Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Let the sun shine....


Sam and I
Originally uploaded by Krista 1366.
Yes!!! The sun finally broke through the clouds today! What did we do? Sam and I went for our now routine after breakfast walk followed by a warm cappuccino.

Today we explored the coast of Chiavari. We walked to the end of the passagiata then along the beach till we couldn't walk anymore. We then walked along the rocks past the fascist era tower, built on Mussolini orders, till we hit the end of the beach. Or so we thought. Sam wanted to explore and take a look at the old train tunnel no longer in use. Ok, onwards we climbed over and across the rocks till we reached the other side, which is completely wild and undeveloped - and a good place for the vagrants to camp - so they do. I would not be walking here alone. We discovered a new beach that for the moment seems isolated, but I am sure in the summer it is overrun. Sam and I found a nice place to sit and soaked up the morning sun. To see more photos from our walk, Click here and go to my homepage.

After a while we were craving our morning fix of coffee and headed back to the passagiata to meet up with some of our friends. We joined Ian and Silvia Lewis with their daughter Chiara tagging along and also Jan Fischer. We had arranged to meet at one of our favorite bars on the passagiata because they finally added an extension enclosed in glass. The bar is right in the middle of the passagiata next to the new fountain. It has the best view to Portofino and the new tables and chairs sure were inviting. We eagerly walked in and asked to sit in the new seats. Not a chance, we were told. Those seats were only open after 12 p.m.. Hey, that's lunchtime and it was only 10 a.m.! We asked why. It seemed so silly. We would take our coffees to the tables, we didn't need service. No dice. In Liguria, sometimes somethings never make any sense to us "stranieri". Here was the owner's reasoning. If he let us sit there, he would have to let others sit there. Ok. What is the big deal you ask? See, some people would have a coffee, sit down, and stay all day soaking up the sun. He would not make any money because there would be no turnover of the tables. The owner could never ask his customers to leave because, that is simply not done here. Furthermore, because people might not leave, he would not have free tables to serve lunch on, which is what he most likely is banking on to make money to pay for the new addition.... For the Chiavarese it is logical. For us? The foreigners who wanted to sit and have a cappuccino in the sun? Crazy!

A dopo!

Krista

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Krista

My name is Jo-Ann Rogan. I was blogging about my father family and was looking through this cousin list that Pat Morris put together years ago. I remember you are the only cousin I had on both my Mom and Dad's side who was close in age to me. I remember you coming to stay with us when I was a kid one summer.

I can't wait to read your blog. I hope you are well.

Jo-Ann Rogan