Il Primo Giorno di Giugno

Today, Saturday, is the first day of June.  This gets us a bit nervous as our trip is spanning two months, and we have now moved into month number two.  While we are only 9  days into 27......it seems like we have rounded a corner.  In any case, we are noticing that our pace and lifestyle lends itself to an easy and quick passage of each day.  We imagine this is what happens when you relax and slide other concerns to the side.......it is like taking the emergency brake off!

Today was a great day in this respect.  It literally flew by.  The weather was perfect, a wonderful early summer day.  We had breakfast and an extra cup of coffee on the terrace.  We spent a fair amount of time with drawing, painting and sketching.  There was a mid-morning walk down through the gardens to take photos, as the lighting was beautiful.  

Lunch was relatively quiet, as Jim and Jane had gone to Sestri Levante and Mia was not there.  Afterwards we got our thoughts organized and headed out to Nervi to see the Rose Gardens in the Parco.   We decided to drive to save leg energy, but spent the better part of 30 minutes looking for a parking space.  This is a holiday weekend and everyone was doing the same thing.......hanging out on the Passeggiata enjoying the sun and the sea.  There were no parking spaces, so we went back to the Villa and walked to Nervi.  This is not a huge deal other than the fact that it involves some major hills and steep streets to get down to the water.  We are around 11,000 steps today - a little over 5 miles, but the 'burn' on the thighs is a killer!

We made it to the 'Rossetta' garden........perfect timing as everything was in bloom.  We hiked around and wound our way back to the Passeggiata right next to a cafe with a large gelato sign!  We were lucky to find a table facing the water and hung out for a half an hour. 

Ultimately, we wound our way back up the streets to Via Aurelia and navigated transverse over to the Villa.  It was quite a hike, but we survived and treated ourselves to another one of those great Italian naps......with windows open and air-conditioning blasting!

We all met at 7:00 and had drinks on the terrace.......such a pleasant evening.  Dinner was amazing, with Risotto Milanese (saffron) and swordfish.......followed by fresh strawberries. After dinner was informal and folks drifted off by around 10:00.

Going back a bit in the day, the Genovese were out in full force enjoying the sun and the sea......and are amazingly adept at crawling over rocks and finding apparently comfortable place to sunbathe.....looks pretty crazy to us!

Today was a wonderful, sunny and captivating day on the Ligurian coast.  These are the ones you want to embed in your memory.