Tag Archives: Montallegro

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

Festa!

06 Sunday Jul 2008

Posted by in Italy, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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 Every Italian town and village has an annual festa in honor of its saint.  Here in San Maurizio di Monti they celebrate the eponymous saint every autumn, taking his plaster image from the church and giving him an airing in a solemn procession with prayers, dreadful through a loud-speaker, along the main road.  (San Maurizio is one of eight frazione, or administrative appendages, of Rapallo.)

Rapallo proper requires three days for its celebration.  The reason is that the Virgin Mary visited Rapallo once upon a time, and the miracles that have accrued (and continue to accrue?) require more than the usual amount of celebration. (For a brief account of the miraculous origin of the Sanctuary see the link to the right, “The peasant, the virgin, etc.” under Elaborations in Pages.  It is a story that demands a touch of humor; parts of it may tax your credibility.)

For several weeks before the Big Festa, July 1, 2 and 3, pilgrims daily make their way by foot from Rapallo to Montallegro, carrying candles and singing in the early dawn.  It is haunting to hear wisps of hymns drift over the brow of the hill in the barely-there light of 4 a.m.

On the night of July third there is a big parade with all the special ‘parade crosses’ from the region participating.  There are white Christs, black Christs, tinsel galore, and colorful costumes.  The men who carry the crosses wear specially designed belts with a pouch to take the base of the heavy crucifix.  They stagger along balancing the crosses against their chests without using their hands.

It wouldn’t be Italy without the politicians getting into it – all the town fathers march in the parade, easily identifiable because they are the only people in town wearing suits.

Rapallo has six sestiere, or districts, all of which compete in the annual fireworks extravaganza.  Two sestiere set off their displays on each of the three nights of the festa.   The event draws large crowds which line the Lungomare waiting for the climax: the ‘burning’ of the castello.  The castle is outlined in white flares which give it the appearance of being composed entirely of fire. 

At this year’s parade 30,000 viewers were expected, and there were 300 policemen on duty, many borrowed from nearby cities. You don’t want to try to drive through Rapallo on the night of July 3.