There are days to sit bonelessly beneath an umbrella, days to bonefully work, days to anxiously worry, and days to greedily eat gelato. We managed to avoid the first three, all day.
The restaurant at Montallegro is some distance from here and has three virtues that make it fabulous. The first merit is that is a short walking distance from a church, a site of an apparition that I will tell you about later. The second measure is that it sits at the apex of a funivra — a funicular alongside a trail from the sea to the peak. The third feature is that the restaurant is well known as a hotel and restaurant of note, with a stunning view overlooking the distant sea through the trees, and over the rooftops of the mountainside homes.
Montellegro has a story — and I’ll tell you what it is. June 02,1557, the ‘most holy virgin’ appeared on a hillside to a farmer, indicating that an icon lying nearby was to remain as a token of her love for Rapallo. It was locked up shortly after. The following morning the icon had disappeared from the locked cabinet and was found back where the apparition’s feet had stood on the rock. The icon was brought back (in a solemn procession). That night it was locked up again, and the next morning it was found on Montallegro, again on the rock. Twenty years later a ship from Ragussa promised that if they were saved they’d make a pilgrimage to the nearest sanctuary dedicated to her. That sanctuary was Montallegro. When they described their experiences back in Ragussa, their priest declared the icon to have been originally from Ragussa, and upon his complaint, the icon was shipped back to Ragussa. The ship didn’t get very far (not even out past the harbor) before the icon again moved itself back to the mountain. The icon now moved back officially, with everyone convinced that it had to remain at Montallegro and become a place of healing. The church was built around that, and now people come to pray and eat. Some of us did some of each, and there was some steady traffic on foot the whole time we were there at the restaurant.
Back after our two-hour lunch we located our favorite Gelato shop from trips past and strolled in the harbor amid the beautiful town center of Santa Margherita. We also stopped at the church there to say thanks, where two years ago, we all (all being Catholics, non Catholics, a Baptist, etc.) went in to say prayers for my friend, and light candles for her who was in the hospital, and wavering between life and death. It seemed right somehow to give back our thanks and re-light a few more candles in gratitude for her healthy recovery and healthy son.
Eight hours from when we left we were tired enough to come home and begin our packing up. It’s difficult to believe that we are thinking of our final days coming soon, beginning with our stay in Bettola, Italy, tomorrow night.
While I do miss people I love, I am also enjoying my carefree life, the company of dear cousins, and being where I breathe well, and walk more. It seems I never get tired of this landscape of rooftops, multicolored, multistoried houses in which people are living their everyday lives, and the sense of the sea in the air and in my eyes.
We have eaten all of the remaining various foods in our fridge, making a dinner of tomatoes with Genoa basil and fresh mozzarella, salumi, and focaccia. John is finishing up the beer, the hero that he is.
Tomorrow we drive inland. Sending Love by pigeon, gull-wing, and random fish.