Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Ragged Robin on September 03, 2009, 07:16:51 AM
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On the coast of Liguria in Italy the valleys run down like fingers reaching into the Mediterranean Sea. Known as the Riviera dei Fiori all sorts of plants grow in this incredible microclimate. Each valley is unique and this is an impression of one of them.
click on the pictures to make them larger......
Late August, cool and quiet the valley waits for the sun to rise on the eastern ridge….
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A sparrow hawk heads for the hunting ground - dry, rocky scrub land full of creatures making the most of the early hours.
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Swallows wheel and dive and the sun appears picking out the features of this beautiful, ancient Ligurian landscape:
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A medieval village
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Olive groves, producing Taggiasca olive oil
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Smallholdings
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Palm trees and pines
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A famous Barbaresque Tower (600BC)
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Warm faded colours of buildings in jostling in hamlets
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As the sun floods over the western ridge dogs bark, cockerels crow and, beyond the evergreen oak, a horse whinnies for breakfast
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a hungry cat creeps stealthily through dry grasses and broom...
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....avoiding prickly cactus heavy with fruit, treading on sweet smelling wild flowers and herbs, brushing past ripe figs to the olive trees beyond.
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The sun reaches the valley floor now:
Vespas buzz
Men work
Greenhouses full of flowers and plants
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Up and down the valley olives ripen in the intense heat of the midday sun whilst everything else stops – too hot for anything…
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but:
Lizards and dragonflies
A Praying Mantis and preying spider on the look out
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and sun-loving flowers
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As the valley shimmers in the heat, the sun is at its peak…. siesta time…
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Until the breeze picks up from the sea bringing helicopters with seawater to douse the fires.
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At its driest, the Ligurian landscape....
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...waits for rain.
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I can think of worse places to go to for a holiday Robin !! ;D
Very nice pix - I hope you have lots more... :D ;)
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Hi Luc,
Yes, it was a great holiday in such a completely different environment to the Swiss Alps! There is so much to discover there and a feeling of timelessness with people working the olive groves as they have done since the 12 Century... and the sea breeze is wonderful in the heat!
Glad you dropped by :)
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Another nice series of photos Robin, I like your way with words and those pictures make me feel that dry, lazy heat. Many thanks for the trip ;)
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Robin, the feeling of heat in your pictures is so welcome here in the track of endless Atlantic depressions! Thanks for taking us with you.
I love that feline siesta 8)
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Wow, Robin. Many thanks for these impressions from one of my favourite holiday areas.
Could you please tell us in which part of Liguria you were?
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Fab photos, Robin.
What's the tree in No. 42 ?
Half of me wants to make it an Araucaria, the other a legume !
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Brian, Ashley, Thomas and Giles
Thank you all for your enthusiastic comments about Liguria - I love the area because it is really Italian and so unspoilt with great tracts of nature reserves if you go up a few kilometres from the coast. The heat in the air is instantly relaxing so long as you can balance it with shade! Normally we visit the region out of season. 8)
Thomas, the area is 5 k from Imperia near Dolcedo and it's only 10 minutes to the sea.
Giles, I will have to ask for help with ID of the tree - they grow well in the region and I love the feathery effect like ostrich plumes :)
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Robin, it is so cold and wet here today... you can't imagine what a lift it is to see blue skies and this beautiful report from Italy.
Worrying to think of the fires that the helicopter was scooping water for. This seems to have been a bad year for fires in all sorts of countries.... so destructive and frightening.
Seems like the puddy-tats sleeping in the sun weren't unduly bothered by such concerns, though!
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The cats are part of the landscape, mostly born wild I think and they certainly know how to relax!
Glad the blue skies cheered you up Maggi - since being back here in the Alps we have had nothing but thunderstorms overhead every night and it feels as if Autumn is on its way. I couldn't get over how dry everything was in Liguria and the fires happened virtually every day in some part of the valley -however they are expert at dealing with them and the helicopters hoover up the seawater like elephant trunks or carry big containers swinging below.
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Robin, such a pleasure to read your texts to the beautiful Ligurian landscape pictures.
Really mediterranean!
I have the feeling I was there too. Could feel this heat and I am glad you did not make a siesta, but
made these pictures. Thank you for taking us there.
BTW picture 42 shows probably Albizia?
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Hey Robin,
Good to have you back and glad you brought back some photographs for us.
Great scenes etc but for me it is the fig which captured the essence of Liguria. They are simply delicious and I have never tasted them as nice anywhere.
Paddy
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Luit, so glad you enjoyed the Ligurian Landscape and Mediterranean sunshine - the region has such an intriguing combination of valleys and coastline that leads you on to explore the next place.
Thanks for the ID for photo 42 of the tree
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Great scenes etc but for me it is the fig which captured the essence of Liguria. They are simply delicious and I have never tasted them as nice anywhere.
Paddy
Paddy, I totally agree, I have never tasted such sun ripe figs packed with flavour - I have no idea what type of fig they are, do you? Eaten with parma ham or pecorino they make a delicious taste of the Mediterranean. Thanks for your comments.
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Robin,
Not much to add to the comments of the other Forum Members - only I love your special view on landscape, plants and animals. Thanks for showing these impressions!
Gerd
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Gerd, thank you so much for expressing your enjoyment of the impressions of Liguria. It gives me great pleasure to think that this 'view' is of interest to Forum Members as it is they who inspire me to write them and to share my experience :) Equally I gain pleasure from all the knowledge and expertise and sheer enjoyment of growing plants that comes from being part of this fantastic club :)
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Robin,
This fig is a Ligurian cultivar called "Delicious". Lunch of insalata caprese followed by some figs and a few bottles of wine - Ligurian perfection.
Paddy
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Buone saluti Paddy, sounds delicious, tastes delicious 8) !
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lovely spot!
hmm, so mad dogs and robins go out in the midday sun?
the path leading along the terrace, in and out of sun and shade amongst the ancient olives sums up well an ancient way of life, very much a humanised landscape, yet very close to the earth...
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Cohan, you really do feel the presence of centuries of humans working here in the olive groves when you walk along the old paths in the shade of the trees. I'm glad you liked that photo, the trees have great character, too, each one bending or twisting at a different angle to catch the sun.
The olives are harvested in November and, by then, are black - last year I made a card of this photo as an olive branch of friendship in difficult times - here it is for new friends who have helped me more than they will ever know :)
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Robin, I am having a hard time here.... fresh figs are one of my most favourite foods - we have chums now living in France who delight in emailing me when they have so many figs they don't know what to do with them.... drives me crazy with jealously :-[ :'(
I can only dream about the flavour of those Ligurian gems..... :o
Your olive shot, against the clear blue sky is not the only photo you have shown us which would make a good card ..... it is lovely that you dedicate this one to us.... :-*
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Pleasure Maggi, sorry to drive you crazy, figuratively speaking! ;D
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Pleasure Maggi, sorry to drive you crazy, figuratively speaking! ;D
It's the drooling that causes the bother, really! :-[ :P
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Robin, I am having a hard time here.... fresh figs are one of my most favourite foods - we have chums now living in France who delight in emailing me when they have so many figs they don't know what to do with them.... drives me crazy with jealously :-[ :'(
Maggi - I have the same sort of chums. They even count how many they have eaten every day just to rub it in.
I grew a fig for years against the house and had not one fig. Previously in a tub it made two crops (not quite the same as those from further south) a year but that was ages ago and it grew so fast it had top be re-propagated regularly.
I think my most memorable meal, in fact a dessert, was aboard an Italian liner - fresh figs, fresh Parmesan cheese and an incredible wine.
johnw
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Cohan, you really do feel the presence of centuries of humans working here in the olive groves when you walk along the old paths in the shade of the trees. I'm glad you liked that photo, the trees have great character, too, each one bending or twisting at a different angle to catch the sun.
The olives are harvested in November and, by then, are black - last year I made a card of this photo as an olive branch of friendship in difficult times - here it is for new friends who have helped me more than they will ever know :)
a nice card, for sure--the peace of the blue sky, with the implied strength of the sun the branch reaches for hopefully; the ripe black fruit signalling the earth's rewards and depth; and all this offered as a gift- of richness and subtlety!
thanks!
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I can only dream about the flavour of those Ligurian gems..... :o
Maggi, I was advised to plant the Ficus carica White Marseille.
I planted a young plant of about 1 m. high 2 years ago and we picked already 9 fruits for the first time this year.
I received it from my friend on the Dutch island of Texel, but he always had this variety in his garden (and specialist tree nursery)
in Boskoop. With me the min. temps go down to - 15 C., but in Boskoop go down to -18 C.!
The young tree withstood - 10 C. ( 2 weeks!) this last winter without cover.
I found this article in The Observer:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/sep/18/shopping.gardens (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/sep/18/shopping.gardens)
I believe in your garden it should grow and ripen, because I know it is fairly sheltered!
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Luit, this is a very exciting prospect- thank you!
8)