Karla Verdugo, Artrist

I met Karla Verdugo on my first days back here in Genova. 

She was exhibiting her art on Via San Lorenzo, nestled in amongst Amadeo, Franco, Angelo, Santo, Jane, Luciano, and Rossi.  Little did I know that this group would open and let a wandering kiwi into their midst in the most generous of ways.

Yesterday, I went back and spent the day with them, and Karla was my tireless translator.  We laughed often and there are so many stories totell about these delicious people but not today.  This is simply to post my photograph of Karla and to thank her for translating a most magical day.

Amedeo Baldovino, Artist

I met Amedeo Baldovino on my first day back in Genova.  He displays his work with a group of artists on Genova’s Via San Lorenzo.  I had noticed his work on past visits but didn’t like to bother him.  Each time I would think, ‘next time’ and wait for the courage to converse.

This time we talked, via another artist there on the street, Karla Verdugo ... a kind and patient translator of Italian to English and back again.  And I’m so glad that we did.

A plan was made to meet up yesterday, a photography session, a blog creation, and so much intense conversation and laughter.  Shannon is in the process of creating a blog for Amadeo, and others, and I photographed the bulk of his work on display yesterday.

Next weekend, I’m going back to get the stories of everyone else there.  I don’t quite have the names of everyone but there is an 83 year old who looks like he might be in his late 50s or early 60s, there is the artist who used to be a musician and traveled the world on cruise ships, and there is the man who is so proud of his grandchild. 

I love the warmth I find here in Genova.  The people have been so very kind but for now, here is a small taste of Amedeo Baldovino’s work.  This work is my particular favourite ...

 

Maddalena

I spent just 24 hours in Lerici but there was so much and so many packed into that small window of time that pulling each thing out to hold up to the light so I could write of it all has been more difficult than I could have imagined ...

And Maddalena, like Stefano in Genova, has kindly put up with my outpourings about them but really ... I must.

So ... last Sunday, Maddalena, GP and Orazio, with Francesco joining us near the end, headed up into the hills above Lerici for a feast.  The sky was a deep blue, the sun was warm and the restaurant was the ARCI place in Solaro and, honestly, the food was extraordinary.

Our feast was as follows (grazie Maddalena, because I couldn’t remember everything and had names for even less): We had marinated tuna and swordfish served on large platters, then fresh oysters still in their shells - a presentation that took me straight back my childhood in New Zealand.  There was a platter of shrimps and another of salmon, and a tagliolini al nero di seppia and zucchine (squid), served up next to the most delicious pasta I have ever tasted - a spaghetti alla bottarga (made from dried fish roe).

Being civilised Italians, the others all drank a white wine and were gentle about my barbarian self choosing a small jug of red wine (but it really is my favourite drink in the world, she whispers). 

Of course, there was water throughout, and this tasty little sorbetto al limone that you drank through a straw - a mix of lemon gelato and limoncello, blended together.  It was delicious.  We ended our feasting with a crema catalana! and then wandered slowly back down the hill to meet up with the others back on the shores of the Ligurian Sea.

Bliss!

Grazie Maddalena, GP and Orazio, Francesco too, for a beautiful afternoon.

Roberto ...

This is Roberto, the lovely man who charmed me with his willingness to take me by the arm and show me around Lerici ... explaining in Italian while I replied in my English, with that smattering of Italian I have.

Maddalena translated Roberto explaining that, next time, we’re cycling to a village nearby’.  I’m worried about my level of fitness and will have to go into training to keep up with him.  I can still see his quietly bemused smile, on that Sunday morning when I huffed and puffed my way up the castle stairs.

Maddalena and GP were so very good to me during my stay there in Leirici, and meeting their friend Roberto was just another delightful moment that mixed with so many other delightful moments in bella Lerici.

Shannon ... the one who lives in Genova.

I know this lovely lady living in Genova.

I just discovered that Shannon had posted about our meeting up this time.  There was the breakfast at my favourite cafe - Bar Boomerang and then dinner on my last night in the city, at a pizzeria-not-my-own.  And you know what, it was okay.  So I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending a pizza at Sciuscia e Sciorbi, the staff were lovely.

That was mostly me, when Shannon wrote of paying our bill with change ... I had 20.50euro in change and I didn’t want to carry it on the long trek home, nor could I afford to give it away.  The pizza and wine worked for me. 
As I said, the staff are lovely ...

Anyway, meet Shannon and Traveler over on their Genova Blog.

La dolce vita ...

Returning to Genova from Lerici on the train tonight,  I felt ‘la dolce vita’ was the only way to describe my experiences these last few days ...

I arrived in Lerici, and stepped off the bus into the sunset you see at the end of the post and that was only the beginning.  I had been invited to visit by Maddalena, a truly lovely woman I met online more than ten years ago ...back when we were both locals in a chatroom called Travel.  We met so many good people there, there was Mary Lou, Diede, Marco in Rome ... and many many more.  We were talking of them as we wandered in her Lerici these last 24 hours, realising just how lucky we had been to find a space like that in those days.

So, there was a train trip from Genova to Lerici late yesterday afternoon, to finally meet Maddalena and her lovely GP, having been invited to their weekend studio there in that beautiful town.  We dropped my gear at her place and wandered down to a roadside ... bar (Maddalena will laugh when she reads that) but there was prosecco and it was good.  I was introduced to Roberto, a delightful man who was just leaving as we arrived ... but more on him later.  A little prosecco and then we were off to meet Elisabetta, her son Marco and his friend Davide ... the teenage boys were booked for an impromtu Saturday night English test.  They were very good-natured about it and we enjoyed their English.

It was there that I was introduced to an interesting red wine, one that I must get the name of, and then we were off to dinner.  This was a continuation of me tasting most of what the Ligurian Sea has to offer ... a journey begun with Stefano, Miriam and their friends during the week.  The fish-filled ravioli was divine and my main fish-dish was also rather exquisite ...

I was fascinated to learn that Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley had lived close-by, and had anchored their sailing boat in Lerici. 

I woke early and, having mentioned I might, I slipped out with my camera leaving the others asleep.  It was 8am, the light was stunning ... although it has to be said that it never stopped being stunning while I was there. I was wandering along by the harbour, knowing no-one and heading to ‘the rocks’ when I met Roberto again.  He remembered me.

Roberto is lovely. He took me by the arm and off we went.  He’s in his 70’s and was really rather delighted over having to wait for my younger, rather unfit, self at the top of the stairs as we made our way up to the castle.  He was still chuckling about that when we said goodbye to him tonight.  It reminded me, yet again, that I live a rather sedentary life over in the flatlands of Belgium.  I need to go into training, as he told me we’re going cycling next time I am there ...

Anyway, the story of our morning stroll takes on a whole new dimension when you realise that I don’t really speak Italian ... I just know a few words.  And Roberto doesn’t speak English however ... we talked the whole way.  We made our way up to the castle, then on over the back to look at the stunning seascape ... then down through the narrow back streets of Lerici to the piazza and into a cafe for coffee. 

I just adored him, although I felt quite the idiot for not having more Italian.  We were fortunate, we did find a very kind woman who translated for us for a while.

An entirely delicious day followed but it is too much to fit into one single blog post and so, more another time.
Grazie, Maddalena and GP.  It was truly delightful!

Special People, Genoa

For me, Genova is not just a place full of beautiful buildings, situated on a coast that reminds me of home.  It is also home to people I very much enjoy spending time with.

Our lovely friend, Stefano, was out town when we arrived but Gert and I spent those days wandering with our cameras, usually 10kms+ days, and we caught up with others.

We were lucky enough to have Kathleen and Peter spend seperate nights with us.  Lucky because to have the 4 of us in one country at the same time was remarkable.  It reminded us that we know more than a few good people who make our lives quite the richer for knowing them.

We were also able to spend time with Lorenzo, another lovely friend who owns this delicious cafe, and who was generous with his time and knowledge over afternoon espresso.

And then Stefano returned.

It was brilliant to see him again, and to meet his wife too.

That first day back together, Stefano and his wife took Gert and I out for a beautiful lunch in a restuarant in the ancient part of the city. We were joined by their friend, Luca, the man who showed us a hotel where future clients ... those who come wandering with me, will stay. 

In a lovely coincidence, just the day before, I had wanted to photograph the door to the hotel, not realising it was a hotel ... it was all about the beauty of the door for me.  I had also returned, more than once, to the piazza on the other side of the hotel, attempting to capture the solitude and peace I found there.  It seemed like a good omen.

And Stefano came wandering with us after lunch, solving some of my logistical problems with the photography tours to Genova. 

Time raced by and, too suddenly, it seemed, our time in Genova was almost done.  Stefano and his wife invited us to one last dinner with friends before we flew out.  The company was delicious.  I didn’t eat them but I enjoyed the conversations and the food.  We said goodnight at 11.30pm, quite without me realising it was so late. 

It has taken me far too long to write of the people who make that city I love even more special.

Grazie!  I look forward to hosting you in Antwerp one day soon.

Peter Gage Furlong, Tenor (and lovely bloke)

I wrote of having ’ exciting news’ over here and then became caught up in living the news ... I’m sorry.  I didn’t actually explain afterwards.

We had had Kathleen come stay with us for a night the weekend before and that was delightful in itself.  Afterwards we had accepted her invitation to come photograph her audition in a place near Viareggio and it was there that we heard this talented soprano sing in real life.  It was stunning!

But then last weekend, ‘the news’ was that Peter and little Miss B were wandering over to visit with us.  You see, one of the more amazing things about any of these visits is that Madrid-based American soprano, Kathleen, and American, now Berlin-based tenor, Peter ... Gert and I, Antwerp-based, manage to find ourselves in the same country at the same time. 

You can read of Peter and his career as a tenor over on his website, although it doesn’t quite capture the lovely guy that Gert and I came to love during the hours we spent together.  The same goes for Kathleen ... perhaps I should be writing their websites.

Anyway, we spent a few hours with these extraordinarily talented generous people and we are surely the better for it.

To Via Reggio and Back...

Never before have I been behind the scenes of that operatic world but Kathleen invited us to Viareggio to hear and photograph her audition ...

A 2.5 hour train ride along the Ligurian coast, past Carrara ... with some of its fabulous marble stacked next to the railroad line.

Returning, we had the surreal experience of sharing a 6-seat train cabin with 2 Catholic nuns, one of whom was reading aloud from a book in the most exquisite Italian.  It was superb ... without a word of exaggeration.

Kathleen Berger, Opera Singer

Kathleen arrived on a train from Pisa yesterday ...

We introduced her to Genova and she, of course, fell in love with this exquisite Italian city.

Last night we had appertivo before eating the most fantastic pizza ... much wine and laughter.

Today it was Nervi before saying goodbye.  A lunch eaten at the edge of the Ligurian Sea ... pesto and gnocchi of course. 

And tomorrow?
Tomorrow we will race off to a place near Pisa to do this photo-shoot with the lovely opera singer we know.

Righicam - webcams over Genoa

I can no longer remember how I discovered Stefano’s Righicam but I remember my delight and the regular ‘visits’ I made to Genova via his webcams throughout the long grey Belgian winter.

We exchanged email periodically after my initial approach asking if he would me linking to his site on my womanwandering blog.  Spring came eventually and I made plans to return to Genova.

Stefano offered to meet with me, inviting me to ask if I required any information about Genova. It turned out that he and his wife had previously spent a few weeks in New Zealand and they had enjoyed their time there. 

What neither of us realised was that Stefano thought that I was a man.  I saw the surprise on his face when we met in Piazza de Ferrari and laughed when he explained.

We wandered off to lunch and Stefano more than met the challenge of finding a restaurant that served good Genovese food.

Over lunch, we talked of Genova and of his passion for New York city; a city he and his wife had just returned from, the city he had lived in for a time when he was younger.  I confessed that I felt much the same way about Genova – a kind of passion for this Northern Italian city. 

Spending time talking reminded that when I travel, it’s not about museums and shopping, it’s about people and photography, about conversations and slices of life as it is lived by people in countries not my own. 

Stefano explained much that I either didn’t know about Genova or simply had failed to understand.  This is exactly what I want wandering to be about.

As for the food, I highly recommend Ristorante Europa in Galleria Mazzini, 53R.
I slipped back there before leaving, unable to resist one more meal and enjoyed a delicious troffie and pesto.

Although there is a series of courses that can be ordered according to the menu, I tend to just select one, often from the primi piatti and follow with a small black coffee, it’s a way to avoid sleeping the afternoon away.

Grazie Stefano. 
And if you want to check in on Genova, click on Genova Righi webcam.

Bar Boomerang, Genoa

One of my favourite places, here in the city of Genova, is Bar Boomerang. 

Initially it was the name that I noticed.  Then the fantastic, never-tasted-better cappuccino drew me back again and again.  On this, my second visit to the city, I discovered that their aperitivo is the nicest aperitivo I’ve had so far.

The staff are friendly, clients are important to them and their passion for the work comes through in all that they do.  If you are in Genova, I recommend you find your way to this cafe and decide for yourself.

In a small interview with Simona, the patient barista (patient in working with my New Zealand English), I asked a few questions about the cafe. 

She explained that the name had orginated from a visit that Marta, the owner, had made to Australia.  Marta and her husband enjoyed the trip so much that they named their Genovese cafe Bar Boomerang.  I need to explain that what we would call a cafe in New Zealand is a bar here in Italy, although alcohol is served so perhaps it becomes something of a hybrid.

Open five years, the bar is located on via Porta Soprana, 41-43,  not far from the ancient Genovese gate known as Porta Soprana. The gate, built in 1155, was originally intended as a defense rampart, with access for commercial traffic arriving via the interior, and acted as a barrier to would-be conquerors like Barbarossa and others.  Today it stands permanently open, welcoming foreign creatures like me inside this ancient part of the city.

As a tourist, a sometimes shy tourist without l’taliano, I was a little intimidated about just how to order my coffee. Of course, it’s quite simple. You wander into the cafe, order your coffee, select something to eat if needed and take it yourself.  In most bars, you can either pay a little extra and take a seat or stand at the bar and drink without sitting.

You pay as you leave.

At Bar Boomerang, their work is a passion and I’m sure that is what makes everything taste so good.  Simona took me through the four steps required to make good coffee.  Obviously you begin with good coffee, then you make sure your machines are clean.  The third step involves making a good press and the fourth, well that surprised me, it’s about noting the humidity and any changes in the humidity.  If it changes, the settings on the coffee machine need to change too.

The coffee is so very good.  It’s one of the things I missed for weeks after leaving last time and I expect it will be the same this time.

Most people know Italians take their coffee very seriously.  I asked Simona about the ‘rules’ and she explained that a typical Italian customer might have cappuccino or latte in the morning. Milk coffee is only for mornings and laughing she said, not before or after lunch or dinner.  This is more of a tourist thing or maybe in winter, on a really cold day.  Expresso is for all the time, after lunch or dinner particularly, as its role is to aid in digestion.  You could typically follow the expresso with a liquer of some kind like limoncello, grappa or jagermeister.

I feel more relaxed when I wander into the bars here now, still imperfect and prone to crave cappuccino at inappropriate times but less worried.

Bar Boomerang is open from 7am until 9pm,  6 days a week – closed Sunday.  They also serve lunches but that’s another post over on the blog.

Cibi e Libri - a vegetarian cafe, Genoa

A vegetarian cafe, with a small library and a free-wifi spot, a place where friends meet to talk, eat and take vegetarian cooking classes – Cibi e libri fulfils a number of roles, more than you might imagine when you first pass by the small cafe on via Ravecca, 48R in Genova.

It’s more than a cafe, I noticed this thing about it in the hours I spent there – friends called by, strangers wanted to chat, and Lorenzo makes time for them all.

Lorenzo, the owner of Cibi e libri, took some time to explain how his cafe came into being ...

He started out as a philosophy student then worked as a journalist in television for fifteen years.  He didn’t enjoy the competitive state of mind that existed within that world and began cooking as a way to recover from a stress-filled day.  He also developed a curiousity about the inter-relationship of all things and this led into the art and history of food, including the positive aspects of vegetarianism.

Time passed and he decided, over a period of five years, to give birth to Cibi e libri ... his fourth child, the other three children being his actual flesh and blood.

I was invited to return for the weekly vegetarian course one evening and took photographs as Lorenzo went through the introduction, first the theory and then the cooking.  Students tasted all that was cooked but also made their own attempts, with plenty of space left for discussion and questions.

Cibi e libri also stands out as an ideal cafe for the traveller, offering a vegetarian menu, friendly English-speaking staff and free wifi.  Make sure you check it out if you find yourself in Genova, most especially if you’re vegetarian. Lorenzo is also able to recommend other Italian vegetarian cafes throughout Italy.

For more information you can phone: (+39) 010 24 67 050 email info@cibielibri.it

Alex Roe and Pavia, Italy

Sunday was one of those long enjoyable days spent wandering under this very very warm Italian sun ... and at the end of it, the only thing that could have improved the cold shower I took on arriving back at the apartment would have been remembering to take my 1.5l bottle of sparkling water into the shower with me.

Sunday in Genova began with Yoda, my phone alarm, waking me at 7am.  I was on the road by 8am and heading for Pavia, a small city somewhere between Genova and Milan.

10.25am and I finally met the man who has been a source of website inspiration to me for more that a few years.  I first ‘met’ Alex when he was a blogger and then watched as he made the leap into something bigger and more complex over time, developing  into something more than he began with, something excellent.

And so, with our much-loved Canon EOS digital cameras in hand, we wandered, chatting as we attempted to capture something of the architecture and alleyways in Pavia.

Alex is no slouch when it comes to wide-ranging conversation either and we covered much ground over hours ... hours broken up with coffees, a lunch in a beautiful piazza, gelato, and a cold drink at the train station while we waited for our respective trains to arrive.

12 hours later, one long hot train ride stuck next to a lanky youth who wanted his space, and I staggered in the door, heading straight for the shower, desperate to wash the heat of the day and the ache of endless walking out of me.  I’m happy to note that, as usual, the weight is dropping off me out here in the world and yesterday’s long walk surely melted some more of me.

I’ll let the photographs give you a taste of the day admitting, a little shamefacedly, that I went there knowing nothing about Pavia.  But really ... it was more about finally meeting Alex and taking photographs than it was about place.

Lorenzo Fantini, Cibi e Libri, Genoa

There is something truly delicious about attending an evening vegetarian cooking class here in the old section of the city of Genova ...

It’s about listening to the Italian language flow around me, enjoying the fact that I was there as a photographer and simply allowed to observed ... only surprised into laughter when the teacher, Lorenzo Fantini, informed me that I would receive free food if I asked in Italian.

I knew nothing vegetarian in the language and had to whisper to a course member while Lorenzo’s back was turned however, Lorenzo has children and of course he overheard as I was told ‘riso’ for rice and then realised that ‘curry’ sounded fairly similar, if not the same.

I was given a plate of delicious tasting curry-flavoured rice, with zucchini and other things I didn’t recognise.

Being out in the world, a world where I don’t know the language, is always a challenge for me however it is one that I seem determined to seek out.  With this wandering comes so many highs and lows but Thursday evening was surely one of the highs.

Lorenzo began with an introduction to the vegetarian world and then started in on a simple but tasty tortilla chip recipe.  The class made their own batch after watching and tasting his work.

He followed this with a stirfry, inviting pupils to smell ingredients ... the ginger root, spices and soy then to see how he handled the vegetables.  A bottle of organic wine was opened and people sat down to eat and talk until Lorenzo set to work on another dish, using the wok once again to create a new dish using leftovers.

Much approval from everyone convinced me the night’s course had been a success and I slipped away, taking myself hot and sweaty self back to the apartment to recover.  They were 3 of the nicest hours I’ve spent here in Genova.

If curious about attending one of Lorenzo’s courses, you can contact him at Cibielibri – a Genova la gastronomia vegetariana at via Ravecca 48, telephone 010 246 7050 or email him at info@cibielibri.it

In Genoa ...

I have these days where I wake wondering who on earth I think I am and why I feel I have the right to wander and ask questions of strangers ...

Initially, waking this morning was gentle and delicious.  The first footsteps passed by my window, the voices were quiet but later, after I opened the windows, I heard the cafe owner arrive and roll up her metal door while talking on the phone ... soon the coffee cups began clanking together in much the same way as I crash dishes together when forced to be the housewife at home.

I slept again, only to wake to the laughter of a group of men below my window.  I imagined them drinking coffee together at the cafe on their way to work, perhaps doing that everyday, and I enjoyed being there on the edge of their lives.

A craving for onion foccacia lured me out of my bed and down the street before I was properly awake which surely explains my fright on opening my door and finding a neighbour out there on the stairs.  She was amused as she greeted me and out of some place unknown to me, I responded with a good morning greeting in French ... I don’t know French, not really.

I was able to redeem myself with a ‘grazie’ as she held the outside door open for me.

And so my day had begun.

The onion foccacia still had 30 minutes before it was ready down at the forno so I chose something else, not wanting the woman who greets me with a friendly ciao every morning to interupt the baker for English ... I ate a delicious pie full of ingredients completely unknown to me.

And then I fell into this funk ...  wondering who I thought I was, coming to Italy without language but packing this desire to capture a small slice of the life that I find myself living on the edges of.

I began writing but today is the day I’m meant to begin everything else I came here to do now that everyone has left me alone.  Gert limped home with a walking stick yesterday ... a cracked bone in his toe.  He walked into a bed leg in the dark.  He made it safely, picking up the rental contract for the new house when he reached home.

The internet cafe down in the piazza cocooned me for a while, being online provided me with a kind of identity ... people who knew me had written, I could speak their language but I was still frustrated with this feeling of being small.

Almost midday and not much work done. I left the cafe and broke the cappuccino rule, ordering one from my favourite cafe too late ... but okay because I’m a tourist and tourists order cappuccino’s long after the 10am breakfast tradition here in Italy.

My guide on this is an author I recommend, an Italian called Beppe Severgnini, columnist for Italy’s largest-circulation daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera.  He wrote in his book, La Bella Figura, ‘Consider the humble cappuccino.  After ten o’clock in the morning, it is unethical, and possibly even unlawful, to order one.  You wouldn’t have one in the afternoon unless the weather was very cold.  Needless to say, sipping a cappuccino after a meal is something only non-Italians do’.

It’s not that I want to try and pass myself off as Italian, it’s only that I prefer not to stand out as a complete barbarian ... a charge leveled at me more than once by a 'gentle' Italian friend.  And I have never quite recovered from the surprise I gave another lovely Italian friend and the waitress when I ordered cappuccino (once) after a pasta lunch.  And regretted immensely because there really is a reason for that.

When in doubt, when shyness overtakes me, or I’m nervous and unconvinced about what I’m doing in life, my impulse seems to be ‘just do it anyway’.  I mean, I don’t parachute or go deep-sea diving, I don’t take drugs but going out and talking to strangers without language in a country not my own ... that’s something else.  I grew up in smalltown New Zealand and today finds me talking myself into doing what I love doing most of the time.

So tonight I will photograph apertivo at my favourite cafe here in the city.  And I stopped in at the farinata shop ... the one the family have owned since 1812, and photographed the beautiful food on display there, surely the best farinata in the city and a place you really should eat from if you find yourself in Genova.  I will meet Stefano and Guilia, Alex and I have tentative plans and I will surely return to my seat on the top of the hill at Boccadasse ... these are my plans for the moment.

And just after digging up the courage required,  the universe smiled down on me for a moment and an old man said, ‘Ciao bella ragazza’.  I don’t mind he that he was old because he made me smile for a while which was grand because I was all out of courage on this day here in La Superba.