Postcard from the Riviera – II

Postcard from the Riviera – 2

 

According to legend, the Tuscan Archipelago was formed when a necklace slid from the neck of Venus, goddess of beauty and love, and fell into the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Had I known this story ahead of time, I probably would not have been surprised to find the island of Elba to be a place of beauty – rich and varied scenery of mountains ringed with old forest, lagoons and inlets, small hill towns nestling against the shore in timeless tranquility. However, like most of us who studied European history, I only knew of Elba as the island to which Napoleon Bonaparte was first exiled in 1814. This in turn conjured in my mind Alcatraz-like images of a bleak, forbidding place. The reality turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Though he only stayed on the island for 10 months, Napoleon had two residences: the Palazzina de Mulini located in the highest part of Portoferraio, the island’s main port, and the other the villa San Martino, his summer residence, and one that we had the opportunity to visit. The later edifice was purchased for him by his sister, Paolina, considered to be one of the greatest beauties of the time. Napoleon had been stripped of most of his fortune, and she was married to a Borghese, one of the richest of the Roman families. Paolina also had a history of conquests, though in a different realm than her brother, earning her the sobriquet “Paolina the horizontal.”

 

We visited Porto Azzuro, a sea-side resort on the opposite end of the island from Portferraio. Elba also has large iron stores and mines, accounting for the legends of ships being “drawn” to the island, as in fact magnetic compasses can be affected by the significant iron deposits found there. We did not visit the Miniature Mine nearby, though the brochure I saw looked interesting. Elba turned out to be the surprise gem of our Italian Riviera experience.

 

The last day of our Italian Riviera experience finds us visiting the highlights of the Gulf of Poets, staring with Portovenere, a fortified town recently given World Heritage status by UNESCO. Doria castle (open to visitors) dominates the town, and on a rocky promontory stands the small but exquisite St. Peter’s church built in the 13^th century in Genoese gothic style with alternating bands of white and black marble guaranteed to draw any photographer’s lens. We move on to Santa Margherita Ligure, a seaside resort town defined by charming shops and an unusual mix of nautical and Belle Époque styles. Since the days of the 17^th century, when the Genoese nobility built beautiful villas here, the town has attracted an international mix of visitors. It’s lunch time, and rather than wasting our time in a restaurant, we stop in a bakery, pick up a fresh baguette, that stop by to purchase some great mortadella, cheese, which we consume along with a bottle of local wine on a bench by the sea. This prepares us for the short ferry ride to Portofino, a tiny 19^th century fishing village transformed by countless celebrity visitors into one of the most painted, photographed and celebrated gems of the Italian Riviera. The town square with its multi-colored houses and the marina with its fairytale yachts, though seen in photos by almost all visitors prior to arrival, still have the capacity to take your breath away. It’s a small wonder that this area held sway over so many writers, artists and poets, from Nietzsche to Hesse, Wagner, Kandinsky, Freud, Hemingway, and Guy de Maupassant.

 

One of the pleasures of traveling with a group of friends and co-workers is the opportunity to get to know each other better, as being removed from the surroundings of our everyday existence and being strangers together in a foreign land puts us all on a more or less equal footing. At work, we all tend to wear our professional masks and demeanors. Here, we had the opportunity to allow sides of us our colleagues don’t get to see come forth. I was pleased to learn how many good humored, interesting, funny, and talented people I work with, as well as have some personal conversations with old friends that sadly we often don’t have the time for at home. Another bonus turned out to be the cohesion that developed not only between the sixteen of us I had recruited for the adventure and the other half of the group who were contacts of Fran, our travel agent. Everyone mixed well, looked out for each other, shared stories, and developed an esprit-de-corps that made us all sad to say good-bye to each other at the end of the holiday.

 

Next: The French Riviera

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