Hi again everyone! Thanks for checking in—lots to report; I get my second AZ vaccine tomorrow, and believe it or not, Barbara just got a text from the Health Ministry—she is scheduled for a first vaccine in June, 10 days before she heads back to the US. Very excited, it'll be Moderna or Pfizer, so (a) she will be partially vaxxed for the flights back, and (b) she can get the second shot when she gets back.
Meanwhile, we had another perfect Sunday this past week, our first real trip of 2021. As soon as we found out we would be allowed to venture outside the Chieri/Torino city limits, we planned a long weekend getaway—four days later, we jumped in the Panda and headed for the coast! A quick 2.5 hours and we were staring at the Mediterranean—specifically the lovely Ligurian Sea. I don't have classes on Mondays until late morning, so we made a three-night weekend out of it. What a balm for the soul to be in the sun, by the sea, and simply out of town!!
Creatures of habit, we went to Sanremo for the third time—it's our go-to town along the Ligurian coast. Sanremo offers the very comfy and friendly Hotel Belsoggiorno, our favorite Italian ristorante La Porta Verde, and most importantly, the absolutely beautiful Pista Ciclabile del Ponente Liguria, 24km of majestic sea views and cute little towns right along coast.
Palm trees in Ospedaletti (west end of the Pista Ciclabile), and il ristorante La Porta Verde
We were especially pleased to see the crowd at La Porta Verde, a great little trattoria tucked into a side street in the old part of town. Katie and Francesco are a lovely couple who started the ristorante a few years ago and it's become super-popular—it's a winning combination of Katie's hostess charm and Francesco's cuisine; he claims he learned all the recipes from his 'nonna' :) We like La Porta verde so much we ate dinner there twice!
The daytime highlight was of course biking along the sea on the Pista Ciclabile. We had clear skies for the first time in a while. On days like this, it's hard to concentrate on the path; you're completely mesmerized by the views of the sea. Check out the pictures and video here, they barely do it justice. A couple of kilometers here, a shot of coffee there, the next thing you know you've covered a lot of ground! I hope you have the chance to get to the Ligurian coast some day!
It's clear that Italy is waking up from its slumber and making up for lost time. Even a fairly sleepy place like Sanremo is already seeing more visitors and more activity; it was great to see two weeks ago, and things are improving by the day across the country.
It reminds me of yet another wise saying I ran across right after the last post about Italian wisdom - It says "ho misurato la mia vita a cucchiani di caffè" which translates to "I measured my life by [little] coffee spoons." At first I thought it was a trite expression like "don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee." But I prefer to think it has a deeper meaning—the more coffee spoons you unload from the dishwasher each week, the more cups of coffee, and maybe the more visitors, you had—and the richer your days have been!
Please let us know how you are doing and here's to a great summer for everyone very soon!