We took a short trip to the Italian Rivera early last November and stayed in the small beach town of Alassio.   Like any beach town in winter, it was a little deserted and the beaches were empty.  You certainly can enjoy the walks, views, and the few restaurants that were open, but it can seem a little too quiet and deserted.

The skies and sea were constantly putting on a show for us and they were spectacular.

The beach and sky

Sunset

Sunset from Alassio

The beach in Cervo

The town itself was quite nice and is noted for its wall with plaques to famous people who have visited.  Below you will find the one for Jean Cocteau

Piazza in Alassio

The empty beach

The amazing colors of the water

The muretta in Alassio

Note Jean Cocteau

Vignette in Alassio

Workshop in Alassio

All packed up for the season

The empty beach in Alassio

Alassio

Alassio Beach Walk

A Mansion in Alassio

Alassio

Alassio

Because wanted to explore the area, we flew into Torino (Turin), rented a car and drove to Alassio.  That allowed us to take several drives to places that we could not get to using our usual public transportation.  First was a drive into the mountains above Alassio.

Alassio from above

Looking inland from behind Alassio

Small church in the hills above Alassio

Inside

We returned along the coast to the west of Alassio to discover the incredibly charming town of Cervo.  We climbed to the church through the winding streets and passageways to take in one of the most beautiful views from the front steps of a church I have seen.

View from below in Cervo

The way up

Cervo

Cervo

Cervo

Cervo

I didn’t know bougainvillea was still blooming in November

Half way up in Cervo

Private terrace

The sea from half way up in Cervo

Love these stairs cut right into the stone

Porto Maurizio

Since we were so close and the weather did not lend itself to swimming or beach combing, we decided to drive the hour and a half to Nice just across the French border.  I have always liked Nice and even in the cool drizzle it was a great place to spend a few hours and eat lunch.  The views from the highway down to the communities of the French Riviera alone were worth the trip

That is quite a row of yachts

It was a great trip full of beautiful images.  It would be interesting to return in the summer when I assume it would be hard to move with all of the beach crowd filling every possible space.

One last image.  As were many of the pictures in this post, this was taken from our apartment window.

There will be more catch up posts to follow.

When we decided to take our trip to Venezia and the surrounding area, we had not really planned on stopping in Padova.  When we left Asolo, our flight out of Treviso did not leave until 5:30 (and it was late so we did not actually leave until 6:15) so we decided to spend part of the day in a city we had heard many good things about.  It was almost on the way, so why not.  As I said in my last post, it was quite a wonderful surprise.  We loved it.

A little side note is that when I was a senior in college, I had the lead in the Shakespeare play we produced that year (I was also the assistant scene designer and scenic artist for the production).  The play was “Much Ado About Nothing” and I played “Signior Benedick of Padua”.  I always wanted to see my “hometown”.

The old center (Centro Storico) was everything you hope for in the historic center of an Italian city, with architecture, restaurants and markets that compare to any we have seen.  I really want to come back here for a longer visit.  For those of you who are looking for something a little different, by train it is only a half an hour from Venice, an hour and a half from Florence and two hours from Milan.

This city had one of the better markets we have seen.  Here are just a few of the vendors. It was too bad we weren’t staying longer, I wanted to buy a little of everything.

My lunch just before we left was a wonderful, warm octopus salad.  What a treat.

I have been a little neglectful for the past few months, but I am going to try to play a little catch up for the next few weeks.  I hope you enjoy.

Forty years ago, a year before we met, both Holly and I traveled through Bolzano at approximately the same time.  She was there for the Busoni International Piano Competition and I was just passing through on my way to Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany.  When we talked about it later, we figured out that we could have both been on the same train north.   Rather irrelevant to our story now, but I could not pass up the romance.

We even revisited it briefly when Holly and I were traveling through Europe ten years later with my two older daughters, Erika and Jessica, and 15 month old daughter, Jamie, in tow. (I never knew how much motion sickness one child could have until we drove the winding roads of European Alps with Jamie.)  Zach was with us too, but he was in utero, so that may not count.

Holly had been enchanted with Bolzano during her time at the competition, but when we just drove in to it 10 years later, it actually did not seem all that special.  Since most of the historic center of Bolzano is pedestrian only, we missed the charming, beautiful part and did not get out of the car.

So, back to the present.  Since the weather where we were, Asolo, was just socked in, we thought why not get really bad weather and go further into the mountains and take another look at Bolzano. It was only two hours away.  Checking our trusty weather apps, we were rather surprised that the forecast was for for clear skies and almost 60 degrees.  Oh that climate change, it does seem like a reward at first.  So off we went, Holly driving and me as the trusty navigator, unsure of what kind of road conditions we might encounter but vowing to turn back at the first sign of trouble .

Most of the way we were met with clouds and a little fog but it was well above freezing and the roads were perfect.  As promised, when we neared Bolzano, we were greeted with a beautiful spring-like day and fell in love with the place all over again.

Bolzano is a city of just over 200,000 people in the autonomous province of Südtirol  (South Tyrol)  of northern Italy.  It was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of WW I when it was ceded to Italy.  At that time almost 90% of the population of not only the city but the province were German speakers.  There was a real push during the Fascist period to quash the native Germans, including not using the language in the schools and even forbidding its use.  After WW II, that suppression led to violent push back in the late 50s and early 60s.  Those protests are what led to the province’s autonomous designation (exactly what that means in reality, I do not know).  Bolzano is now definitely bi-lingual, Italian and German.  All of the street signs and restaurant menus we saw were in both languages.  We also found that most people could also converse in English.  Here is a map I found online of the language distribution of the province.  As you can see, the native speaking Germans still dominate the area.

All of that aside, it is a remarkable town.  From its daily fresh air market full of fresh vegetables and meats of all kinds, to its winding medieval streets  with the mountains peeking out in all directions, to its very cosmopolitan feel, this is one of my favorite spots I have  ever visited.  If you get half a chance to visit Bolzano, take it.

I am afraid that my pictures do not really do the place justice, but I think you can get the idea.

The market

My personal favorite

Tomorrow, I will post about our visit to Cortina d’Ampezzo.  Another absolutely glorious village situated high in the Italian Alps.

After leaving Venice, we rented a car so we could easily travel to the small town of Asolo to take in some of the vistas it is famous for.  It is right on the edge of the Alps and overlooks to Po River valley and it tributaries.  Although some of these pictures show blue sky, we ran into mostly fog and clouds.  It is a beautiful small village and we enjoyed our stay in a great little hotel, the terrific food in the restaurants and the fog created a quiet peacefulness that we found very relaxing, but most of the vistas will have to be enjoyed on another visit.

For my theater friends, yes, it is the same Asolo as the theater in Sarasota.  It was here that the 18th century theater was dismantled and taken to Florida by the Ringling family.  And another note is that Eleanora Duse lived here for the last years of her life and is buried here.

And just to make sure you understand its attraction for quiet beauty, Robert Browning also lived here for some time.

Our hotel, Albergo Al Sole

Since it was winter and the views were not to be had, we decided to make use of the car we had rented and see what the alps had to offer.  One day we went to Bolzano and the next we drove the two hours to Cortina d’Ampezzo.  Both were incredible days and those will be my next posts.