November, 2024
After Noli, the beautiful hilltop village of Cervo beckoned us with its colourful houses stacked up the hillside and baroque church dominating its tiny landscape.
Cervo, my favourite of the day. And I can sure pick them as it turns out Cervo is recognized as one of “I borghi più belli d’Italia” (The Most Beautiful Villages of Italy).
You can see Cervo’s medieval roots it in the narrow, winding streets and houses that are still here and in use.
The 17th-century Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista is nicknamed Chiesa dei Corallini in honour of the coral fishermen who donated money, labour and materials to build it. Nice to see community wealth investing in something lasting for all to enjoy but it's unfortunate that Corsican and Sardinian red coral was the source of the funding. Sadly, they didn’t know the environmental damage they were doing to the precious coastline.
There is an international chamber music festival here in the summer. Why here? Well, the Hungarian violinist Sándor Végh came here and realized that the concave facade made for fantastic acoustics. I guess everyone agreed and there has been an annual chamber music festival here in front of this church since 1964.
Beautiful late afternoon view from the cheese di San Giovanni Battista. This view would have been a perfect excuse to escape a boring sermon.
For a population of about 1,000 people, San Giovanni Battista is a pretty fancy church and interior. It's quite a surprise to enter and be hit with all this intricate stucco, marble, alabaster and sculpture. I guess the coral fishermen spared no expense.
A number of Cervo’s little alleys and pathways have been dressed up. This place is quite a haven for artists of all kinds who have helped to restore buildings and park their workshops here. Another disadvantage of off-season is none of those ateliers were open.
The flip side of it being off-season is we had the place virtually to ourselves!
You know real people live here when the laundry is hanging out the windows.
The start of the sunset peeking through Cervo.
Once we got as far as Cervo we were almost at the French border so we went to Nice for dinner!