There's a pattern developing here. Riccardo and I tour some nearby town in the morning, then go eat one of Marina's delicious lunches, and after lunch, she joins us for touring in the afternoon. This Sunday morning it was Ventimiglia, population around 25,000 and the last Italian town in Liguria before crossing the border into France.
You pass by this 2nd century Roman theater on the way into the town.
This is a really ancient town which dates back to BC times.
Our first stop was Ventimiglia Cathedral. A wedding was about to take place, so we slipped in for a quick tour.
This church was erected in the 10th century on the ruins of an earlier church, which in turn was built on the site of what was possibly a Roman pagan temple.
Some old frescoes have survived the ages.
There were some really old columns that were supports for the Roman building.
Afterward, we climbed up to the remains of a fortress at the hilltop.
This is one of the old city walls.
And here's another part of a remaining wall. It's become a parking lot up here.
Then it was yet another delicious lunch. Marina made a really delicious pasta with pesto, potatoes, and skinny green beans. Pesto originated in Liguria, and Marina put the perfect amount in the pasta. Often, in restaurants, the pesto overwhelms, but the flavors in her creation were subtle and delicious. She also made me a lover of ratatouille. For the second plate, she paired a sauteed chicken breast with it. Yum.
The afternoon was pretty splendid, because I was in three countries in a matter of a few hours! We drove along the Italian coast, then continued along the French coast, arriving at our final destination, the principality of Monaco, which is pretty ritzy.
We headed upward for Le Rocher, The Rock, where the royal palace and some other pretty spectacular buildings are located.
If you're not a resident of the principality, you can't drive your car up to Le Rocher, so you stiffen your mountain goat muscles and start climbing up this tiered walkway. We discovered later that there was bus service to the top.
But you couldn't get a beautiful shot like this from a bus seat.
At the top, entering a huge piazza, we are greeted by this fellow, Francois Grimaldi, who is said to have disguised himself as a monk to gain entry to the fortress and capture it. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, since that time in 1297.
I couldn't capture the palace in one shot--I found this one on the Net.
Here's a close-up of St. Mary's Tower on the right of the palace, built to resemble a medieval fortress, and Prince Albert's white clock tower on its right.
The palace is the Prince's private residence, but there are state apartments open for public visits, and we decided to take the tour. No pictures were allowed inside, but I wanted to show the splendor of some of these rooms.
We started our tour at the Gallery of Hercules, where there were frescoes depicting his various feats of strength.
This is the Blue Room, and it's not difficult to figure out how it got its name. The blue brocade lining the walls is posh and the chandeliers are Murano glass.
This is the Throne Room, where all state ceremonies have been held since the 1600's.
A final peek--the Mazarin Room, which boasts the best of ornate Italian woodwork, brought to France by Cardinal Mazarin, whose picture hangs over the fireplace.
I think we saw about a dozen rooms, all equally grand, using an audio guide. These rooms were packed with beautiful treasures, and one annoyance was that the guide only mentioned a few.
We also visited Saint Nicholas Cathedral, where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier are buried. It's a lovely cathedral, and I took a few pictures inside, but they didn't turn out very well.
On the walk back down to sea level we passed a large sculpture that was a picture frame. I tried to get it in this photo of Riccardo and Marina, but a fence kept me from standing back far enough. Anyway, I didn't notice until I downloaded this picture that Marina grew a couple of inches during this tour.
We also passed a beautiful garden area, but you had to go down and then come back up, and my body screamed, "NO".
Being such a densely populated area, it isn't surprising to see skyscapers crammed together like this.
There's some interesting modern architecture to be seen. I thought this white building, the tallest here, was pretty unique.
And the seascapes are endlessly breathtaking.
Back at sea level we passed by the Oceanographic Museum. The guy looks a little out of place in a bed of flowers.
The building is huge and the architecture is really beautiful. This isn't even half of the building.
I wish someone would decorate my balcony like this...well, if I had a balcony.
It was a wonderful afternoon, and we ended the day with dinner at a seaside restaurant in Camporosso, where we shared a delicious assortment of appetizers, followed by, for me, a mixed grilled seafood platter with swordfish, prawns, calamari (very tender), and another unknown fish. The fish was cooked almost to perfection (small stumble on the swordfish), and everything tasted like it had been caught that day. It was lucious.
It was another beautiful sunny day on the coast of Liguria, and on this Saturday morning, Riccardo and I set out to tour a small town (population around 2,000) called Dolceacqua (English translation: sweetwater).
On the way, we stopped at this small medieval church. This is the back of the church, its most interesting aspect.
There were some really beautiful old frescoes inside this simple place of worship.
They covered the walls and the dome of the altar.
Behind the church was a graveyard, where both Riccardo's and Marina's parents are buried.
Dolceacqua is a charming medieval town with narrow cobblestone streets and buildings that are as high as six stories and a fortress at the top of the hill to defend the town.
The Nevia River divides the old town from the newer part.
And this old Roman bridge connects the two.
This was the way up. My mountain goat muscles got a workout. I love all the arches in these Italian towns. Riccardo explained to me that they actually have an architectural function of holding things together.
And this is the old fortress at the pinnacle. Dolceacqua is a pretty peaceful town that draws a few tourists who prefer to be off the beaten path.
That fortress doesn't look like much of a climb from this perspective.
After a delicious Ligurian lunch prepared by Marina, the three of us set off for Menton--my first step into FRANCIA! I was really excited to be in another country.
It seems that every 10 steps you take in Italy or France, there's a photo op. This coastline is stunningly beautiful.
Me and Riccardo with a background of seascape.
Down at sea level, there was a beautiful beach with white sand and this really interesting tree.
You might think Marina and I are in Florida, but we're in FRANCE!
Menton has a population of about 26,000 and is nicknamed "The Pearl of the Sea".
This is the baroque basilica of Saint-Michel-Archange.
And this is a view of the backdrop against which this town sits. Either way you look there's stunning beauty.
The Bastion Museum features decoration by Jean Cocteau, a French artist who spent several years in Menton.
It was a really pleasant afternoon, strolling along the promenade, enjoying the fine weather, lovely beaches, town scenery, and each other's company.
And the day was topped off with another delicious meal ala Marina.
It's hard to believe that I've posted 100 entries on my blog. There are people reading this blog from places I've never been, nor do I think I've given my blog address, for example, to anyone from Russia. So I don't know how these people find it, but to all my readers, thanks for your interest.
My friends know that I was writing to four people in Italy for several months before I arrived here last August. I've had wonderful meetings with three of those "penpals", and on last Friday, I was warmly greeted by the fourth. His name is Riccardo, and he's a retired bank executive. He and his wife, Marina, graciously invited me to spend the weekend at their house in Camporossa, a small Ligurian town about 45 kilometers west of Imperia by train. I can't write about the time we shared together in just one blog entry, so I'm going to do as many as it takes to make sure I can easily recall the wonderful time I had.
Riccardo met me at the train station in Bodighera, nearest to his town, and we spent some time walking around this village of about 10,000.
Claude Monet lived in Bodighera for a few years and painted several pictures of this beautiful seaside village.
You won't be as impressed with my pictures (pun intended), but here's the first--my friend Riccardo in front of an ancient tree whose name I can't remember, but it might be a ficus.
Imagine waking up to this view every day. I couldn't get enough of it. Liguria is rich with scenes like this.
And this is pretty nice, too, and you know I had to walk uphill to get this shot!
This canon was used to protect the town against invading Arabs.
Back at sea level you get a different perspective.
Riccardo and I spent a couple of hours walking around Bodighera and made a nice transition from writing to communicating in person. Riccardo has studied English for 4 years and is determined to become fluent, so his English vocabulary is much more extensive than my Italian one. I spoke in sentences that were half English, half Italian and he was only occasionally lost for the right English word. Our pooled resources meshed well, and we had good conversation.
Camporosso, a small town of about 5,500, is where Riccardo was born.
He and Marina have a beautiful home here with a huge garden, much of which is covered with roses of all varieties.
The roses weren't at their prime season--I was just a little late for that--but they were still this beautiful.
There were many beautiful colors and varieties--this was one of my favorites.
It was a pretty magical garden, and I enjoyed wandering through it each day I was there.
There were also six resident cats, as well as one guest black cat who stopped by occasionally for a meal.
I never happened to have my camera to catch all six in one picture. That was possible only when it was mealtime. I was a little late this time and got only two sharing the remains of lunch.
This cat was having some fun with a broom.
Besides cats and roses, you can find several different fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs growing in the garden. And if that isn't enough to take care of, Riccardo and Marina have greenhouses where they grow ornamental ferns to sell to florists.
This picture is out of order in terms of when it was taken during the weekend, but I want to introduce you to Marina, who made a delicious dinner of typical Ligurian dishes this first evening. Riccardo and Marina are really gracious people, and I felt doubly fortunate to have landed in another Italian home where there is an excellent cook in the kitchen!
