Cervo, Luguria, Italy - June 7, 2010

Cervo is a small, ancient town of about 1,200 inhabitants, built on top of a hill along the Italian Riviera in Liguria, Italy. In Roman times it was a mansion along the Via Julia Augusta eventually expanding in medieval times to a fief of the Clavesana marquis, a subject of the Republic of Genoa. With its 16th century towers and ramparts still protecting the village the character of Cervo has changed little since these times.
The most obvious feature of the town is the Baroque church of St. John the Baptist that overlooks the Mediterranean 200' below.
In days of yore, employment was spread over coral fishermen in the Corsican and Sardinian seas, general seafaring and olive growing.
Today the economy is almost entirely supported by tourism with many of the dwellings in town being available as vacation rentals. It likely that the romantic charm of a medieval apartment rapidly loses its luster when faced with a 200' climb for groceries, restaurants or a dip in the sea. Still, it makes for a nice postcard.
For almost 50 years, Cervo has hosted the International Chamber Music Festival established by the Hungarian violinist Sandor Vegh in 1964. Music master classes - Accademia di Cervo - are held in September, and a guitar academy is held in June. Fortunately, we missed both of these events.
For other views of the town click here.

Chuisi

While loafing around in Castiglione, the name Chuisi was frequently encountered although, try as we might, no English speaking folk seemed to know anything about it. As is our wont, this was enough to put it squarely onto our itinerary even though it is west of where we were and our general plan was to go east. So, early on a Saturday morning, with high expectations, off we went to Chuisi. What did we find? Gasp - another ancient walled city on a rock! Being still quite early in the day we actually found a Pay and Display parking space large enough for Heidi and bought a ticket.
The origins of Chuisi are probably lost to history. The earliest known references, at which time it was already a city of some prominence, are from 600 BCE. Like so many other cities that we visited, the fortunes of Chuisi have been all over the map in the intervening centuries and it has changed "owners" (usually involuntarily) countless times. It currently houses about 8,000 souls and, if one takes the time to search out the background, it appears to have an extraordinarily interesting history. We spent an hour or so roaming round and taking a few snaps, some of which are shown below.

An ornate church interior, typical of Italian churches
A different style but fairly elaborate just the same
A simple altar in a small church
Bell tower
Another of several bell towers
Palazzo del Logge in the main square
The local fathers meeting

Looking out from Chuisi

Birthday Boy!

While getting a quick fix on the Castiglione municipal Internet connection, another couple from the campsite stopped by. Bernard and Leah are from Amsterdam and were camping in their Hymer - the same brand as Heidi. During the inevitable discussion that followed covering Internet, computers, websites, blogs, offspring, weather, food, the price of gas and other topics essential to the continued functioning of the world, it came to light that that very day was my Birthday.
Without further ado, we unplugged our toys and quickly adjourned to the Ristorante la Cantina for a celebratory lunch. The first course, a seafood risotto was fabulous, but the free-flowing adult beverages somewhat cloud my memory as to the rest of the meal. I'm sure it was excellent and I'm sure that we had a good time. No one from our party was arrested.