Spring is definitely here, and for what could well be the last hike of the season, we went back to Montegrazie. The landscape around the church, itself visible all over the valley, offers spectacular 360 deg views of sea, forest and mountain, that we never get tired of enjoying.The boat is due back from the boatyard soon, and I guess our focus will shift to sailing rather than hiking
08.04.2024
Waiting for the mirror to finish off the bathroom, I have sorted a few other jobs around the apartment. The coffee table, I made almost a year ago, has made its way in, and I installed our "old" tv on the wall. In the kitchen I hung the two shelves made from the tabletop cut-offs. And on the balconies the two privacy covers that we made have been installed (I'll paint the railings later)
08.04.2024
We were due to go hiking in Mercantour over Easter, but the weather forecast was horrible, so we cancelled. Fortunately, it cleared for Monday, and we went to Isolabona for a hike to Apricale, which is quite well-known for its picturesque location. We did a 12km mainly on (empty) roads, which was smart given the amount of recent rain. The track took us through and around Apricale, so we got to enjoy the view from all angles
17.03.2024
I don't plan to do too much in the bathroom of the apartment. It's a bit dated, but perfectly serviceable. But the sink cabinet was rotten because it stood on the floor, and I had to get rid of the green glass shelves that looked like they came straight from the 60's.
I bought a tall bathroom cabinet and a sink cabinet in IKEA, and a smart 40cm deep Samsung washing machine online. Installation is underway, but still work in progress
02.03.2024
The last couple of weeks the weather has alternated between torrential rain and lovely warm and sunny. This is good news for the garden, as you can see from the pictures. But when we get a heavy downpour, the front garden overflows, because the 60sqm upstairs terrace just drains onto the grass. To improve the situation I dug a 90cm deep drainwell and filled it with 340liter of Leca stone, which is very light and porous. So far it seems to have worked a treat
20.02.2024
Two weeks ago we got 120-140mm rain in just 24hours, but now the weather is absolutely beautiful with temperatures of 17 deg. Obviously, we went hiking. This time we went to Borgo d'Oneglia on the scooter and did a really nice 8,7km round-trip with views south towards Imperia. Later we soaked in the outdoor bubble-bath for an hour to finish of a great weekend
13.01.2024
We will be in Torino all next week, so we thought we might as well get out and get some air today. The weather was a little cold and damp, so we did a hike mostly on the roads from Boscomare over Pietrabruna and back. It's not far from home and we've hiked this area before, but not this exact route
05.01.2024
We had a lovely couple of days in Bologna, a city that has a lot to offer and yet is easy to get around on foot. There is the usual astonishing amount of churches, and Bologna is famous for it's towers of which only few remain. There is also an impressive amount of shops, many still wonderfully decorated from Christmas, and of course Bologna is well known for it's food like mortadella sausage or pasta bologenese ("al ragu" in Italian)
05.01.2024
We didn't spend much time in museums in Bologna, but we did go up Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower), which is found on Piazza Maggiore right in the middle of town, next to the huge Basilica di San Petronio church. The views are amazing and the famous twin towers (Garisenda and Asinelli), the highest of which is 97m, were closed for renovation, so we couldn't go up there
05.01.2024
One of the things we definitely want to see in Bologna was Santuario Madonna di San Luca, a church built between 1723 and 1757, that sits on a hill 210meters above the city. It's connected to the city by some of Bologna's 38km archways (the most anywhere in the world), which are included in the Unesco World Heritage Site list. The actual assent from Arco Del Meloncello is 2,0km covered by 666 archways, and is quite popular with both locals and turists
31.12.2023
Today it's raining and the garden really needed that, but yesterday it turned out nice and we decided on one more hike before New Years. We started from the west side of Imperia and went up the hill through some really impressive villas to Diano Gorleri, with nice views all the way over Diano Marina to Cervo. On the decent we passed the wonderfully excentric Villa Grock (must visit with Birgit) before coming back down to Imperia
28.12.2023
Just before Christmas we managed to squeeze in another hike, this time a short 8,3km trip starting from Porto Maurizio (the west side of Imperia) up to Poggi, over the new bridge, up again to Santa Croce al Monte Calvario and back. We have been at the church before, there is marvellous view over Imperia, so we stopped here for lunch
23.12.2023
Merry Christmas everyone. This time of year, when the air is clear, we get some amazing sunrises and sunsets. Occasionally, we also get to see Corsica (160km away!) and the cost of Tuscany. It's Christmas, and we treated ourselves to dinner at our favourite restaurant Da u Titti in Lingueglietta, where we take most our guests, as it really is an extraordinary culinary experience
10.12.2023
It rained all day on my day off on Friday, but now it's back to normal, so we went out for a walk. We didn't go far as we started from Civezza just west of us and went on an 8,5km roundtrip north-west. Some trails we had done before, but it's getting difficult finding places we haven't been locally. We have booked a hiking holiday to Parc National du Mercantour, just across the border in France for Easter 2024
10.12.2023
It's December and in the garden the citrus are plentiful and ripe: orange, mandarine, lemon, lime and the giant cedro (that we do use) are all ready to pick.
Indoors we have had our first traditional Danish Christmas lunch with marinated herrings, that we love. Bibi has also done some much appreciated baking this year
02.12.2023
Last night a terrible storm almost blew our house away, but today it's nice and quite and 14deg again. So we went for a hike, this time a 12km roundtrip from Caramagna Ligure - Moltedo - Montegrazie - Santuario di Nostra Signora delle Grazie and back. On the way through Imperia we bought 4 large tins of paint (14l each),so we can decorate the kitchen-dinner in my Christmas holiday
28.11.2023
Earlier this month we went up Monte Sette Fontane on a beautiful hike with great vistas, that takes you back down pass Nostra Signora di Lampedusa church. We also put the bubble bath back up for the winter, now that electricity proces have normalized. This weekend we were in the garden, but on Saturday we went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday at Terramare in Taggia, which was a very pleasant experience indeed
01.11.2023
We had a couple of holidays and the weather was nice, but too windy to take the boat out. Fortunately, hiking is one of our favorite things and more suited to this kind of weather. I found a really nice 10km route from Pontedassio, just north of Imperia on the SS28 towards Torino, through small villages, olives and forrest