Mare e Monti

Liguria in Italy, April 2022

Stefano is taking me to various places where he grew up at in Nervi, a little village between sea and mountains outside of Genova, including a public bath from the 50ties called Scogliera. We need a break from renovating and cleaning his mother’s flat but especially from administrational errants which turn out to be a total nightmare in Italy. Inefficiently nerv-wracking and terribly time-wasting. Phew… Lucky me, I don’t have to deal with it but him. I’d rather clean and chuck away things, which I am really good at. Or prepare boiled artichokes on vinaigrette with bitter radicchio salad. Stefano prefers to eat the famous Genovese Focaccia, Farinata and many other yummy things that make us gain a few kilos more. In general, we do eat much more than usual but also move around all the time. Walking up and down the windy and hilly narrow little streets of Nervi is quite exhausting!

I absolutely adore watching the retired Oldies playing cards on the stoned beach wearing FFP2 masks on a bikini, or going shopping, sitting in the sun for a coffee or stylishly walking the dog. It‘s full of well-bread good looking dogs all around town, by the way. The bourgois neighbourhood he was brought up in is so refreshing and exotic to me. We are not allowed to enter the park across the street, because it is being prepared for this year’s flower fair EuroFlora, but stroll along the panoramic coast line high above the sea. I totally love it! And the cute fishing bays, restaurants, bars, the cannoe school, the windfoil-surfers, colorful painted houses and old castle towers.

One a weekend day, Luca, one of Stefano‘s best friends from school, invited us on a boat trip to pull up his filled fishing nets sunken in the bay of Santa Margherita, which is a small beautiful town close to Portofino in Liguria.

He did not want any help but company to chat with but I rather kept photographing and filming him at work where as Stefano listened. Everything is so interesting to me! The seagulls cruising above our heads waited for the small dead fish trapped in the net to be thrown back into the sea. And devoured. Whereas Sepia and other big fish went into the bucket, even the huge moraine.

Our idea of a quick swim faded away by a chilly wind rising up. So we decided to head back for lunch to the village, where Luca’s clients stood waiting already on the Pier to buy the day‘s catch. With a full stomach and super tired, we spent the rest of the day digesting at home, hearing the thunder strikes up in the mountains nearby and watching old italian movies.

These days, I realized what a fucking good driver Stefano is. He had learned from very early age on to control the car on high speed in the curves. It‘s both exciting and nerv- wracking! But that skill unfortunately did not prevent him from loosing his leg, aged 17, sitting on the back of his friend’s motorbike, when a car accidently hit them. It happened right underneath Luca‘s house.

Salve