It is tough to go to the market and then to the beach....but that is what we did today. The woman who owns the B&B told us this morning that we just couldn't miss market day in Cannigione. Town market day in Italy is more than a farmer's market. For sure there are plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, locally grown and delicious looking. But also you would expect to see an abundance of cheeses, soft and hard, dried meat such as salamis, bresaola and something called speck which is a hefty looking bacon, roasted porchetta... roasted pork loin all ready to eat, honey and jams, oil, olives, wine and even land snails....uummmmm, delicious. Crawling around.. Like the ones below!
Not only would you find all kinds of food but you would see stalls full of tablecloths, dresses, underwear, jewelry, kitchenware, shoes, bathing suits, collectors knives, t- shirts.....seriously, anything you might want to buy and all at good prices. Today the market was packed with several busloads of tourists as well as the locals. The sun was shining and the sky was blue...Una buona giornata.... A beautiful day!
If you take a look a map of the Mediterranean Sea, you will see two large islands. One is Corsica and belongs to France. You have heard of Napaoleon Bonaparte....he came from Corsica. The other is Sardenia which is south of Corsica. Between Corsica and Sardenia is an archipelago of islands belonging to Italy. These are th e Maddalena Islands, now an Italian National Park. You will notice several large islands but there are dozens od small islands as well. For many years there was a US Navy base on the largest island of Maddelena. Today we took our little Smart car and hopped on the ferry to Maddelena Island. Can you see us?
The crossing to Maddelena from Palau is a major boating channel and this week there is a world class sailing regatta taking place. These boats are big....approximately 100 feet. Through my camera lense, I could see about 15 crew members on this boat.
A vIew of the little harbor of Maddelena Island.
Maddelena is the largest island in the archipelago. There is one main road around the island and Maddelena is connected to the island of Caprere by a causeway. Caprere is where Guiseppi Garibaldi, father of the unification of Italy, lived and is buried. These islands are solid granite. The rock formations are interesting and sometimes amazing. Over thousands of years the wind and water have shaped and sculpted the rocks. These little islands are quite high with cliffs and steep rock formations. As we left the village, we drove past several old forts and ancient stone walls.
And gradually climbed to the top of the island. The views were stunning.
It was a lovely ride around the perimeter of the island. The road was steep and winding and very narrow. We saw lots of bicyclists.....crazy but true. The views made us want to get out for photos at every turn.
We had heard of a small beach on the little island of Caprere, linked to Maddelena by a causeway.
The island of Caprere is more wooded than Maddelena. Pine trees here remind me of umbrellas....they are quite tall and the branches and leaves form a flat, curved umbrella at the top.
As we drove along, the road became more and more narrow with sides dropping down steep cliffs and embankments toward the sea. Finally rounding a curve, we saw cars parked alongside the road and a beach off to the side. This was Calle Portese.....calle means a small bay. Aqua water stretched away out to sea and the sand curved around to form a lovely beach.
Tomorrow we return our rental car at 5pm, then wait around in Olbia....dinner etc., until our overnight ferry leaves at 9 pm. We arrive in Genoa at 8 am and catch an 11 am train to Imperia, then a local bus to the little town of Santo Stefano on the Ligurian coast west of Genoa. It will be a long and complicated day for sure but we will finally get to the little village where we spent so many lovely weeks last year.
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