Among sailors and tuna fishermen: a day in Laigueglia

"I have spent my life exploring the world. But when I arrived in this place I had no hesitation: my house would be built in this little paradise." So said the famous Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, the legend of the Kon-Tiki expedition, when he discovered Laigueglia. The great navigator, enchanted by the beauty of the Bay of the Sun seen from the heights, immediately felt a deep bond with this place steeped in the memory and stories of centuries of seafaring life. Travellers who arrived here about two hundred years ago could watch the launch of splendid sailing ships moored at the town's ten docks, built with wood from the nearby woods of the Ligurian hinterland, dried in the open air and shaped with fire by Laigueglia's master shipwrights.

We start our walk from the seafront, admiring the nearby Gallinara Island standing out against the blue sea that forms the backdrop to the fishermen's little boats. The beach is dominated by the striking Bastione di Levante: it is the only tower still standing of the three built in the 1500s to defend the town, which all too often suffered the ferocious attacks of the Saracens. In 1546 the Turkish pirate Dragut managed to land and took many hostages, but thanks to the intervention of the Alassio captain Giulio Berno, Laigueglia was saved. A very colourful historical re-enactment recalls this event every year in July. One of the other defensive towers, now demolished, the Torre di Mezzo, still lives on in the town's religious life: it was from there that the bronze cannon was taken to make the great bell of the Parish Church of San Matteo.

Visiting the beautiful Parish Church, erected at the end of the 1700s by enlarging an earlier building, we discover that it was the faithful themselves, mostly fishermen, who financed the works with offerings, as well as providing their own labour. It was also at their wish that the crosses on top of the bell towers, covered in Ligurian majolica, were oriented according to the main sea winds: the mistral and the south-westerly libeccio. Wandering through the very colourful caruggi of Laigueglia, listed among the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, we also visit the little Church of the Madonna del Carmine, discovering another curiosity: from as early as the 12th and 13th centuries Laigueglia saw a notable immigration of Catalan fishermen, attracted by the thriving coral harvest.

It was then those same Catalan fishermen who built, with the proceeds from the sale of the raw coral gathered on holidays, the Oratory of Santa Maria Maddalena, as well as the 16th-century Sanctuary of Nostra Signora delle Penne. Fascinated by the town's seafaring tradition, we decide to stop for dinner at Ristorante Pacan, in Piazza Cavour, a few steps from the beach. "The place opened in 1985 as a creperie. We enlarged it three years later, turning it into a restaurant, and in 2008 it was further extended with the bar facing the square. We are open all day, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and after dinner.

Our creperie is a meeting point at night, but the same happens on winter afternoons, when we light the fireplace and people come to have a warm tea," the chef Antonio Rapa tells us, who runs the restaurant together with three partners: Pierangelo Tadioli, who turns out the pizzas, Luca Accettulli, who creates the crepes, and Carlo Fadelli, the soul of the cocktails, the bar and the desserts. Some of us decide to try special pizzas such as the Pizza Pacan, made with tuna musciame. "It is a fillet that resembles bresaola, and behind its use lies an important chapter in the Ligurian seafaring tradition. Musciame is in fact the part of the fish that used to be given to the Ligurian fishermen who worked in the Sicilian and Sardinian tuna traps," the chef explains. We start the dinner with octopus salad and the pesciamme, made with tuna bottarga, musciame, sasizzella, tuna heart and spices.

Some friends choose the mixed seafood starter and others the mixed land starter. We follow these treats with linguine with octopus, penne allo scoglio and pasta with sardines. We wash these specialities down with excellent local wines such as Vermentino and Pigato, while some of us try a few Piedmontese, Sardinian and Friulian labels. We continue with the mixed fried fish, and we are lucky: there are also lussetti, the small fish caught only in Noli. We also have the mussels in marinara sauce and grilled tuna. To finish, here we are tasting the fantastic crepes: with custard and strawberries, with Nutella and with chocolate ice cream. We also have some excellent artisan ice cream while the children dive into the cioccopizza: a fabulous pizza topped with chocolate.

After dinner we treat ourselves to a lovely walk along the seafront, certain that we will come back here even during the winter, to enjoy warm crepes while admiring the sea out of season.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Pacan Piazza Cavour, 14 Laigueglia (SV) Tel.: 0182/690100