Monday 12 June 2023
Today we drove from Vercelli to Florence via the only stretch of coast to feature in our trip, a bit of the Ligurian Riviera between Genoa and La Spezia.
The geography in Italy is splendid. First we are hurtling across dead flat plains, then suddenly green-clad mountains rear up and the motorway begins twisting its way through dozens of tunnels with vistas of verdant valleys in between. Then suddenly the azure Mediterranean comes into view ahead, lost again and only glimpsed between scores of yellow and orange tower blocks that mark the many suburbs of Genoa. Back to weaving among mountains, past the Carrera ares where you can see the blazing white mountain eaten by quarries and the blocks of white marble like titanic sugar cubes in the stone yards near the motorway. Then suddenly it is nearly flat and agricultural again as you head inland to Florence.
Rather that try and make it into Portofino or the even more isolated Cinque Terre villages, we picked Camogli for lunch; much closer to the motorway and far less known. But stunningly beautiful, with the blue waters of the boat-speckled harbour surrounded by vertiginous old buildings painted a rusty orange with dark cypress green shutters over all the windows.
We found a harbourside osteria for lunch of pichi (hand-rolled pasta worms) with pesto and pansoti (little tortellini-ish parcels) with walnut sauce. The starter of stuffed breaded anchovy was a bit dry, but these other Ligurian classics were great.
We rolled into Galluzzo, a little town on the outskirts of Florence, around 5pm. The trick of parking for free on the town square and getting a bus into the centre seems to have gone very well (touch wood!) and we were nestled in our apartment by 6pm. It’s another great old building with thick walls and high ceilings, although as it was still 30C outside we needed a bit of aircon. But really, it’s an amazing spot: huge space to live in, views out onto the dense greenery of Giardano Bardini, and ten minutes walk to everywhere.
After all that pasta at lunch we just needed a wine bar for dinner. We found a very classy one right across from Palazzo Pitti and explored some powerful Italian reds along with some tasty snacks. The 2015 Brunello was very good, but so was the Barolo of course.
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