Show A UI 1 diviero DI 1 4 F 0 Z M R N g R roquebrune Roque brune and monte alonte carlo beautiful scenery gaiety sports and quiet life on the prepared by national society washington washing ton D C service X vacation cruises to the VACATION V mediterranean bring numerous visitors to the he italian an riviera continuation of the french riviera section which has bas become Eu ropes synonym for vacationland the riviera stretches toward the sunrise and the sunset genoa is the dividing point to the east is the riviera di levante the coast of the rising sun to the west and on across the french border extends the riviera di ponente the coast of the setting sun two distinct designs for living are traced along the beautiful coast of the italian riviera one is splashed with gaiety and sport the other is as normal as life in any of the other provinces of italy whoever neglects to penetrate the vicissitudes hopes and trials of the life of the native for the sake of that more obvious life of the casinos and luxury places misses the true soul of the region to find this life of the people one must flee hotels and villas and nest in a tiny house clinging to the cliffs not cot too far from the sea to run down for an early morning splash there is a problem that one is never able to settle whether the mediterranean is more beautiful when it is viewed from the height of a villa or when it is explored along the shore gazing down at the points of rock and at the sea that slips in between them to make blue bays with an edge of waves in fluffy ruffles one may prefer the heights portofino is an unbelievable sort of place it gives no intimation of its existence until it lies before you below you it is reached by leaving santa margherita and the sea and wandering over a road in the hills portofino a lovely picture all of a sudden as the high road turns a picture lies before you it is something of the imagination unreal but with such charm as thrills a child after the visit of santa claus you want to thrust out a sudden hand and topple over the row of colored houses set in the water in an outward sweep for the fun AM of standing them up again and where does the water come from all around are wooded hills no sight nor sound of sea but for the little yachts at anchor it might be thought an inland lake budnot even that nor anything else gives reason for the curving line of high houses which seem to have been transferred en bloc from some crowded town take a climbing footpath up the opposite hill As you mount you pass gardens of an occasional fine villa they seem not to belong at a all but 6 must be tolerated because it is the way of some rich genoese to build such miff misfits its up at the top of the path is a little atle church on a terrace walk forward beyond the obstruction of verdure and the sparkling mediterranean lies spread at your feet one is good jump a stiff fall of wt feet and you would be in its frill of waves under the cliff contrast it with the hill locked harbor of porto 0 fint o just behind you you laugh with relight delight at the beauties of inconsistencies ten teri tennies cies rapallo now Is a resort rapallo has become rather much of i a resort nature gave it a harbor bor curving in from the peninsula 1 I of ino but a shallow harbor just nice for fishermen not yachts A promenade follows its pebbly beach lac where ere children played with out ui danger and where groups of maidens walked on sundays and threw gai ahou lder ider tant glances over the at groups of young men wh 0 did athe the same A all these ese things go eo on still but uner under the eye of the people hotels of a casino and big S new s down where a mountain tain stream ran to join oln the wack waters women are washing asiong A common sight but if you think on the dl details tails it is a saddening one the woman who washes gossips with those near her sometimes a young one breaks into a gay song these ameliorations are but trifles against the discomforts dis comforts she who washes must do her work kneeling and bending well over the water which is lower than she herself what aches and weariness must be hers and the water itself is as cold as mountain heights can make it mountain cliffs coming down into the bay have split into occasional chasms in one such chasm the early italians chose to build a village and called it zoagli it is a mere crack in the rock the railway to la spezia is fastened on miraculously high above was zoagli originally a smugglers nest or a refuge from sara cens its appeal is strong its beauties are unique even its occupational life deserves both these adjectives As it has no width life there is lived on the perpendicular a sort of jacobs ladder life no privacy at zoagli the beach is a place of entry and departure it is like a gate in a walled city for movement and for gossip no one can go or come without the cognizance of all the village can life hold back any secrets when lived on a series of ladders A few donkeys do the heavy carrying up steep ways exclusive donkeys that by sharing the isolated life seem to take their place wi with th the people their life may be arduous but they have the honor of sharing the house as well as the labor of the humans communistic communist i c donkeys in a word you can see them all alone digging their toes into the upward path or turning suddenly into a doorway of this village without wheels the innkeeper tells you proudly Y that the best velvets velvety of italy have always been made in zoagli that was its specialty handmade hand made vel vets certo you can see the hand looms and the weavers at work up above now yes just as it had always been patiently you climb although skeptical of a trap to catch a tourist but it is true the hand looms are there the women weavers are at work piles of narrow ruby velvet lie about catching the light like gems in small clumsy rooms that smack of the thirteenth century coast of the setting sun leaving the riviera dl di levante you may experience the joys of motoring to places on the riviera di ponente and in that glad territory that now belongs under the french flag but keeps the italian soul in the breast of its oldest people everywhere you drive your car you run into the saracens saracena Sara cens their towers their history and their evil reputation they belong to that marvelous mohammedan civilization that in the middle ages surpassed in certain things the culture of europe much of which was then undeveloped they began the habit of leaping across the mediterranean from north africa when the first detachment tach ment of these able pioneers touched gibraltar and proceeded to possess spain the people who drove them out were even less mannerly than they this you learn at the marvelous village of eze near that point of the moyenne carniche Cor niche as the middle road from nice to menton is called where the rock rises like a monument above it and seems to dominate binate sea and penetrate sky toila fg up the slope with delight at every step you pass through an archway it is the city gate no city opens before yo you u only a paved path narrow and steep there is not a yard of level leve I 1 walk in the entire maze of ways of real streets there are none extended arms touch both side be in a one might walls at once are the arched frequent crypt so spaces through which one gropes |