Nebbia in Italy

Some places in Italy are so foggy in the winter! If you have lived in Piemonte, you know that the fog can seem almost suffocating at times and sometimes smells strange (the smell outside the polluted Turin air much preferable).

This photo was taken near Lucca, a nice little city in Tuscany that still has Medieval city walls intact.

Tellaro

After thinking about Tellaro the other day I decided to go there. Now is the perfect time because everyone is elsewhere for the holidays, and it is actually possible to find a parking spot. During the summer it is almost impossible to find parking for a motorino in some places in Liguria.

Tellaro is one of the quaintest towns on the Italian Riviera, and still pretty unknown to many tourists. It is found in the Golfo dei Poeti (Gulf of the Poets). The Gulf, located near the city of La Spezia, was given this name for the poets/authors who visited and lived in its vicinity; among them Eugenio Montale, D.H. Lawrence, Mario Soldati, Shelley and Byron.
Shelley lived in San Terenzo, and died when his boat was hit by a storm on his way home from Livorno. There is a grotto dedicated to Lord Byron at Portovenere named Grotto Arpaia. It is said to be named after Byron because he is the point from which he left to swim across the gulf of La Spezia to San Terenzo to visit Shelley in Lerici, in 1822.

According to Italian writer Mario Soldati, Tellaro is “a nirvana between sea and sky, between the rocks and the green mountain.”

Waves Crashing in Camogli

Sometimes you can be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I wasn't expecting to take any great photos this day in Camogli and was preparing to go home with a few banal shots. Then, just as I was about to call it a day I saw the water from the huge waves reflecting a beautiful color as the sun began to go down.

National Geographic has an interesting video on the painting of the outsides of houses in Liguria (it focuses on Camogli, but it is tradition in the whole region). They are painted in the trompe l'oleil style that was also used by Margritte (photo below). Things which are not real seem to take on a life and seem to be what they are not.




Tags: Camogli, Italy, Italy Photos, Sunset

Winter Colors in Liguria

One of the beautiful things about winter in Liguria is that the colors are often more defined and sharp than during the hazy summer days. This sunset shot was taken near La Spezia, one of the four provinces of Liguira. Portovenere (La Spezia) and the small islands nearby (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto) were added to Unesco's World Heritage list in 1997. Then in 2001 the Liguria Region founded the Natural Park of Portovenere.

There are many breathtaking places in Liguria that are still little known. Portofino and the Cinque Terre are becoming ever more visited by tourists, but other places still remain untouched by mass international tourism, and hopefully will remain that way!