Hello, I am Judy Sale, an artist and property restorer living here in Triora as well. My friend, Nadya, a Russian lady living here too, kindly asked me if I would like to write something on her blog. Being somewhat more ’senior’ than Nadya, I didn’t really know how to do this - and still don’t - but I thought it was a fun idea to write something about my life here in Triora.

It is a lovely medieval village as Nadya has already said, but it is unique in that it attracts only unique people. If you are not unique and prefer packaged tours, cruises, and all things measured and evaluated before you encounter a country, read no further.

On the other hand, if you like to live a full and individual life that you carve out for yourself, you might be intrigued to know more about this lovely secret place that scares off the mundane and welcomes those who actually have something to contribute - who welcome change rather than cringe at the mere thought.

Oh dear, I sound radical already and I am not! I just like to explore new places ‘my way’ and get to know interesting ‘non packaged’ people. I also have some beautiful properties for sale here in Triora that are or will be finished to the same (or better) standard than those required by  the ‘packaged’. After all, I don’t think you have to live in a hut and wear ‘Jesus shoes’ to be different. My properties offer the same creature comforts as those found in the ‘rat race’, I just don’t have to listen to ‘rat race’ people problems because I have friends here who have had the guts to opt out of that.

I think that is enough (basta! - in Italian!) for one night. Let’s see what poor Nadya thinks about my submission so far - after all, it is her blog!

• Triora: mushroom festival. Hope they’ll be better than sausages!
• Perinaldo: observations of the Sun and solar meridian in the church close to the observatory

• Perinaldo: excursion to St Giusta at 15:00, from 16:30 to 21:30 observations of the sky with a telescope

• Badalucco: fest of stockfish goes on

• Badalucco: fest of stockfish
• Perinaldo: at 17:30 free excursion (about 2 hours). At 21:00 observations of the Andromeda galaxy and Mars

• Badalucco: opening of a painting excibition
• Castellaro: fest of Virgin Mary of Lampedusa goes on
• Ceriana: dancing with “Mariella Group”
• Creppo: fest of Virgin Mary’s nativity (aha! that’s why there are so many Madonna-related things around yesterday and today!)
• Glori: fest of Virgin Mary of Lourdes. At 10:00 procession and Holy Mass, at 21:00 another procession - with torches
• Molini di Triora: sagra of snails goes on
• Montalto: dancing with “Mamma Funk”
• Seborga: fest of polenta and wild boar, and excursion to the nearby forest

It seems to be the birthday of Virgin Mary?

• Carpasio: fest of Virgin Mary of Ciazzima (a place about 2 kms from Carpasio), and afterwards petanque
• Castellaro: fest of Virgin Mary of Lambedusa. This is really strange, because Lampedusa is an island in the south of Italy, almost in Africa - what does it have in common with Castellaro?
• Ceriana: fest of Virgin Mary and then a concert
• Glori: at 10:30 Holy Mass, at 16:00 procession, at 21:00 artists from Montalto perform a comedy
• Molini di Triora: thanks to Virgin Mary, no Virgin Mary here. Sagra of snail! The only problem with snails is that I don’t like the way they are cooked here: in a salty tomato sauce, without green butter
• Montalto: at 21:00 guitar concert

• Ceriana: concert of the local choir

• The nearest international airport is Nice, Cote d’Azur.
• The fastest way. Hire a car and follow the blue signs to A8, direction Monaco - Menton. You have to pay twice in France (1,40 euro and 1, 90 euro), either by throwing coins bigger than 5 eurocents to the basket (aim well!) or with credit card. In Italy А8 becomes A10, and the signs are green. Don’t forget to light the headlights, it’s obligatory in Italy in any time of the day. Get a ticket. Drive until you see the signs “Arma di Taggia”. The exit is right after Amoretti tunnel. Then you have to pay again - 4,60 euro. No baskets, but almost always there is somebody to give you change. You drive down from the motorway to Arma di Taggia. Just follow the signs “Triora”, they seem a bit misleading, but sooner or later you will find yourself on the right road. Follow it doubtlessly. If you are not used to drive in the mountains, don’t rush. If somebody deadly wants to overtake you, let him do it by stopping in a relatively broad place. You pass through Taggia, Badalucco, Agagio, Molini di Triora… stop for a moment and look up: some 300 meters over your head there are houses hanging over the precipice. That’s Triora. Another 6 kilometres of hair-pin bends - and here you are! 90 km, about 2 hours.
• If you don’t want to hire a car, or can’t drive, you still can get here all by yourself, but it is a long journey. First, take a bus from the airport to the railway station of Nice. Then take a train to Sanremo or Taggia. Most likely you will have to change in Ventimiglia. Finally, take another bus that goes to Triora. Important: check the timetable! It’s in Italian, so be smart. You need number 16, but not the one that goes to Carpasio! The one that goes to Triora. Hint: festivi = weekend, feriali = working days.
• Other airports around: Albenga (only flights from Rome), Genoa, Turin. The instructions are basically the same: either you have to find A10 motorway and then to take Arma di Taggia exit, or you have to take a train to Taggia. Timetable - http://trenitalia.it

• Triora: the start of Murder Weekend. Hope Joy Swift will be here! (incognito, of course)
• Ceriana: night religious procession (with torches!)

Around 10 o’clock there are lots of people near this ordinary building. They are waiting for something, keeping an eye on the road. Finally an old red Fiat-Panda appears on the horizon. “Daddy is coming!” - everybody cheers up.

Yes, it is the dad indeed, Gianni the barman’s dad, bringing hot pies, that Gianni’s mom made. Usually there are three types of the pies:

• focaccia (simple  flat bread),
• sardenara (focaccia with tomato sauce and olives),
• torta verde (pie filled with rice, cheese and spinach).

But sometimes for a change Gianni’s mom or wife make an apple pie or potato pie. Usually around 11 the pies are over.

Gianni makes the best cappuccino of the Argentina Valley. I think he looks just like the hero of “The family guy”:

(the one on your left).

Gianni’s bar is not only for eating and drinking, but also for social contacts. It is the natural centre of gossips. It is where you look for professionals (plumber, gardener, electrician etc.).

Greatest disappointment of the day: the bar is closed until 14th of September. Even Gianni needs holiday.

On the top picture he is the one in the pink shirt.

A harsh review (in Russian) of a book by Elena Kostioukovitch “Food: italian happiness”. It is published also in Italian as «Perché agli italiani piace parlare del cibo»; Milano : Frassinelli, 2006.

The review is rather haphazard, just like the book.

My opinion: probably the book lacks accuracy and has some strange ideas. But it perfectly matches my general impression of Italian cuisine. That is: Russians and Italians have nothing in common when it comes to food. Nope. Absolutely nothing. Food is situated in different parts of our brains. We, Russians, are stunned by the way they eat, like they are by the way we eat. Therefore, it would be stupid to look for any connection with reality in such a book. It is science-fiction, not non-fiction!

I can only compare the italian attitude to food to the russian attitude to family: more moral obligations than pleasure.

I am going to write at least once a week about my own experiences with italian food. Criticism (like “no! you can’t eat prosciutto with almond cookies!”) is not welcomed here.

Comune d’Imperia. Their computers not working. But we saw a dead cat, so hope they’ll manage.

We live in a small three-stories house. Maybe it sounds a bit snobby, but it is small indeed. It’s a very beautiful house, with lots of advantages. And disadvantages as well.

It goes like that. You enter through the lower door right in the kitchen (I would prefer to have a separate entrance, and a clean kitchen without dirty shoes and wet umbrellas etc.). In the end of the kitchen there is a bathroom. I don’t like to call it “bathroom” because there is no bathtube in it. On top of it there are stairs to the next floor, which can hardly be called “a room”, because there are no doors in it. Only a fireplace and a window.

Next floor consists of three rooms: bedroom, my room and bathroom. Yet again, there is no proper bathtube there, just a sitting one. Not my size one.

Next floor is connected with the rest of the house with metal screw-like stairs, yet again, not my size. There’s another tiny room right under the roof, that belongs to B. One side of it is supposed to be a storage place, so it is full of empty boxes kept in case if one day we need to store something. There’s another door there, that gets to the same street as the kitchen door, the street of Saint Augustine.

Some days ago two Russians bought a house in Montalto. On this occasion I’d like to post this old Italian song:

La casa

(Vinicius de Moraes - Sergio Bardotti - Sergio Endrigo)

It is a rather precise description of the house they bought  (big walls with some land). If they invest twice as much as they have paid, they will have a really comfortable house.

Sweet morning.

Sweet spotted morning.

• Carpasio: celebration of St. Antonino, including bicycle race and football game
• Cogolin: the fest of cock continues
• Glori: fest for children at 15:00
• Molini di Triora: a long walk through Aigovo, Bracca, Gavano
• Montalto: guitar concert at 21:00

It was my first sagra. And I was not impressed. For a start, it reminded me of Germany, and those awful beer festivals, where lots of drunken people talk loudly and eat meat. Well, Italians speak even louder! Secondly, it was more expensive than I expected. One portion of deer and polenta - 7 euros. Grilled meat for two - 12 euros. Of course it is not really expensive, but let’s compare prices with local restaurants: Clara offers deer and polenta for 8 euros, just like any other second dish. She doesn’t have “grigliata”, so the best place to go for it is Il Poggio Restaurant - 10 km further up the valley, in Verdeggia. You pay 15 euros for one portion of grilled meat there, but the size is more than twice what I’ve seen at the sagra! Also, you don’t have to queue to get it, and can eat it with proper cutlery, instead of plastic forks, etc.

Restaurants - si, sagra - no, that’s my verdict.

…Why are you not coming? Me and Sofia Andreevna are waiting you here, let me say, with outstretched arms. Our place is quite and nice, the sea is blue and mild, splashing as a baby near our feet; roses and jasmine blossom everywhere, and the air smells sweet. Rush, Luisa, and bring with you your relatives. Alexis Zhemchuzhnikov is here now with his wife and children. Our house has a flat roof that does not require climbing the drainpipe. Sitting on it and eyeing the hazy view of the sea is not bad! Downstairs there is a room prepared specially for you, the waves reach its windows when it is storming.A.N. Tolstoy, letter to E.V. Matveyeva, January 1874, Mentone

Menton in French, Mentone in Italian is the nearest French town, if we only count normal car routes. If we take into consideration mountain paths as well, then La Brigue (Briga) is the closest to Triora, only about 20 kms. But since I still haven’t bought a 4-wheel motorcycle for driving along these paths, Briga is not suitable for business trips to France.

This time our journey was purely practical: B. had to visit the dentist. It seems that dentists in France are almost 3 times cheaper than italian ones, and also they are not so tough in squeezing money out of you. A couple of months ago I visited this dentist myself (in Menton), and yes, it worked: he didn’t find any problems, and didn’t charge any money at all. They say that in Italy this is hardly possible: in any case you have to pay something for the visit. In B’s case, they only had to re-shape a bad filling (from an english dentist) and the bill was 40 euros. Actually it should have been 48, but since they didn’t accept credit cards (as in many other places in Cote d’Azur - a rather unpleasant surprise for tourists), and he had only three 20 euro notes in cash, he payed 40.

When I went to Menton alone after the dentist I went to the sea coast. And I was astonished to find myself in an almost empty beach. Just behind the Casino of Menton, that is, in the very centre, and in the middle of high season! To the left and to the right I could see plenty of people, but this particular part of the beach was deserted. It turned out that this was a dog beach. People can go there with their dogs. I was moved and thought of Grusha - my dog that I left behind in Moscow with my dad. She would love to jump through the waves.

When B. finally was able to chew, we started to look for a place where we could get a “socca”. Wikipedia declares that it is the same as italian farinata, and I was convinced that socca is more like a pancake, so I wanted to check it out. Helas: all the restaurants that had socca on their menu were closed. So we were forced to eat “galettes” - buckwheat pancakes, followed by a lemon cake.

On the whole Menton is a nice and vivid town, but without anything outstanding. Lots of bright flowerbeds, sometimes decorated with sculptures, like this awful-smiling mushroom:

Menton is a twin city to Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.