Today it's raining and we're working in the house, but yesterday was nice and I went for a motorcycle ride around our local area: Taggia - Badalucco - Triora - Pigna - Isolabona - Apricale - Bajardo - Ceriana and home. Some 115km in 3.5hours and while the landscape is breathtakingly beautiful and the roads lovely, some of the asphalt is appalling and basically going back to gravel, hence the low average speed
17.05.2025
You may have heard me babbling about an outdoor kitchen, by which I mean a fixed table, sink and grill, for a while. Where I wanted it - next to the kitchen door - the previous owner erected a poorly constructed wood shed. So a couple of months ago, while Bibi was in Denmark, I demolished the wood shed. My original plan was to use stone from the back garden to build a wall, but the rocks were too hard to work into suitable pieces, so I'm now on plan B (more of this later)
12.05.2025
Saturday the weather was very clam, so we spend another day on the boat. Sunday was more windy, and we went hiking instead. We parked the scooter on the east side of Taggia, under a giant avocado tree, and hiked up to Castellaro, which is a lovely little village with amazing views. From there we did a round trip along the golf course back to the scooter
03.05.2025
After six months and countless emails, ENEL - our completely useless supplier - finally delivered the correct three-phase inverter and the missing battery module for our solar system. Yesterday the installers were here to finish the set up and turn the system on for the first time. We now have 15 panels (415Wp each, 6kWp total) and 5 battery modules (2,9kWh each, 14,5 kWh total) and a 6kW three-phase inverter all working perfectly!
03.05.2025
Our Dutch friends Danielle and Hans, who live in Ivera north of Torino came to visit us last weekend. Fortunately the weather was close to perfect, so we went on the boat Saturday to see Imperia for the ocean side, and in old town Imperia on Sunday to look at everything from the land side
I also opened the pool last week and with the nice weather the temperature rose from 18 to 26 deg in a week, so I have been in three times already
15.04.2025
The weather was a bit of a mix - not unusual for April - and we did lots of local trips for Mom's visit this time: Sanremo, Imperia, Dolcedo and Taggia. We also visited two of our favourite restaurants, Da U Titti and A Grillo, and had ice cream at Aldos in Riva Ligure.
The highlight of the week however was the very nice day on the water Thursday, and the interesting visit to Grotte di Toirana on Sunday
11.04.2025
The boat was in the yard for 3 weeks, and beside the normal engine service and hull painting, they fixed two issues this year: installation of a rub rail on the bathing platform and repair of the fibreglass at the stern and reinstallation of the anchor roller (refurbished by me).
Bibi and I then spend a whole Saturday cleaning the boat and then we were ready for the first outing of the season when Birgit came to visit
31.03.2025
The famous Monte Carlo Rally goes over Col de Turini every year, so I thought I would check it out. The weather today was beautiful and being a Monday traffic was very light .. almost non-existent in fact.
I had a lovely day out and really enjoyed myself. It's great to be back on the bike and now I'm retired, I will ride more for leisure and less for commuting
23.03.2025
It really feels like spring and in the garden there are flowers everywhere. Yesterday was the traditional Milano-Sanremo bicycle race, and today I went on my motorbike 60 km up the coast to Finale Liguire to meet an old mate from university for lunch. It felt right to stop just before Diano Marina and take a picture of the monument to all the past winners of the bicycle race
18.03.2025
We haven't done much to the upstairs in our house. We don't really need the space and a - much needed - major renovation is not in our budget right now. Instead I did some smaller jobs to transform it into a hobby room: Took the cladding off the column and sorted the electrics, reused the cladding to finish the wall, installed a new set of shelving units and some lighting, and brought out our old wooden dinning table
09.03.2025
The weather has been really nice for about a week (Olly the tortoise even came out after 5 months in hibernation), but it's about to turn bad, so we thought we would go hiking before it did. We started from Diano Marina, where my parents met 60+ years ago, and went up to Torre dell'Alpicella. The view towards Diano Marina to one side and Imperia to the other was quite spectacular, so it's no wonder there are so many nice houses up there
22.02.2025
Bibi had some examinations Friday morning at the hospital in Genova, prior to her surgery next Thursday. We decided on an overnight stay Thursday and spend the afternoon walking around old town Genova. There is quite a lot to see. It's all narrow roads, no traffic, an abundance of little independent stores, bars and restaurants, and lots and lots of churches of course. For dinner we found an Indian restaurant, something that we normally don't see, but really love from our time in the UK
15.02.2025
Monte Bignone is a little further away than we normally travel for a hike, and we had to go through chaotic Samremo, but it was really worth it. The 11km route starts in San Romolo and has an almost constant gradient all the way up. On the top of the mountain is the cutest little church and the most magnificent views of sea and mountains. In fact, you can see the ocean almost all the way up and down
06.02.2025
Today was a beautiful sunny day, and Maria came with us for a hike, even though she had a lot of work to do. We started at the garden centre in Bussana and when up to Santuario Madonna della Guardia (closed for renovation), down close to the marina in Sanremo and back along the cycle path along the sea. Of course we stopped in Riva Ligure on the way back for an ice cream at Aldo's
20.01.2025
Hiking? On a Tuesday? Well of course you can, when you're retired. Today the weather was nice and we did a 7km hike from Riva Ligure up to Pompeiana, and past the 15th century Torre di Barbarasa, down to the seaside. Of course, you can't go to Riva Ligure without having an ice at Aldo's, so I did
15.01.2025
One of the best places around here to enjoy the sunset with a cup of tea is Torre del Gallinaro in Cipressa, a watchtower from the mid 1500s with beautiful views down the coast towards France.
Another place we love to sit, is in front of the kitchen doors, where the overhanging roof provides shelter year round. Our old IKEA rattan sofa was falling apart, but the cushions were lovely, so I made a new wooden frame
12.01.2025
Ever wondered what a Thuja hedge would look like if you didn't trim it in 10-15 years? Well, now you know. Our grew 2.5-3.0 meter sideways and covered a pile of large stones that I want to remove, although this will certainly not be easy. Some of the stones will be used to build a wall at the back of the house, which will form the beginning of my outdoor kitchen and garden shed (more about this later)
01.01.2025
Happy New Year! We had a lovely time in Denmark over Christmas with family, and Mikkel made it home from Greenland! Now back in Costarainera we're enjoying unusually warm weather. We went out for an aperitivo in San Stefano al Mare with Maria to see the sunset, and later in the week Bibi and I went to Da U Titti, which is one of our favourite restaurants but we hadn't been this year