Enchanted Liguria [antikvár]

it is impossible to speak of the landscape," wrote Sigmund Freud from Liguria in 1905, "without being a poet or quoting one." On this point Freud and I actually agree. The words of poets appear often in these pages. Shelley lived in and adored Lerici ("I still inhabit this divine bay; Reading dramas and sailing and listening to / the most enchanting music"). Byron fell in love with Genoa, though much of his time there was spent dreaming of Corinth ("There shrinks no ebb in that tideless sea / Which changeless rolls eternally") and writing Don Juan. I have tried not to abuse the quantity of inspired verse available, but few places have been so thoroughly canvassed down the centuries by sensitive souls. Elite tourism was pioneered in Liguria centuries ago and today the region ranks among the least unknown on earth. "Nothing is more agreeable in traveling up the Riviera of Genoa than to find oneself gradually transported from a cold air to an agreeable warmth," wrote a rapturous James Boswell in December 1765 in his Journal on the Grand Tour. "By the time I got to San Remo I sat with the windows open in a room without fire and basked in the rays of a benign sun." Tourism is still a prime industry today, though it only scratches the surface ofLigurian life. Paradoxically, few people outside Italy seem to know _where or even what Liguria is. I say "Liguria" and not "the Italian Riviera." The problem is one of terminology. Liguria is the name of the region that lies between Tuscany and Provence, while the Riviera refers only to Liguria's boomerang-shaped coastal strip on the northern edge of the Mediterranean, aBehind the typical Ligurian dish of pasta filled with greens and ricotta in a walnut and cream sauce is an antique map of Liguria with an inset of the port of Genoa.Opposite: The fishing port at Camogli.oe in somea person wished Irehre . . . il snou Idleof lie hiile villages of thiscoast, where air, water andear ih concur to offer whateac hh as most precious.Thomas Jefferson