Since I sprained my ankle last month hiking on the trails above Portovenere I have been limited to strolls on the passagiata of Chiavari. Not today. Wednesdays - the Ladies Walk and Lunch (see the side bar link to the confusing Dutch/English blog in my roll). This week in honor of Joanne's "mmm hmm" birthday, the ladies were ready to hike, and, hike my favorite trail. How dare I refuse? But, I did convince Sam to give us a head start and spare us (and my sore ankle) a two hour slog uphill from Lavagna by dropping us off at the trial head on top of San Giacomo - 500 + meters above sea. Thank you Sam!
We might have had a head start, but we walked! The idea was a nice 2-3 hour hike from San Giacamo across to Capenardo then down into Sestri for lunch at Luna Blu. Ok. Easy enough.
All started out fine, after all, Sam got us started on the right trail and is was just as lovely as the last time I saw it a year ago. See my profile photo to your right? That shot was taken in June last year just after a heavy thunderstorm. And, as you can see in the photo above, the wild flowers are just as beautiful this year as they were last year. A little rain and lots of sun and the hills around here bloom alive. Thankfully, today, though we were in the clouds and it was threatening to do so, it didn't rain.
We were doing fine, until, we reached the point where we started our descent. Me, the only one who has walked this trail, and I will admit, I have walked this trail many times in both directions, made a bit of a mistake. I was having a hard time with my sore ankle and walking downhill was not proving easy, therefore I took the nice road to the left when, I really should have taken the narrow trail to the right. We ended up on the right road, but, in the the wrong place. Story of my life and, actually, how I ended up in Italy. A move to Monaco in France somehow took us to Genoa in Italy... but I am going off topic, again.
We now found ourselves on a road that I had no recollection of - and was twisting and turning in every direction but the way we wanted - downhill towards the sea. I was just hoping that my walking guru skills weren't failing me, because I hated to admit it but, it seemed we were walking into the entroterra (wrong way) and not down to the mare (right way). I stopped to scratch my head, get my bearings and read the trail map - with out my glasses I may add. Hopeless aren't I? Fast thinking Nicole came to my rescue. She whipped out her fancy cell phone, complete with GPS, downloaded our coordinates, and, in seconds reassured us we were going in the right direction on the correct road! Soon enough we found the red triangle marking the trail on a wall. 30 minutes later we were sitting on the beach in Sestri taking off our hiking shoes and slipping on our sandals..... Ahh.... Who needs a man, or a compass for that matter, when you have NOKIA with Global Positioning! Kiitos Finlandia...
Four hours after we started out, we were more than ready for lunch, me, I was ready for a nice glass of white wine. Hey, this walking guru thing is STRESSFUL!
Was the day over for the intrepid walking ladies of Liguria? Nah. They hopped on the bus that took them back to Chiavari and in their own directions. One went home to take care of her family, the other to a flute lesson. Me? No sooner I was in my apartment, I was out the door. Today was a very important day, OK, it was Joanne's Birthday, but, it was also a special day for another reason.
Today, Sarah's new violin was BORN!
After 6 months of waiting and a fitting midway. Sarah's new violin emerged from the liutaio's workshop this afternoon!
This is Sarah's very first Italian, custom made violin. It has never been played by any other violinists. Why did I use born? Well other than a bad translation from Italian, Sarah has to "raise" this violin. Give it a "life". And to do that - she has to play it, and play it so much as to give this instrument its "anima" or soul. Perfect. Sarah HAS to play, this is music to my ears. Sarah HAS to play her violin. Did say that again? Oops.
Now, my baby, has, her delicate baby in her hands. If Sarah loves her violin and cares for it tenderly, hopefully, her baby, will make Sarah as proud as she, my baby, makes me.
Krista
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