball on the tee, and held the head of the driver on the ball so the player could position himself appropriately.  A legion of wonderful volunteers from the Golf Club gave their time to make the event a great success, and happily the weather co-operated as well.  Golfers came from all over Europe as well as the United States.

There was a gala dinner at the end of the second day of the competition.  Rapallo’s Sindaco (the mayor), Avvocato  Campodonico, was present, as were a number of gents in very impressive uniforms.

So… if either one of us ever feels cast down because we didn’t hit the ball well, all we have to do is remember the golfers we met on a late October day in Rapallo.  We truly were humbled by the spirit, sense of fun, good sportsmanship and excellent play that we witnessed that day.

GONE GOLFIN'

 

Rapallo’s Pyramid

04 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in Rapallo, Uncategorized

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I.M. Pei has probably never visited Rapallo, but that hasn’t kept us from having our very own pyramid, which is quite reminiscent of the glass pyramid Pei designed for the Louvre Museum in Paris. Well, no, ours isn’t quite as large, but it does make its own quiet statement in the square on the Lungomare that holds the newly renovated bandstand.

In fact the whole of the piazza has been renovated over the last year or so, and that is why we have the pyramid in the first place.  It used to be that delivery trucks and cars could drive and park around the band shell; the road surface was removed and the piazza has been turned into a quite lovely pedestrian zone. While they were excavating the old road they came upon some stonework from the port, back when the sea came up almost to the buildings.  In the intervening years the Lungomare road and its neighboring broad seaside passagiata were built, evidently right on top of what was there before. Here’s what you see if you peer into our pyramid:

That’s a nice bit of stonework, isn’t it?  I would imagine the rusty hardware is an old mooring ring.  I think it’s great they took the trouble to preserve and show all of us a bit of maritime history. It would’ve been easier simply to cover it all up again.

Well, maybe it’s not quite as exciting as the Louvre.  But whenever I’m revisited by my lifelong and thus far unrealized wish to visit Egypt, I just go down to the Lungomare and gaze at the pyramid.