Forgot to do this Yesterday

We thought it would be nice to show some pictures of the evening activities at the Villa.  It is fairly routine now, but has been an adjustment to our normal flow of the day's closing activities.  For us it has been a very nice experience, but the consistency often challenges our energy level!  Each evening we gather for cocktails - or aperitivi - around 7:00.  We meet in the salon, which is the main living space in the Villa. Sometimes this activity moves out to one of the terraces.  At approximately 7:45, we get the notice from Fabbio that "La Cena e pronto!" which means that dinner is ready.  

We then move into the dining room and have a wonderful series of appetizer, main course, dinner and dessert......with wine of all kinds!  Following this we retire to the main salon again, and usually one of the sitting rooms, for the after dinner coffee and  'digestivi.'  This process is absolutely wonderful, but somewhat exhausting, usually concluding around 10:00.  We need to walk miles to shed the calories the next day.  

Tonight, we begged off of the after dinner drinks and headed upstairs early.  This gives us a little more quiet time to relax, read and work on the blog.  The pictures that follow here are from last night.  On each Thursday or Friday, the foundation sponsors a particularly nice dinner which is provided by funding from the foundation donors.  This event is sponsored by an individual each week and the general ambiance is a little bit nicer than the average dinner.......silver candelabra and fresh flower arrangements, etc. 

It is all happening so quickly that it is hard to react to the cultural shift and nature of this kind of presentation.  It is very easy to adapt to.......and somewhat difficult to fully digest.  We are caught in a kind of time warp......it really feels like we are living in another era.  While we have managed to maneuver the decorum a bit to avoid ties, jackets and dresses every night, we still feel a profound sense of respect for maintaining a sense of continuity with the values of the foundation.  

We are all excited (and a bit nervous) that one of the Biaggi family will be coming to Bogliasco next week. Gianni Biaggi is a landscape architect now in his 80's and is one of the key family members responsible for establishing the Center for Ligurian Studies. While he lives in Switzerland, he has a separate villa up on the hillside and likes to stop by once or twice a year.  It will be fascinating to have a chance to talk with him. 

The view from the terrace just before dinner

A view of the dining room

Fabbio attending.........with Paulina going for the risotto con carciofi

Marco, a new arrival and Pierre's partner, talking with Erika

Andrea talking with Marian......with Ilona and Robin beyond

Paulina and Marc on the left.......and Alessandra and Robin on the right

Cathy Davidson also provided the equipment for my studio space

A view from the front entry into the main salon just after dinner

The digestivo activity in full force!

The birds of paradise are in full bloom in the garden

Settling down for an evening's discussion after dinner........fascinating.....every night

Un Pomeriggio a Noli

Another nice day......except for a bit of haze.  We notice on the weekends that there are a lot more boats out on the water.  We had a sailboat pull up just off the rocks in front of the villa and stayed there for 3-4 hours.  We were working most of the morning (sfc in the studio and asc in the library) and before we knew it, it was lunch time.  Given a small amount of regret that we had let the morning drift away, we decided to drive to Noli in the afternoon. 

Noli is a small, well-preserved medieval village on the coast about 30 miles west of Genova. Once a town of 72 towers, only 8 remain today.   The drive there looked fairly easy, about 1 hour according to GPS.  What we had forgotten was the nature of the highway moving around that side of Genova.  It is quite extraordinary, being cut into the sides of the mountains with an amazing (continuous) series of tunnels.  To add to the relaxation factor, they are all curving continuously while we are driving about 80 mph.  The speed limit is actually 110 km/h (70  mph), but everyone drives about 130-140 km/h.....which is a bit over 80 mph. This was quite the ride, and we got there a bit exhausted!  We wandered through the narrow streets, had a cappuccino and walked along the beach, full of fishing boats on the sand.  The streets were becoming more crowded as we left, pennichella (siesta to us) was over! 

People, Places & Things

Passages

Layers

The Sea in Noli

Last, but not Least......the Laundry

Un viaggio a Genova

Today was focused on a planned trip to Genova.  Ale (Alessandra) had organized this with a friend of hers, Lucia, who is a professional tour guide.  Apparently this is an outing that happens with the groups each term.  

We spent the morning quietly working in the Studio and getting some laundry done.  The plan was to gather after lunch and walk down to the train station for the 14:14 train into Genova.  

We walked to the Bogliasco train station & after a 15 minute ride along the coast, arrived in Genoa. We met our guide for the afternoon, who led us right into the medieval quarter of Genoa, which is a labyrinth of narrow, twisting streets, often only a few feet wide, lined with tall buildings.  Many of these were originally palaces for noble families - 147 palaces were once in this quarter. One palace is now a department store, with a very important marble statue now surrounded by racks of clothing! 

We stopped midway through the tour for a coffee at a cafe once frequented daily by Giuseppe Verdi.  I had a pastry named for Falstaff, one of his operas. After visiting numerous piazzas, churches & seeing many, many prostitutes (local law says they must be off the streets by 8pm which means the afternoon is very busy!), we all hopped in taxis and headed back to Bogliasco for dinner.

The challenge with this post is to somehow limit the number of photos.  The day was quite beautiful and Fiske took almost 200 photographs during our 3 hour walk. (by the way, over 10,000 steps 2 days in a row!).

The 3 P's of our Trip

People, Places, Posters

PEOPLE

PLACES

the Bogliasco train station

Via XX Settembre Arcade

Makes our plants on the patio look silly!

Piazza and Chiesa di San Matteo .......home of the Doria family

Cloister of San Matteo

This is where the Genoa Institute of Architects has its office!

Local Asparagus

Carciofi are amazing here!

The Markets are everywhere

A Roman Sarcophagus

First the sacred.......now the profance!

Herbs ready for the garden

An amazing frescoed facade for the Trades Building at the harbor

and almost as much color with the balloons.......quite a contrast

A building in the old sector built on a Roman aqueduct

The Genoa Cathedral

with its creative pilasters

Cathedral Interior....gothic and romanesque

Chiesa del Gesu

anche piu

Piazza dei Ferrari

POSTERS

The idea for the poster documentation came from the overall thinking about layers.  The superimposition of new over old yields an amazing sense of passing time, as well as a sense of unintended collage art.  The patterns are both random and unintentional, which only strengthens the spontaneity and surprise of the result. 

And to Conclude

2 videos......all action!

These videos were taken this week.  One of them is in the crazy tunnel which connects Sestri Levante to Moneglia.  We mentioned it in an earlier post......a bit like Thunder Mountain at Disney World!  The second is a brief glimpse of what is like to drive in Genovese traffic.  The motorbikes and motorcycles are incredible!

https://goo.gl/photos/HL2b55qcfn1VsoC68

https://goo.gl/photos/8nesJRMErr9o35jq8