A Joyous Occasion

Finally! It’s Thursday and we’re heading to Camogli, on the Italian Riviera. It’s the same single-lane, through-fields and hugging mountainside drive we had going in.

But not terribly long. We needed to get to Camogli before 1, because they close town to non-resident vehicles at 1 and we wanted to arrive in time to drop our bags and look for parking out of town center. Thankfully our airbnb wasn’t booked before us and we arranged an early check in. All went well. Our place was rustic, but had 3 BRs, with a tiny elevator to the top floor where we had amazing views from our full-length balcony.

Limited time parking below— and fabulous views

It also had a fully equipped kitchen and even had AC but we didn’t use either. The weather was at times threatening rain but overall lovely cool and we went out for all meals, even coffee (of course many meals were part of the wedding). Though we did use their laundry and the balcony to dry everything! (When it wasn’t raining.)

View from balcony — we can see the wedding church and piazza

A few words on the beautiful bride and groom. Though then again a picture is worth a thousand words.

In any case we arrived in Camogli in time for lunch. It’s a small town so we walked through most of it in under an hour though stopped to eat lunch at the cheapest place I’ve ever been. Like under 20 euros for the two of us and included two each for us between primi, secondi, and contorni— PLUS wine and coffee? Though I believe we had to wait about 45 minutes before they even cleaned a table for us. I think the main waiter was on lunch break and the barrista didn’t want to wait tables. Anyway we were fortunately in no hurry and not very hungry so it was ok. And they had fried sardines which – yum! Though a seagull dive- bombed the waiter with my food, he dropped the plate, and they had to remake it. Che bastardo! (The bird, not the dude.)

This is over half the length of the town shoreline

Most of the guests were staying at the hotel where the reception was being held. But we were actually in-town so closer to the ferry port and church. That said, the entire town center was seriously easily walked end to end in 30 mins!? So nothing was far.

But to the festivities. We walked to the hotel to see where it was and promptly saw our NY friends in the bar (of course) enjoying post-pranzo (lunch) drinks.

The hotel is sort of the right most set of buildings— the reception was at that glassed in area and dancing was in the part even more to the right and below

After cheerful reunions, we all adjourned to our respective places to get ready for the first of many of the weekend’s celebrations. First, they had a ferry to take the 100 plus guests to Portofino (the most famous of the Riviera towns and NOT to be confused with Positano, which is in Amalfi).

The weather was a tad choppy but everyone was delighted with everything. No rain! Prosecco! Aperol spritzes! DJ music! Speeches in both Italian and English! Focaccia, pizza, pastas! Beautiful views! And we had about an hour to walk around Portofino. Oh and everyone had been requested to wear white.

I had no idea that wedding mood boards and requests for guest’s clothing (black tie aside) had become a thing. But I guess if you’re going to Instagram it, consistent colors DO look better! (Luca has two US-based weddings in July and there are clothing requirements in both. Although he’s a groomsman in one.)

The “kids” of Pinewood Drive though they’re all 20-30 years old! Gorgeous

I must say, when we walked around Portofino, people definitely noticed that we were part of an overall group. Funny side story — Donna sent me a NYT article about wedding color coordinating and it mentioned a wedding during Audrey’s weekend that occurred in Portofino (and had a color dress code). We had heard that an Indian billionaire had “bought out” all of Portofino for his son’s nuptials and they were mentioned. It was the day after we were there.

Seriously. They do look great all semi-matching. And Portofino makes a nice backdrop

Almost forgot but on the ferry ride back, we quickly stopped at a famous spot – San Fruttuoso abbey in the Bay where Christ of the Abyss was placed on the seafloor. It was kind of choppy to be able to get close enough to see the underwater Jesus but it’s apparently a fantastic diving and snorkeling site. The abbey was beautiful and it’s only easily accessible from the water. Apparently Kim and Kanye tied the knot there. Sigh.

Of course we all over-indulged but apparently the “kids” didn’t because they went to have dinner afterwards while I instead hung with my NY girls. We met up after their meal (seriously everything is close and thankfully, unlike so many other places we had been, not terribly crowded. Camogli is known to Italians but not as much to international tourists, K&K aside?).

On Friday, the day of the wedding, we were asked to be at the church piazza by 3:45 for a prompt 4 pm start. Luca and I spent the early day relaxing, grabbing coffee and walking around. All was good and we got back to wash up/dress in plenty of time until he informed me he had to finish a work thing.

Needless to say, fast forward to 325 when I had set an alarm for him to get ready (we were a few minutes’ walk to the church) … and he was not done. Fast forward again to 355 when I’m running down the 7 flights of stairs (the one time the elevator wasn’t available) and then running through the town to the church in my nice dress (I was wearing flip flops and had my shoes in a bag since I knew the stiletto heels would be a disaster on cobblestones), swearing at him the entire time. We were barely there before 4, got the literally last pew in the church (on the bride’s side) and I found I couldn’t see well. (Mr 6’4” could see better but even when I switched to the aisle, my contacts weren’t that sharp for that distance. Sigh. But I got some beautiful photos down the aisle.)

So beautiful. Though there was a sign up saying there was a private event going on, I saw people sneaking in at the back and taking pictures

I can’t blame them. And the sign was in Italian only anyway so the average tourist might not know

And to the outside. There were several children involved in the ceremony.

The ring bearer and flower girl hanging in the piazza outside church after their parts were over. How adorable and they did great

They had a ton of professional (and amateur) photographers and a videographer so I didn’t feel I needed to take a lot of photos — and I don’t have any of me and Luca together (the few times I’m thin — I lost weight over the trip— I never get photos!? But when I’m out of shape like at Leonard’s wedding there’s a lot of visual evidence!!). Oh well.

But I got a few lovely ones of the beautiful couple at the reception.

And the proud parents, Mary and Will…

Father-daughter dance. I was tearing up. I don’t know why Mary isn’t!?

Dancing did not start until after midnight — of the parents, Karen and I made it to the latest time, about 3 am — and much dancing was involved. All fun, no photos. Of course Luca didn’t dance but he was hanging.

Before the dancing, my late night partners! Though Luca looks tired (is he yawning or talking?)

Of all my photos only this is fuzzy and idk why — Sabrina and Jeff. But cute nonetheless. These were actually pre-reception at the aperitivi on the terrace part of the evening

I said there were a lot of kids! And shockingly well-behaved. Becky was the matron of honor

Saturday was a focaccia farewell party, but not until evening. So we did the one walk we hadn’t yet of a pier that jutted into the water and also put on our swimsuits to go to the (small black rocky) beach, where we ran into several of the NY kids. (They are all well into their twenties so hardly kids but I’m old — and what else do I call the next generation!?) Luca went back with them to the hotel beach but I stayed a bit and then returned to the apartment to check on/fold up laundry (I did a few loads for us). As those of us doing European laundry knows — it’s a process!!! Long washing times and even longer drying.

Camogli from the pier — in the center of the pic there’s a yellowish bldg that sorta faces more to the right with a long balcony. That’s our apartment

Overall considering the many activities I didn’t take many photos but I’m counting on the professionals!! I think everyone had an absolutely lovely time.

I took a few photos at the focaccia party which was in a restaurant at the beach. Beautiful like everything else. Lots more food and drink. I do love my aperol spritzes! We finished the event at the hotel with probably a few digestivi too many but made it back to our place and though I woke up at a decent time, let Luca sleep in a bit as he had a very long drive ahead of him.

Focaccia party with some of the other babies at the wedding

And yes, as I told the groom, he is Audrey’s “second Luca” — though he’s from the north where the name is in fact more common. But since Audrey and (my) Luca have pretty much known each other since birth (well Audrey was almost 3 when my Luca was born), of course (my) Luca is first! But for her, only chronologically. It’s clear they had a gorgeous start and have an even more amazing future.

Finally, (my) Luca and I went together to grab the car, which we hadn’t seen in 3 days and I drove it back down to pick up our bags and took the to-Milan shift so Luca would have a tiny driving break. Perhaps a mistake. Curvy streets. Hairpin turns. Tight maneuvering. None of which I had been doing and I was out of practice. Plus I didn’t really adjust the seat height though I did the mirrors; sharing car settings with someone a foot taller than you is not optimal.

But we made it. All the way to Milan with many tunnels and windy roads and worries about speeding. And in the end, cutting off a ton of Germans in a 2 km back up at the toll booths. Long story but I’d missed the appropriate ticket dispensing toll booth (went thru their EZ pass equivalent instead) so had to get into a manned booth. Which was a longer line and tricky to get back into but by being quite obnoxious, made it to the correct lane, told the ticket taker of my mistake, held up traffic even longer (that German behind me was pissed but why the hell doesn’t he have an EU EZ pass?), paid appropriately and went on.

We’re waiting to see if we get any tickers or fines (they’re big fans of cameras mounted all over the highways). Not to curse us …

Luca left me in Milan at my last Airbnb and drove off to pick up Evi, who had flown in that morning so he’d have company on the 12 hour drive back to Amsterdam. We arrived about 1.5 hours later than originally planned due to traffic and a late start. He didn’t get back until almost 3 am due to even worse traffic but thankfully they made it safely! (We figured out that the German holiday period had just ended, so many Germans were on the roads returning home. And it was a holiday in Italy — their Republic Day —essentially Italian equivalent of Norway’s Constitution Day but not celebrated in as big of a way.)

Anyway Milan will be my next and hopefully final blog. Though I may do one with final stats and observations.

Meantime it was a truly truly joyous occasion!!